The NYT has a short article on Rheingold's Smart Mobs:
Motivating the Masses, Wirelessly
This blossoming of smart mobs will probably happen despite the interests of business, Mr. Rheingold said, not because of any plan. He points to other technologies, like Napster, that have emerged into broad acceptance to the horror of larger business interests, and said that smart mobs could be setting the stage for the next big fight of the new economy
Re: Mobs & Technology
Interesting, but the concept of technology creating mob problems is not new. I remember a sci-fi story (I'm thinking Asimov, but this is just a guess) where teleportation, coupled with media coverage at the level we have today, enables gawkers to swarm in the hundreds of thousands into a disaster or other news worthy event in a matter of minutes. In this future, teleportation booths will be as common as the telephone. So automatic limiting controls have to be put on teleportation booths which limit access to geographical areas when their are huge surges of incoming traffic.