Smart Mobs: the Next Social Revolution

Chapters 1: Shibuya Epiphany. One definition for epiphany is "a revealing scene or moment". The author, Howard Rheingold, shares with his readers his sudden realization of the path technology is taking. The texters oyayubisoku that Rheingold observed in Toyoko are referred to as "the thumb tribe".

Rheingold interviews Mituko Ito, a Stanford graduate, who is studying how identity and place are produced through and within digital media infrastructures. In Japan wired phones are very expensive, so many families members own cellular phones instead. Also, she has developed a theory that because the space of the home is too confining that the family members have privacy issues. Their cell phone is their "own space". The Japanese culture, especially the teens, would prefer to send text messages because privacy from their parents is important. They "construct a localized and portable place of intimacy, an open channel of contact with generally 3-5 others." By spring of 2001, 90% of high school teenagers possess cell phones.

This makes me appreciate my personal space more than before.

Chapter 2: Technologies of Cooperation. In 1992 Rheingold questioned this "What do people gain from virtual communities that keeps them sharing information with people they might never meet face to face?" Marc Smith, a UCLA graduate, answers, "social network capital, knowledge capital, and communion." Public goods are things that are shared and benefit all regardless of whether they helped create it. Those who didn't help create the goods are referred to as "freeriders." An interesting strategy of Tit for Tat, a mind game, is described in depth.

Just think the PC and Internet would not exist today if it were not for the collaborative efforts of computer enthusisasts.

Chapter 3: Computer Nations and Swarm Supercomputers. "Peer-to-peer networks are not owned by any central authority and cannot be controlled, killed, or broken by the central authority .... Companies may produce software for P2P networking, but the networks that emerge are owned by everyone and no one."

Search for Estraterrestial Intelligence: SETI@home is a network of community computation (also know as distributed processing or P2P). The network is a worldwide group of over 2 million people who analyze signals collected by a radio telescrope in Puerto Rico. The telescope pulls down about 50 billion bytes of data per day. Another example of P2P is Napster.

There is this sudden realization that most computer users participate is P2P networks.