Abstract

Smart mobs emerge, according to author Howard Rheingold, when communication and computing technologies amplify human talents for cooperation. The impacts of smart mob technology already appear to be both beneficial and destructive, used by some of its earliest adopters to support democracy and by others to coordinate terrorist attacks. The technologies that are beginning to make smart mobs possible are mobile communication devices and pervasive computing - inexpensive microprocessors embedded in everyday objects and environments. Already, governments have fallen, youth subcultures have blossomed from Asia to Scandinavia, new industries have been born and older industries have launched furious counterattacks. In this talk, Rheingold discusses smart mobs.

Speaker

Howard Rheingold is the author of Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution.