Editing Smart mob (section)

==Characteristics==
These technologies that empower smart mobs include the [[Internet]], [[computer-mediated communication]] such as [[Internet Relay Chat]], and [[wireless]] devices like [[mobile phone]]s and [[personal digital assistant]]s. Methodologies like [[peer-to-peer]] networks and [[ubiquitous computing]] are also changing the ways in which people organize and share information.{{citation needed|date=May 2016}}

[[Flash mob]]s are a specific form of smart mob, originally describing a group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, do something unusual and pointless for a brief period of time, then quickly disperse. The difference between flash and smart mobs is primarily with regards to their duration: flash mobs disappear quickly, but smart mobs can have a more enduring presence.<ref name="Henderson2009" /> The term ''flash mob'' is claimed to have been inspired by "smart mob".<ref>[http://www.wordspy.com/words/flashmob.asp wordspy.com] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060315154645/http://www.wordspy.com/words/flashmob.asp |date=2006-03-15 }}, flash mob</ref>

Smart mobs have begun to have an impact in current events, as mobile phones and text messages have empowered everyone from revolutionaries in [[Malaysia]] to individuals protesting the second [[Iraq War]]. Individuals who have divergent worldviews and methods have been able to coordinate short-term.{{citation needed|date=May 2016}}

A 2009 entry in the ''Encyclopedia of Computer Science and Technology'' noted that the term may be "fading from public use".<ref name="Henderson2009" />