During a flash mob event recently held in Prague, an independent journalist attempting to photograph the gathering was beaten and detained by security guards, according to mob organizer Daniel Docekal and other participants in the event. Docekal had organized the mob as a protest against local laws that prohibit the taking of photos or videos in supermarkets and malls.

And what is, for now, a "raw capability" as Shirky describes it, could easily become a political tool: "All of the organizers of public action who are looking at this stuff now, from the Moral Majority to the Sierra Club, are thinking, 'OK, is this something I can use to accomplish my goal X?'"