Swarming: Technology changes social contact

Washington Post on the power of swarming: groups of people arranging their lives around the contact provided by their cell phones.

Howard Rheingold says:

Smart mobs are a serious realignment of human affairs, in which leaders may determine an overall goal, but the actual execution is created on the fly by participants at the lowest possible level who are constantly innovating, Rheingold notes. They respond to changing situations without requesting or needing permission. In some cases, even the goal is determined collaboratively and non-hierarchically. It is the warp-speed embodiment of Gandhi’s maxim, “There go my people, I must run to catch up with them for I am their leader.”

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Todd Suomela
Associate Director for Digital Pedagogy & Scholarship Department

My interests include digital scholarship, citizen science, leadership, and communications.