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.]] A flash mob is a large group of people who assemble suddenly in a Public Place , do something unusual for a brief period of time, then quickly disperse. News media and commentators have often misused the term "flash mob" to refer to nearly any form of public gathering. ORIGINS The first flash mob The first flash mob was organized in Manhattan in May 2003, by Bill Wasik , senior editor of '' Harper's Magazine ''. The origins of the flash mobs were unknown until Wasik published an article about his creation in the March 2006 edition of ''Harper's''. The first attempt was unsuccessful after the targeted retail store was tipped off about the plan for people to gather.1 }} The first successful flash mob assembled in June 3 , 2003 at Macy's department store. Wasik avoided such problems during the second flash mob by sending participants to preliminary staging areas—in four prearranged Manhattan bars—where they received further instructions about the ultimate event and location just before the event began.2 }} More than one hundred people converged upon the ninth floor rug department of Macy's department store, gathering around one particular very expensive rug. Anyone approached by a sales assistant was advised to say that the gatherers lived together in a warehouse on the outskirts of New York , that they were shopping for a Love Rug, and that they made all their purchase decisions as a group. Following this flash mob, about 200 people flooded the lobby and mezzanine of the Hyatt hotel in synchronized applause for about fifteen seconds, and next a shoe boutique in SoHo was invaded by participants pretending to be tourists on a bus trip. In the article Wasik claimed that he created flash mobs as a social experiment designed to poke fun at Hipsters , and highlight the cultural atmosphere of conformity and of wanting to be an insider or part of "the next big thing." Precursors Flash mobs bear certain similarities to political ''. The term ''flash mob'' is claimed to have been inspired by both “smart mob” and “ Flash Crowd .”3 Literary precedents In 1973, the story '' Flash Crowd '' by Larry Niven described a concept vaguely similar to flash mobs. It described how, with the invention of popular Teleportation , an argument at a shopping mall, which happened to be covered by a news crew, swells into a riot. The broadcast coverage attracted the attention of other people, who use the widely available technology of the teleportation booth to swarm first that event — thus intensifying the riot — and then other events as they happened. In actuality, flash crowds are used to start up and heighten riots. When a riot begins and is televised, others join in, resulting in the participation of millions of people. Commenting on the social impact of such mobs, one character in Niven's story, articulating the police view, says, "We call them flash crowds, and we watch for them." The first recorded use of the now more familiar term "flash mob", was in 2003, and featured in a blog entry posted in the aftermath of Wasik's event.4 The 1998 novel '' Distraction '' by Bruce Sterling also features a riot by a flash mob in its opening pages, although the term is not used, and the flash mob riot is only a very peripheral element of the plot. USE OF THE TERM
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