[opening of the IoCT: Howard Rheingold]

Smart mobs consist of people who are able to act in concert even if they don’t know each other. The people who make up smart mobs cooperate in way never before possible because they carry devices that possess both communications and computing capabilities.

(Rheingold, 2002: xii)

Yesterday marked the official launch of the IoCT. Once we passed through the black ropes and the bouncers (!!!) we were invited to have coffee or tea before being ushered to the second floor of DMU's Campus Centre. It was all quite posh and lended an air of authenticity/materiality to our studies on virtuality. After an introduction by Professor Sue Thomas, we listened to Rheingold recount his theory of modern cooperation. Since his presentation had to appeal to a broad range (transdisciplinary) of people he kept it suitably general. For a more in depth discussion of Rheingold's "technologies of cooperation" chapter two of his Smart Mobs is excellent and easy to read. He is obviously a very practised speaker and had a very individual kind of powerpoint presentation which featured himself in assorted poses, my favourite was his face on the American $100 bill. I wonder if this sense of humor was carried over in his obvious trade-marking of various slides in his presentation. While advocating the merits of open-source thinking and future, as yet unthinkable, possibilities for cooperation, I couldn't help noting his trademark branding certain slides. Was it tongue-in-cheek, hoping someone in the audience would ask him about it, or was it just something people must do to protect their ideas, cooperating or not?




For an eloquent description of Rheingold's accoutrements and a view of the IoCT see the article here.