Editing Flash mob (section)

==History==
===First flash mob===
[[Image:First Sydney flash mob, August 2003.jpg|thumb|left|Flash mobbing was quickly imitated outside of the United States. This picture is of "sydmob" 2003, the first flash mob held in [[Sydney]], [[Australia]].]]

The first flash mobs were created in [[Manhattan]] in 2003, by [[Bill Wasik]], senior editor of ''[[Harper's Magazine]]''.<ref name="fibre" /><ref name="cnn3" /><ref name="Wasik2">{{cite magazine | first = Bill | last = Wasik | title = #Riot: Self-Organized, Hyper-Networked Revolts—Coming to a City Near You | url = https://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/12/ff_riots/all/1 | magazine = [[Wired (magazine)|Wired]] |date=January 2012 | access-date =January 22, 2012 }}</ref>  The first attempt was unsuccessful after the targeted retail store was tipped off about the plan for people to gather.<ref name="time">{{cite magazine | first = Lauren | last = Goldstein | title = The Mob Rules | date = August 10, 2003 | magazine = Time | url =https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,474547,00.html| access-date =May 8, 2021 | volume = 162 | issue = 7 - April 18, 2003 | issn = 0040-781X | oclc = 1767509 }}</ref> Wasik avoided such problems during the first successful flash mob, which occurred on June 17, 2003, at [[Macy's]] department store, by sending participants to preliminary staging areas—in four Manhattan bars—where they received further instructions about the ultimate event and location just before the event began.<ref name="Wasik">{{cite magazine | first = Bill | last = Wasik | title = My Crowd, or, Phase 5: A report from the inventor of the flash mob | url = http://harpers.org/archive/2006/03/my-crowd/1/ | format = Subscription | magazine = [[Harper's Magazine]] | pages = 56–66 |date=March 2006 | volume = March 2006 | access-date =February 2, 2007 | issn = 0017-789X | oclc = 4532730 }}</ref>

More than 130 people converged upon the ninth-floor rug department of the store, gathering around an expensive rug. Anyone approached by a sales assistant was advised to say that the gatherers lived together in a warehouse on the outskirts of New York, that they were shopping for a "love rug", and that they made all their purchase decisions as a group.<ref>Bedell, Doug. "E-mail Communication Facilitates New 'Flash Mob' Phenomenon", Knight Ridder Tribune Business News, July 23, (2003)</ref> Subsequently, 200 people flooded the lobby and mezzanine of the [[Hyatt]] hotel in synchronized applause for about 15 seconds, and a shoe boutique in [[SoHo]] was invaded by participants pretending to be tourists on a bus trip.<ref name="cnn3" />

Wasik claimed that he created flash mobs as a [[social experiment]] designed to poke fun at [[Hippie |hippies]] and to highlight the cultural atmosphere of [[conformity]] and of wanting to be an insider or part of "the next big thing".<ref name="cnn3" /> ''[[The Vancouver Sun]]'' wrote, "It may have backfired on him&nbsp;... [Wasik] may instead have ended up giving conformity a vehicle that allowed it to appear nonconforming."<ref name="VCS">{{cite news |url=http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=f4b1b51f-1340-46b3-8c14-97405c63b5fe |title=Waterfight in Stanley Park, but are flash mobs starting to lose their edge? |publisher=[[Canwest Publishing Inc]] |last=McMartin |first=Pete |date=July 12, 2008 |access-date=July 14, 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080714033940/http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=f4b1b51f-1340-46b3-8c14-97405c63b5fe |archive-date=July 14, 2008  }}</ref> In another interview he said "the mobs started as a kind of playful social experiment meant to encourage spontaneity and big gatherings to temporarily take over commercial and public areas simply to show that they could".<ref name="FMR">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/25/us/25mobs.html|title=Mobs Are Born as Word Grows by Text Message|author=Ian Urbina|date=March 24, 2010|work=[[The New York Times]]| access-date=December 30, 2010}}</ref>

===Precedents and precursors===
In 1973, the story "[[Flash Crowd]]" by [[Larry Niven]] described a concept similar to flash mobs.<ref>Nold, Christian (2003). [http://www.softhook.com/legible.htm "Legible Mob"]. p. 23.</ref> With the invention of popular and very inexpensive [[teleportation]], an argument at a shopping mall—which happens to be covered by a news crew—quickly swells into a riot. In the story, broadcast coverage attracts the attention of other people, who use the widely available technology of the teleportation booth to swarm first that event—thus intensifying the riot—and then other events as they happen. Commenting on the social impact of such mobs, one character (articulating the police view) says, "We call them flash crowds, and we watch for them." In related short stories, they are named as a prime location for illegal activities (such as pickpocketing and looting) to take place. [[Lev Grossman]] suggests that the story title is a source of the term "flash mob".<ref>[[Lev Grossman|Grossman, Lev]], (June 13, 2012). [https://entertainment.time.com/2012/06/13/lord-of-the-ringworld-in-praise-of-larry-niven/ "Lord of the Ringworld: In Praise of Larry Niven"]. ''Time''.</ref>

[[File:Córdoba 2015 10 23 2764 (26152295081).jpg|thumb|People dancing at the Eutopia 15 Flashmob Event while crossing Puerta del Puente in [[Córdoba, Spain|Córdoba]], [[Spain]] (2015)]]
Flash mobs began as a form of [[performance art]].<ref name="time" /> While they started as an apolitical act, flash mobs may share superficial similarities to political [[Demonstration (people)|demonstrations]].  In the 1960s, groups such as the Yippies used street theatre to expose the public to political issues.<ref>Cosmic Trigger III, Robert Anton Wilson, 1995, New Falcon Publications</ref>  Flash mobs can be seen as a specialized form of [[smart mob]],<ref name="fibre">{{cite news|url=http://journal.fibreculture.org/issue6/issue6_nicholson.html|author=Judith A. Nicholson|title=Flash! Mobs in the Age of Mobile Connectivity|publisher=Fibreculture Publications/Open Humanities Press|access-date=July 15, 2009|archive-date=December 2, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101202045638/http://journal.fibreculture.org/issue6/issue6_nicholson.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> a term and concept proposed by author [[Howard Rheingold]] in his 2002 book ''[[Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution]]''.<ref name="cnn2">{{cite news|url=http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/03/03/timep.smart.mobs.tm/| title=Day of the smart mobs|author=Chris Taylor|date=March 3, 2003|publisher=CNN}}</ref>