Monday, September 08, 2003

Current buzz has been doing field research on news technologies and social networking patterns. This involved joining up electronically with flash mobbers in Chicago, and going to a flashmob. In my enthusiasm, I set up a mob log for the flashmobs, and I am hoping somebody beside me will post images to it. Have a look.Chicago Flash Mob Gazette Are flashmobs "important?" For now, they seem social and fun. I think for people who are from the "Bowling Alone" generation however, this may represent a first step in an process that could move toward concerted and purposeful action. I see them as subversive insofar as one "apes" the rational processes of corporate life for no "rational" purpose. Using high tech "office" gadgets (computers, cellphones, PDAs) the MOBers organize a mass activity that requires some discipline and adherence to rather arbitrary rules (e.g. the MOB script.) Then a group of people who are often meeting for the first time go through the same actions that corporate employees go through daily, without any expectation of economic reward, thus subverting the rational through a parody that is engaged in for non-economic rewards. Will it evolve into anything beside a pleasant, artistic, kind of "be-in?" Stay-tuned. I bet advertisers are thinking about it already... What is a flashmob?

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