Rating: 
Summary: Smart Mobs. Smarter Marketers.
Review: The cool thing about "Smart Mobs" is that it's really happening. People are behaving in "linked" ways that transcend the obvious demographic definitions of groups we typically think of as "behaving in unison." As technology and the infrastructure arriving with it enable increasingly extemporaneous networks between people, marketers are similarly challenged to reach outside of traditional mass channels. Howard Rheingold brings us a really nice set of actual examples--combined with his own unique insights--that provide the basis for next-generation communications strategies as what had been cohesive groups fragment into a foam of indivduals united (only) by this moments current interest and the task at hand. For marketers, it's a great read...and a big clue. Anyway, I liked it.
Rating:
Summary: Public Library Alert
Review: There are few books that fulfill their promise to describe tomorrow. This is one of them. The "texting tribes" ride the same currents as our "post-literate" age, using technology to augment and implement our human need for communication.Rheingold describes a coming new world where one-to-many communication is focused on "doing" things and where the "one" can be anyone with a mobile phone. Teens and protesters are using texting (a function available on many cell phones) both to "hang" with each other and to coordinate movements. What he has seen in Japan and Finland is becoming commonplace in America's public schools as teenagers flock together in texting "virtual" space more easily than they can in "real" space. Recent reports show that texting is becoming as popular as the telephone -- and it is certainly more stealthy for those seeking to circumvent nosey parents. This is an important book for public libraries. Our public is changing rapidly. This is a window into what is likely to occur. Executive Director
Franklin Park (Illinois) Public Library
Rating: 
Summary: smart mobs and trends
Review: This is a very thought-provoking book and the evidence is all around us, from teens IM'ing each other to the current craze of "random mobs" where people use their cell phones to gather at some destination and do something silly, as was recently happening in New York City and elsewhere. These trends are more avidly followed in Europe and Asia than here, but, honestly, what if Rheingold's barking up the wrong tree and all this texting proves to be just as silly a fad as others in the past? Bringing down governments is one thing, telling the gang where to meet for pizza is another. I really can't think of any good reason to use my SMS capability other than to probably annoy someone. 4 stars for a neat idea, but, really who cares other than activists or teens?
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