joe howarth <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >- How will these proposed wireless messages at peace rallies make any >difference at all?�� Do Emails make a shred of difference to an elected >official?�� Seems like just something more for the Trustafarians to do >while hanging out for the Protest of the Week in Dolores Park... >-� Will you people also set up your wireless networks at Veteran's Day >and Memorial Day Parades?� For people to send messages about how they >support those who give there lives to protect the freedoms we have? >- Does your organization recognize Veterans Day?� >also, �Make sure you watch how Feinstein, Pelosi,�and Boxer vote on >this whole thing.� Maybe we can rename it to the "Boxer Oil War"�...?
Pro-war, anti-war, pro-hunting, anti-guns, pro-whatever, anti-something else... Try and ignore the specific cause and look at the changes in methods and approach. Several recent demonstrations and political actions have been facilitated by the use of wireless technology, typically SMS messaging. Key examples are the anti-globalization activity in London and other European cities and the anti-petrol price demonstrations in the UK. These technologies have allowed an extremely decentralized organization and have used improvised hierarchical trees of information distribution. "PLC BLK OXFD ST", forwarded to 5 friends who forward to 5 friends, who forward, etc which results in the mob bypassing Oxford St. This trend has resulted in a book from Howard Rheingold "Smart Mobs". Now add to this mix, MMS cellphone cameras, and WiFi connected PDAs. These technologies provide increased communication between relatively passive users but they can also increase the intelligence and power of mobs. It's an interesting side effect of ubiquitous connectivity regardless of the morals or viewpoint of the particular mob. Me, I'd like to see the perfectly transparent society rather than the panoptikon. Turn every surveillance camera into a public webcam. And with DLink and others doing all-in-one WiFi-Webcams and Locust doing homebrew versions of the same, actually achievable whether they want us to or not. -- Julian Bond Email&MSM: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Webmaster: http://www.ecademy.com/ Personal WebLog: http://www.voidstar.com/ CV/Resume: http://www.voidstar.com/cv/ M: +44 (0)77 5907 2173 T: +44 (0)192 0412 433 -- general wireless list, a bawug thing <http://www.bawug.org/> [un]subscribe: http://lists.bawug.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless
