The "Digital Swarm" (Part I)

I checked out Scott Snyder's The New World of Wireless: How to Compete in the 4G Revolution (Pearson/Wharton School, 2010). Useful discussion of where things are headed for communications technology. Snyder looks at how they might go well in the forseeable future ("Nature Aligns") or not so well ("Killer Bees"); the actual future, like the present, will probably bring some of both -- with wild cards like Chernobyl, Katrina and Eyjafjallajokull thrown into the mix from time to time.

Snyder's "Digital Swarm" idea is convenient for conceptualizing how people attracted to the same things converge: it's not unlike the well-established "birds of a feather" analogy for social networking. Snyder emphasizes marketing aspects, but good to ponder in general terms, as well.

This sentence ought to catch people's attention: "4G will be the technology enabler for the Digital Swarm, where collective action is decentralized and self-organizing, with no boundaries, no control, and no barriers to innovation by users." (p. 3)  Applies, this does, to everything from publishing to the typical work place.

As for social networking enablers, check out how Facebook works. People can converge on the same specific sites even while also posting to a wider, generalized audience. Twitter does the same in shorter bursts, but I find it a little trickier (and therefore less attractive) to navigate. Blogger seems like a more stable platform for longterm use, more like a full-text archives or library database one can search at will.  For those with the inclination and access, all three sites can be used in tandem or for added value through redundancy.  There are many paths to the waterfall and the market.

Today's Rune: Protection.