Smart Mobs, groups of people that have the ability to create large communities through technology, continue to grow in power and in number around the world. Howard Rheingold’s book discusses the ways of cellular phones and the Internet as of 2002. A number, 802.11b, is recognized worldwide as the wireless network access protocol. Rheingold does not mention 802.11g in his book. This number was adopted by users in 2003 and is faster than its 802.11b for wireless connectivity.
What does a wireless connection mean in terms of what people can accomplish? It is more than just the ability to surf the Internet and check electronic mail (email). The author explains what happened in Manila, Philippines, when millions of citizens gathered together in a square to overthrow the President in 2001. They used their cell phones to text message each other with the plan to meet wearing all black at a certain time. In a country where texting is significantly cheaper than making voice calls, the citizens used their available technology to their advantage and were successful in making their president step down.
In the United States, people are joining many different virtual communities, such as New York City’s “nyc celebrity sightings” or “nyc terror alert,” which are made up of many members that text each other regularly to report sightings and important safety information. The company Upoc was able to use this technology on September 11 when other forms of communication were down. But what happens when this system becomes too popular and overloaded during emergency situations? The nice thing about SMS is the ability to reach many people at once, allowing information to travel faster through groups. Reed’s Law comes into play in these types of situations—instead of person to person communication, the technology becomes exponentially more useful when we can connect to more people through group to group communication.
At the end of chapter seven, Rheingold states that “smart mobs aren’t a ‘thing’ that you can point to with one finger or describe with two words” (p. 182). The ways in which people use the Internet are numerous and how they will use technology in the future is yet to be determined.
As the other books we have read so far have brought up, Smart Mobs discusses the issue of privacy in the future of technology. People are already willing to sacrifice some privacy for convenience online. For example, Gmail—Google’s free web-based email—collect personal information on their users for their advertisers. If one mentions Boston in an email, it is not a coincidence that an ad will pop up that is offering reduced airline fares to Boston. Because Gmail has become so popular (and is often deemed the most advanced web-based email software) not many people seem to mind that their emails are being monitored by a computer. So, when will Orwell’s 1984 really come true? What type of information are people not willing to share? In my opinion, it will depend on who is gathering the information and the intentions of that gatherer. If it becomes eerie to look up at a billboard that is displaying an advertisement that is directly related to me, then I might start to disapprove of the uses of technology. Ads that are irrelevant to me are annoying, but they are easy to ignore and thus, not worrisome. But if I start to see too-relevant ads in my email box and on my cellular phone, I will undoubtedly start to feel stalked, followed, and personally targeted.
Wikinomics, by Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams, discusses mass collaboration as a method of endless possibilities. The authors demonstrate to the readers through many examples that many people and ideas working together are almost always better than few; mass collaboration proves to be very powerful and informative. Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia that can be edited by anyone, puts this fact to the test. Throughout my blogs I have linked to Wikipedia entries because it is essentially a huge database that provides a substantial amount of information on virtually every topic. While some entries may not be complete, well cited, or perfectly correct, the vast majority of them are. People contribute to the entries to provide knowledge and act as social beings. The popularity and effectiveness of Wikipedia demonstrates that people are willing to share with the world information about which they are experts.
Tapscott and Williams provide the example of the events that occurred in the London underground system in 2005 as a testament to the power of Wikipedia. Within a short time, the online encyclopedia contained information on the topic, which many added to over several hours. The information was imputed on Wikipedia faster than many mainstream media news sources reported on the event. Can the Web site be considered a breaking news source? Probably not yet, but I imagine that it has the power to come chose in the future.
Critics of the open source system and information sharing assert that if information becomes free and public, companies will not makes as much profit as possible.
The authors encourage companies to work together to create a powerful information exchange. If two companies share their secrets they have the potential to grow more quickly than by working alone. Web sites such as InnoCentive offer a company the chance to seek help from outsiders on a certain project, costing them some money for the solution, but producing more profit for them in the long run. With so many people in the world, this type of business seems logical. Information is not meant to be held in secrecy. The best way for information to become worth something is if it can be useful, or shared.
While the idea of information sharing has not yet permeated the world, I agree that it will soon become the way of the future. Little by little people and companies will join in the global system of information sharing. The proof that it is in everyone’s best interest is in the success of Wikipedia. When there is more at stake, however, people are more hesitant to trust the system. It will take some time, but I have no doubt that it will be successful once more and more information becomes open source.
