The Washington Post included an article on political mobilisation via SMS in the Philippines. This is not a new development, as these techniques were used to marshal protests against President Estrada. The article implicitly demonstrates that the development of cell based mobiles allows information to flow rapidly: both to organise demonstrations in a matter fo hours, rather than days, and to allow improvisation such as the selectionof alternative routes:
The technology is also changing the organization and dynamics of protests, allowing leaders to control, virtually minute-by-minute, the movements of demonstrators, like military generals in the field. Using texts that communicate orders instantly, organizers can call for advances or retreats of waves of protesters.
This tool has changed the balance of political power in places where governments have a history of outmuscling dissent. In April, Nepal's King Gyanendra ordered authorities to cut cellphone service after protesters against his absolute rule used text messages to help assemble street protests by tens of thousands of democracy advocates.
Such techniques are more valuable where the jurisdiction lacks an agreed consensus on how to handle protests and where the stakes for change are higher, such as Nepal. Such techniques are deployed in different contexts in Britain, since the focus of networks is to follow a celebrity or bully a victim.
(Hat Tip: Smart Mobs)