Of American-English origin, the expression flash mob designates a group of people organised by means of the internet, mobile phones or other wireless devices, who assemble in public to perform a prearranged action together and then quickly disperse.

Here, the noun flash denotes a sudden, brief occurrence or display.

Originally, the expression flash mob was used of groups whose actions were bizarre or unusual, and intended solely to attract attention and entertain. However, flash mob is now also used of groups whose actions are intended to have a political or social impact.

In the latter acceptation, flash mob has therefore become synonymous with the expression smart mob.

 

SMART MOB

 

The expression smart mob denotes a group of people organised by means of the internet, mobile phones or other wireless devices, who assemble together or act collectively, typically for political purposes.

This expression was coined by the U.S. critic Howard Rheingold (born 1947) in Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution (Cambridge, MA: Basic Books, 2002)—as explained by Joel Garreau in Cell Biology, published in The Washington Post (Washington, District of Columbia, USA) of 31^st July 2002:

Swarming is a classic example of how once-isolated individuals are discovering a new way to organize order out of chaos, without guidance. It reverses the idea that geography, in an Internet age, has become irrelevant—the whole point is to bring people together in one location for face-to-face contact. Swarming is also leading to such wondrous social developments as “time-softening,” “cell dancing,” “life skittering,” “posse pinging,” “drunk dialing,” and “smart mobs.”
Howard Rheingold is an apostle of swarming.
[…] Rheingold has for a generation examined the unintended and imaginative uses of new technology by society.
He helped pioneer virtual communities—a phrase he invented—before most people had even heard of e-mail or seen a cell phone. This was in such a dim and murky past—1988—that human relationships created simply by typing into the ether were then seen by pundits as preposterous. This was before “fleshmet” entered the lexicon of the early adopters. As in: “Oh yeah, we know each other real well—although I don’t think we’ve ever fleshmet.”
As the Internet and mobile communications merge, as cell phones increasingly become something that a teenager gets with her driver’s license, and as they shrink from a tool you carry to a fashion item that you wear, Rheingold sees a profound shift in society. “They amplify human talents for cooperation,” he says.
This is by no means all fun and games. The gear was used by “some of its earliest adopters to support democracy and by others to coordinate terrorist attacks,” says Rheingold, whose forthcoming book is called “Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution.”
Smart mobs are a serious realignment of human affairs, in which leaders may determine an overall goal, but the actual execution is created on the fly by participants at the lowest possible level who are constantly innovating, Rheingold notes. They respond to changing situations without requesting or needing permission. In some cases, even the goal is determined collaboratively and non-hierarchically. It is the warp-speed embodiment of Gandhi’s maxim, “There go my people, I must run to catch up with them for I am their leader.”

 

FLASH MOB

 

The earliest occurrences of the expression flash mob that I have found are as follows, in chronological order:

1, 2 & 3-: From cheesebikini?:

1-:

Flash Mobs Take Manhattan
June 16th, 2003
Our senior Manhattan correspondent David Danzig reports that New Yorkers are using e-mail to coordinate “inexplicable mobs”—huge crowds that materialize in public places and suddenly dissipate 10 minutes later.

2-:

Manhattan Flash Mob Photos
June 17th, 2003

Here’s photographic evidence of the flash mob’s successful takeover of the Manhattan Macy’s fancy-rug department, courtesy of moistandtasty.com (above). Visit that site, as well as Satan’s Laundromat, for more photos.
New Yorkers used e-mail to coordinate a huge, instant gathering of people around a particular rug. Participants were instructed to tell questioning salesmen that they all lived together in a warehouse in Queens, and they were considering purchasing the item for use as a “Love Rug” back at the house. After precisely ten minutes the crowd dissipated.

3-:

Upcoming Flash Mobs
June 26th, 2003
Plans for two upcoming flash mobs have been announced.
Wake up, London, Tokyo and San Francisco. New York already scooped you on this; will you let Minneapolis beat you to the punch?
A group in Minneapolis is planning that city’s first flash mob ever, to take place July 22 at 6:25 pm. For more details visit the new Minneapolis mob homepage. (Thanks for the tip, Minneapolis Mob.)
New Yorkers are planning a third Gotham flash mob to begin July 2 at 7:04 pm.

4-: From the column On the side, compiled by Kim Lamb Gregory, published in the Ventura County Star (Ventura, California, USA) of 1^st July 2003—this text also contains the earliest occurrence of the expression flash mobber that I have found:

Now you see ’em
As proof that some people have way too much time on their hands, consider the “flash mob” phenomenon.
Organizing a “flash mob” basically involves e-mailing a bunch of people with instructions to show up at a certain place for a few moments, then disappear.
According to www.cheesebikini.com, salespeople in New York were a bit confused when there was a huge, instant gathering around a particular rug. The flash mobbers agreed to tell the salespeople they all lived together in a warehouse in Queens and were thinking of buying a rug. The crowd dissipated after precisely 10 minutes. Poof.

5, 6 & 7-: From cheesebikini?:

5-:

Flash Mob Updates
July 2nd, 2003
NEW YORK MOB REMINDER: The next big New York City Flash Mob will take place tonight at 7:04 pm—details here. If you’d like me to post your photos and coverage (or links to them), send them to (sean[at]cheesebikini.com) or post them in the comments below.
Also, the Minneapolis Mob group is putting together plans for their first flash mob to take place on July 22, and they’ve built a Yahoo! groups site to manage the madness. Minneapolitans can find details at their FAQ page.

6-:

Photos: Third Manhattan Flash Mob
July 2nd, 2003

The Manhattan flash mobs keep growing. Above are photos from the third flash mob held in New York, courtesy of fredhoysted.com (top photo) and satanslaundromat.com (bottom photo). You’ll find more photos at Satan’s Laundromat.
It seems that between 200 and 500 people (reports vary) gathered along the city-block-sized railing above the lobby of the Hyatt Hotel near Grand Central Station, then at a given moment they all engaged in 15 seconds of raucous and unexplained applause, before filing out again.

7-:

More Flash Mob Forums
July 8th, 2003
Two new flash mob announcement lists and discussion forums have emerged.
The “dutchessmob” Yahoo! Group was created by folks in Dutchess County, New York, who are planning a flash mob out there.
The “flashmobs” Yahoo! Group seems to cover flash mobs worldwide.

8-: From the Star Tribune (Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA) of 8^th July 2003:

Event will have a mob mentality
By Nigel Hatton
Star Tribune Staff Writer
Hundreds of people descended upon a Manhattan Macy’s last month and asked a dumbfounded salesman for a giant “love rug” for their communal suburban warehouse.
Two weeks later, another “flash mob” met at Grand Central Station in New York City. When police greeted the group, its members quietly walked to the Grand Hyatt hotel next door, went to the mezzanine and erupted into synchronized applause before dispersing as quickly as they had entered.
Though mere strangers hours before, the impromptu rug hunters and hotel clappers came together through the Mob Project via e-mail and message boards. The cyberspace group run by “Bill” uses e-mail to network and assemble people into human art installations in public spaces.
Something similar is planned in Minneapolis at 6:25 p.m. July 22, according to Wired magazine’s Web site, and hundreds are expected to participate. A Minneapolis mob was registered on yahoo.com on June 21.
In most cases, locations and scripts are secret until just before the meetings. Minneapolis participants will meet at three undisclosed sites to find out the final location.
Mobs also have appeared in San Francisco and suburban New York City. Others are planned across the globe, from Dallas and Raleigh, N.C., to London.
Mobs, or grass-roots gatherings, are not new, having been organized by everyone from bicyclists to religious groups via the Internet. Current mobs are more apolitical.