The peace movement can develop an infrastructure for instantly mobilizing large amounts of people to “swarm,” or flash-protest, a location with active civil disobedience. Not only will this defend the core group of activists and draw media attention, but it will further galvanize the movement itself, as each witness of the process decides to organize their own forms of direct action.
Our research has resulted in the following projects:
An Introduction to Swarming and the Future of Protesting: The question of how to effectively, and most powerfully, organize an information sharing network has seeped into activism. We are just now beginning to see the Internet’s first attempt to challenge the world's superpowers. We are putting an emphasis on social networks that activate and initiate actions in the material, real world. The “smart mob” that we strive for is evolving before we can imagine or articulate it.
How to Use the Internet for Effective Organization: It seems that everyone within the movement is asking themselves how to use the Internet to successfully organize. Our hope is that this document will serve as a jumping off point for your organizing efforts.
Swarming Database: About a year ago, we created a web-based swarming utility that allows individuals to search for the e-mail addresses of others within a certain radius of their current location. This database would allow someone from New York City, for example, to easily determine who else might be interested in participating in a flash-protest. We are currently improving upon this concept and hope to release a beta version shortly.