The University of the Smart Mob

The University of the Smart Mob: "Earlier this week, spiked was invited to the Institute of Creative Technologies (IoCT), to write an exclusive report on its opening and to listen to the inaugural lecture by visiting professor, Howard Rheingold. Radical is not the keynote to Rheingold’s speech today; instead it’s cooperation. There is only a thin sprinkling of the ‘Smart Mob’ theory buzzwords on which Rheingold’s reputation has been built (see here for more on Smart Mobs). Rather, Rheingold’s attention is focused not on spontaneous social upswell, but on how to foster cohesion within established academic systems. It is centred on a ‘revival of the commons’: creating a fertile web territory in which scholars from a variety of different disciplines can read and respond to each other’s papers. It is hoped that encountering new ideas and perspectives will trigger new thoughts and further progress. Source: Emily Hill, spiked, London, September 21, 2006 Link: spiked"