Howard Rheingold has been writing about the impact of computer-mediated communication on interaction for the last three decades. I am currently reading his 1993 book, "The Virtual Community," on the rise of web-based communities and namely the influence of the WELL (Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link) on the way people interact online.

However, one of Rheingold's more recent books, "Smart Mobs," holds special relevance in light of recent global events. Smart mobs refers to the emergence of a cooperative group as a direct result of "new" technologies. These mobs can cause both positive and negative ends, from young people organizing a march on the government to terrorists coordinating an attack. The rise of smart mobs has been significantly aided by the popularity and ubiquitous quality of cell phones in modern society. In many nations where internet access is limited, such as in several parts of Asia, a significant portion of the population owns a cell phone and communicates within their social network via text message.

When he spoke at Georgetown in the fall, Rheingold offered the audience several examples of the power of technology in mobilizing the masses to a cause. In 2001, for example, Filipinos used text messaging to organize more than one million protesters against then-president Joseph Estrada. Students in the highly connected South Korea used cell phones to organize a protest of educational standards in 2005. More recently, both protesters and journalists used text messaging to organize and communicate with the outside world about the protests and ensuing violence occurring in Burma.

So it only makes sense that an evolution of smart mobs will mirror the evolution of communication technology. This was recently proven true in Colombia, as youth used the power of Facebook to mobilize hundreds of thousands of protesters around the world for their cause. A Facebook group started by a group of angry Colombians exploded into a global phenomenon calling for an end to violence in the country with more than 230,000 members and protests planned in 185 cities on Feb. 4.

As a brief historical backgrounder on the situation, Colombia is the kidnapping capital of the world, with approximately 3000 people currently being held captive for any number of reasons. The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the largest rebel group in the nation, is behind many of these kidnappings and subsequent violence. Most younger Colombians have lived their entire lives in the shadow of the FARC, and want to put an end to the rebel group. The situation intensified last June when 11 lawmakers taken captive by the FARC were shot and killed; at that point, Colombian President Uribe withdrew his support of Venezuela's President Chavez's plea to mediate the situation and not consider the group as "terrorists."

I believe we will see more use of social networking sites as mob mobilizers in 2008, as these sites make the transmission of information from one-to-many even easier than text messaging, especially when a user has a large number of friends. Group pages on the site also have an obvious strength: a great example of this is a group page set up after a recently graduated college student disappeared one night from a bar in North Carolina. The college he graduated from, my alma mater, has a student population of about 4500. The Facebook group page has more than 66,000 members, and thanks in part to the massive response online, coverage of his disappearance garnered national news coverage.

This is a tremendous power we hold in our hands as a technologically connected world. Will we continue to mobilize it primarily for good or will this technology, like Anakin Skywalker, instead turn to the dark side?