Smart Mob: A Lighter Side
While smart mobs usually have a political connotation, there is also a lighter side to things. The same principle applies, that people use technologies that are on hand to give out information and communicate with each other the plans for that particular mob. This means that if you have a wild idea to storm your local Starbucks and all of a sudden everyone starts dancing like monkeys, then you can. By using social networking tools, emails, blogs, SMS text messages, you can send out vital information on when and where to meet, what the mob will be doing (in this case dancing like monkeys in Starbucks), and so on and so forth, and anybody interested can join up.
This essentially means a large scale prank. The beauty of this is that when many people do it, it’s cool. For less outrageous acts (not dancing like monkeys in Starbucks), when many people behave in the same way that is normally out of the norm, for example in Rome, a mob of people were asking for a book in the public library that never existed (source:http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3134559.stm), you would tend to believe that it couldn’t be fake, and that that book really exists, just because of the sheer number of people doing it.
This all can be achieved, and with large turnouts, thanks to smart mobbing, as well as the limits of your imagination. All for a good fun on a Sunday afternoon.