It is often said that modern communication technology levels the playing field. Rich or poor, educated or not, Indian, Chinese or American, all can now own or use a cell phone or a computer. Furthermore, the expectation is that the more pervasive digital communication will be, the more likely that it will be used for the greater good. This might be true, but it depends very much on how you define “good”
From London to Kabul, Afghanistan, to Jakarta, Indonesia, the digital revolution has given unprecedented access to information — accurate or not — to anyone with enough money to buy a secondhand cell phone. Where faxes and coffeehouse leaflets were once the lifelines of protest organizers, a new generation of technology has taken hold, doing for the speed and scope of global communication what airplanes did for travel.
Real-world conflicts such as the cartoons controversy almost instantly echo in cyberspace. Radical Islamic Web sites feature photos of beheadings and calls to violence. A posting on one, alghorabaa.net, called for an “embassy-burning day” to protest the Muhammad cartoons and offered wording supporters could use in a text-messaging campaign urging people to throw molotov cocktails and storm embassies, according to the Jamestown Foundation, a U.S. group that monitors such sites. [More… from washingtonpost.com Highlights – MSNBC.com]
Technology can be scary. However, hate campaigns, while disturbing, are hardly the most frightening way for this technology to be used. I’m waiting to see the first true smart mob. The idea is relatively simple; individuals equipped with cellphones or wireless devices are able to communicate while gathered as a mob and coordinate actions in an unprecedented way. The result would be a group that would be highly resistant to police tactics because the technology could be used to evade or counteract police efforts. For example, the police are on State St. so everyone would avoid State St. and meet at the Union. Individuals could take seperate routes but regroup at points specified via a text message. In some ways this is reminiscent of the flash mobs of a few years ago. Imagine what would happen if this technique was used by violent protesters.
http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/internet/08/04/flash.mob/