DALLAS – Flash mobs may be coming to a city near you.
What started in Manhattan has now spread to San Francisco, Minneapolis and London. Hundreds of people following e-mailed instructions suddenly converge on a location, act out a loose script, then quickly disperse after a preset time, usually 10 minutes.
One of the latest Manhattan flash mobs brought together more than 250 strangers at the Hyatt Hotel. They fanned out along the block-long balcony overlooking the hotel lobby and, at a precise moment, burst into 15 seconds of loud, unexplained applause, then drifted off into the night.
“I don’t know what that was all about, but it definitely got our attention,” said a Hyatt employee who would not give his name. “To me, it’s all pretty loony.”
Not even participants such as 32-year-old David Danzig really understand the allure of flash mobbing.
“It’s interesting and fun,” he said. “I’m not sure I saw any point to it, really. It’s just the nonsensical nature and silliness of it all.”
But author and futurist Howard Rheingold believes such occurrences will grow as people become more adept at using technology to arrange all sorts of “ad-hocracies” – whether for public performance art, just to “freak people out” or to promote serious political and social movements.
“I think this is all a symptom of a phenomenon that has a long-term and large-scale effect,” said Rheingold, author of “Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution.” “It’s the ability for groups of people to organize collective action in the face-to-face world in ways and at times that they were unable to do before the combination of the Internet and mobile telephones made it possible.”
Rheingold, a Californian, receives regular correspondence from flash mobbers but said he has nothing to do with their sudden appearance.
“They seem to be spreading, and I’m glad,” he said. “Especially in New York, where everyone’s so serious about security post 9-11. It’s OK to have fun. The Constitution does guarantee the right for people to peaceably assemble.”
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Thus far, four New York flash mob incidents have been orchestrated by an organizer known only as Bill. Nobody seems to know how or why they ended up receiving the e-mailed instructions for the events. It’s all done with forwarded e-mails from one to many, then many more.
The latest occurred July 16 when hundreds crammed into an upscale SoHo shoe store. For five minutes, they behaved as if they were tourists from Maryland on a bus trip, then quickly broke up. Bystanders were bewildered.
For Manhattan Mob No. 2, more than 100 people flooded the ninth floor of Macy’s and surrounded a large Oriental rug. As puzzled sales clerks looked on, the mobsters began discussing whether to collectively purchase the $10,000 “Love Rug” for their fictitious communal living compound.
After 10 minutes, the group decided it just wouldn’t do, then left.
During Mob No. 1 in May, about 50 people swarmed a department store accessory department, hung around for 10 minutes, then evaporated.
The New York flash mobs have grown steadily in size.
“I think they’re just going to get bigger with more press,” Danzig said. “There’s nothing stopping it.”
And, not surprisingly, the New York swarms have drawn concern from authorities. Participants say police evidently got wind of Mob No. 3, which was teased by organizers as “The Grand Central Station Mob Ballet.”
But on the day of the event, three vague terrorist threats had been received by New York officials, and police seemed on edge about any gathering inside the famed train depot, Danzig said. In response, The New York Mob Project quickly sent out new e-mail instructions to swarm the Hyatt lobby balcony instead, avoiding any confrontations.
“The National Guardsmen with machine guns had something to do with it,” organizer Bill told mob members in a July 9 e-mail.
Elsewhere, sudden mobs are assembling in San Francisco, where organizer Rob Zazueta has signed up about 200 volunteers for a future event.
Unlike the New York Mob Project, Zazueta is not being exclusive with his invitations to participate. A Web form allows anyone to sign up at www.robzazueta.com. The 28-year-old Web developer plans to produce a flash mob event “in the next few weeks.” Zazueta also has started a Web page to keep track of flash mob events worldwide at www.flocksmart.com.
In Minneapolis, pranksters are organizing a flash mob this month using a pair of Web sites at groups.yahoo.com/group/minneapolismob and www.geocities.com/minneapolismob.
Part of the fun is embedded in the instantaneous nature of the communications media involved. Numerous Web logs (blogs for short) provide fast coverage when a flash mob materializes.
Many of the swarmers wield digital video equipment and camera-equipped cellphones to record bystander reaction to their short bursts of inanity. Within minutes, blogs such as Cheese Bikini? (www.cheesebikini.com/blog) and The Official Record (www.creamy.com/blog) post snapshots of the mob in action.
Then, using the blog discussion boards, participants and outsiders compare notes on their experiences and impressions.
Rheingold and other techno-socio pundits also are watching the development of mobile blogging, or “moblogging.” Web sites are exploring how to quickly update Web sites with digital camera snapshots and text entered from wireless-connected Blackberry pagers, personal digital assistants, smart phones and other hybrid communications devices.
The First International Moblogging Conference recently concluded in Tokyo. And Rheingold believes it may be a prologue to change in the very structure of journalism.
By enabling instant reports from any occurrence of note, swarms of mobloggers could ostensibly present on-the-scene reports faster – and from more perspectives – than traditional journalism outlets.
In Smart Mobs, Rheingold – a longtime Net denizen and former executive editor of the HotWired commercial Webzine – predicts that smart mobs with the proper audio-visual equipment could empower entire populations to engage in peer-to-peer newsgathering.
“Imagine the power of the Rodney King video multiplied by the power of Napster,” he writes.
Other versions of swarming have sprung up across the country.
A group of lesbians and gay men in Detroit are using a Web site and e-mail lists to organize The Detroit Guerrilla Queer Bar.
The concept, taken from similar events developed by gay communities in about a dozen U.S. cities, involves targeting a local straight restaurant or bar for swarming on a designated night.
In Seattle, the Guerrilla Masquerade Party hosts roaming, spontaneous costume parties. Large groups of people dress up in a predetermined theme (such as athletic gear, circus, animals) and converge on local restaurants and bars at a specified time.
Some older “social hackers” are employing e-mail, text-messaging and Web sites to expand their concepts. For example, take Santarchy! whose motto is “No force on earth can stop one hundred Santas!”
At designated times spread through e-mail alerts, Santarchists have donned cheap Santa Claus outfits and descended on tourist areas to create havoc in San Francisco and other cities.
British police say text-messaging cellular networks have been put together by hundreds of teenage girls enthralled with Prince William. When one member spies the royal heartthrob in public, text messages begin flying, and crowds of girls arrive.
Not even Rheingold is sure about the future of smart mobs. But, given the emergence of ever more sophisticated uses of the Internet and mobile computing to incite like-minded people to all sorts of mass actions, he believes they will become a staple of our future.
“We’re at the very beginning of something here,” Rheingold said. “This is all a sign of a stage of literacy. People are learning how to use these wonderful new tools to create social networks. And it’s really fascinating to watch it all emerge.”
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AP-NY-07-23-03 0615EDT
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