Mark Pesce — Mob Rules

A pre­sen­ta­tion given at Web Directions South, Sydney Australia, September 28 2007.

Watch the pre­sen­ta­tion on Youtube

Session descrip­tion

Sometime shortly after Web Directions South con­cludes, some­body (prob­a­bly a some­body in the “devel­op­ing” world) will become the three bil­lionth mobile phone sub­scriber. Good for the providers, of course — but the effects of the net­work on human social orga­ni­za­tion are far more pro­found. From the dhows of Kerala to the cities of China to the beaches of Cronulla, we’re all com­ing into con­tact with — and learn­ing how to mas­ter — the sub­tle skills of spon­ta­neous self-​​organization which are the essen­tial fact of life on the net­work. We can get in front of this spree of self-​​organization — or get run over by it. Either way, mob rules are the new laws of busi­ness, pol­i­tics, and culture.

About Mark Pesce

http://​blog​.future​street​con​sult​ing​.com/

Mark Pesce PortraitKnown inter­na­tion­ally as the man who fused vir­tual real­ity with the World Wide Web to invent VRML, Mark Pesce has been explor­ing the fron­tiers of media and tech­nol­ogy for a quar­ter of a cen­tury. The author of five books and numer­ous arti­cles, Pesce has writ­ten for WIRED, Feed, Salon, PC Magazine, and The Age.

For the last three sea­sons, Pesce has been a pan­elist on the hit ABC show The New Inventors. From 2003 to 2006, Pesce chaired the Emerging Media and Interactive Design Program at the world-​​renowned Australian Film Television and Radio School. In February he received an appoint­ment as an Honorary Associate at the University of Sydney, and has gone on to found FutureSt, a Sydney media and tech­nol­ogy consultancy.

Related presentations

11 responses to “Mark Pesce — Mob Rules”:

  1. […] This is dis­ap­point­ing and infu­ri­at­ing on so many lev­els, but rather than ful­mi­nat­ing on it our­selves, here’s what the unof­fi­cial Presenter Laureate of Web Directions, Mark Pesce, has to say about .… […]

  2. […] Mark Pesce — Mob Rules | Web DirectionsA pre­sen­ta­tion given at Web Directions South, Sydney Australia, September 28 2007. Sometime shortly after Web Directions South con­cludes, some­body (prob­a­bly a some­body in the … […]

  3. […] last year’s clos­ing keynote pre­sen­ta­tion, the inspir­ing Mark Pesce men­tioned the adop­tion of mobile phones in the fish­ing mar­kets of Kerala […]

  4. […] I highly rec­om­mend watch­ing the Mob Rules talk when you get a chance. You can watch it all online at http://​www​.web​di​rec​tions​.org/​r​e​s​o​u​r​c​e​s​/​m​a​r​k​-​p​e​sce. […]

  5. […] the great ideas for speak­ers and top­ics from the peo­ple who come to the con­fer­ence ever since the clos­ing keynote of Web Directions South 2007. Who bet­ter to tell you about what con­tent should be there than the peo­ple who are going to […]

  6. […] take all that in your stride. Mason’s cen­tral premise is not dis­sim­i­lar to Mark Pesce’s clos­ing pre­sen­ta­tion at last year’s Web Directions South which read: “The net regards cen­sor­ship as a fail­ure, and routes around it” — in […]

  7. […] take all that in your stride. Mason’s cen­tral premise is not dis­sim­i­lar to Mark Pesce’s clos­ing pre­sen­ta­tion at last year’s Web Directions South which read: “The net regards cen­sor­ship as a fail­ure, and routes around it” — in […]

  8. […] http://​www​.web​di​rec​tions​.org/​r​e​s​o​u​r​c​e​s​/​m​a​r​k​-​p​e​s​ce/ I saw Mark Pesce speak as last pre­sen­ter for WD07 and it blew my mind. We walked out of there absolutely inspired, amazed and so damn glad that we got through the day after hangover! […]

  9. […] http://​www​.web​di​rec​tions​.org/​r​e​s​o​u​r​c​e​s​/​m​a​r​k​-​p​e​s​ce/ […]

  10. […] http://​www​.web​di​rec​tions​.org/​r​e​s​o​u​r​c​e​s​/​m​a​r​k​-​p​e​s​ce/ […]

  11. […] a lis­ten to his Mob Rules talk from WDS07 here http://​www​.web​di​rec​tions​.org/​r​e​s​o​u​r​c​e​s​/​m​a​r​k​-​p​e​s​ce/ .You can down­load an .mp3 of his talk or watch youtube sec­tions of his […]

Your opinion:

XHTML: You're allowed to use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>