The Story:
The idea for FlockSmart originally came to Rob Zazueta as he was reading Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution by Howard Rheingold. The idea of being able to instantly bring together a crowd of people for a common purpose intrigued him enough to begin designing a site that would facilitate the formation of such groups.
Unfortunately, the idea was temporarily backburned as Rob attended to other committments in his life (a wedding planned for November of that year, a full-time job, etc.). In June of 2003 he read about the inexplicable mobs forming through email lists in Manhattan. Despite a couple of minor glitches in the beginning, the mobs were hailed as a success and garnered much attention by media around the world. Rob felt that his home in the San Francisco Bay Area should not be left out and quickly slapped together a form on his personal web site to attract folks interested in mobbing in his area. The link was posted at the influential tech-culture blog bOINGbOING and Rheingold's own website supporting his book. Within a day, more than 50 people jumped on the list. As the link spread through various personal blogs, RSS feeds and major media outlets, the list continued to grow.
Seeing how enormous the amount of interest in the whole smart mob concept was, Rob went back to his original FlockSmart plan and built the site you see today. Almost immediately, emails began flooding his email box requesting that cities from around the globe be added to the list of potential flocking areas, creating a great deal of potential for mobbers everywhere.
Who We Are:
Rob Zazueta is a professional web developer working for a prestigious art college in the heart of San Francisco, CA. He got involved in the smart mob concept after reading Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution by Howard Rheingold. Rather than be the leader of his series of mobs, Rob decided it would be cooler if he opened it up for other folks to organize. That way he could play the part of both participant and organizer, with each having their own benefits.
If you'd like more information about FlockSmart or the Smart Mobs concept, please don't hesitate to contact us.