Forming and directing groups has become pretty easy with the advent of email, mobile phones and photography, face book, and other forms of mobile, instant technology applications.
This reality is simply that the new tools have removed the transaction costs that previously existed that prevented simple, cheap and spontaneous communication of one to many.
It is inconceivable that the spontaneous riots that occurred in 2005 in Cronulla would have happened without the coordinating tools of mobile text and established networks of connected and like-minded individuals. Everybody was surprised at the speed, size, and emotion of the mobs that formed, and then the emotion expended, the groups dissipated just as quickly.
The recent QLD floods have seen social media play a pivotal role in the communication of the events as they happened, directing the official response to the points of most need, and creating the networks that resulted in thousands having the information necessary to offer and deliver their assistance with the clean-up as it progresses.
These tools have become integral to the way we behave in a decade, an astonishingly quick behavior adaptation that goes to the heart of they way all our institutions need to be managed to engage effectively with their stakeholders.
