October 10, 2005

The iPod Nano and Dance Mobs

Stefan Engeseth has a solution to help Apple overcome the negative publicity generated by battery problems with the new iPod Nano.

In a October 6, 2005 post, "'iPod Dance' - A nonstop music solution with a perpetual batterty," Stefan describes how human movement, in the form of dancing, can be harnessed to power the iPod Nanos.

He recommends that Apple kick-off a marketing campaign via flash dances that feature Madonna dancing in the streets of New York. Read Stefan's post and comments to get a better idea of his recommendation.

I've always been intrigued by the idea of flash dancers - also called mobile clubbing or smart mobs. The idea is straightforward: A group of people communicate via email, instant messaging or text messaging and agree to meet at a designated public space at a specific date and time. When they arrive, somebody plays music via a portable music player, everybody dances for, say, 15 minutes and everybody leaves. That's it.

But in its own way, it's a pretty revolutionary idea. This type of event could not take place before ubiquitous communication tools existed that enabled groups of people to instantaneously communicate and determine on their own when and where they would gather to dance. No need for a venue, no need for expensive marketing programs, no DJ to decide what music to play and, overall, no pre-planning of any type.

There have been a number of examples of smart dance mobs over the past 2-3 years. Here are some articles and examples:

- Mobile Clubbing at Liverpool Street Station

- Flash Dance promotion during South by Southwest Festival earlier this year in Austin, Texas

- "From Flash-Mob To Mo-Club" November 2004 post to Robin Good's blog

- Pictures from Argentine Tango Flash Mob in June 2004

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