In 2000, Howard Rheingold had come from California to Shibuya Crossing, in the heart of Tokyo, and had what he calls his “Shibuya Epiphany”, a moment of enlightenment. Basically, he saw lots of people looking at their phones instead of talking into them, and that blew his mind. And when he saw similar behaviour at the other end of the world, in Helsinki, he was convinced that there really was something important going on at a global scale: A change of the environment. Self-organizing networks, resulting in new digital identities and new forms of communicatrion. Heated-up circulation of information of all kinds.
Shibuya Crossing has been an urban landmark and a meeting point for Tokyo crowds for decades. Now the tightly packed place right before Shibuya Station is said to be the most busy place in the world. Think of the introduction scene in “Blade Runner”. 1500 people cross the street in all directions every time the light changes, gigantic building-sized television sets mirroring back images from the people crossing the streets, in xxx with advertisements.
In 2000, Howard Rheingold had come to this place from California and had what he called his “Shibuya Epiphany”, a moment of enlightenment. Basically, he saw lots of people looking at their phones instead of talking into them, and that blew his mind. And when he saw similar behaviour at the other end of the world, in Helsinki, he was convinced that there was something important going on: A global change of the environment. Self-organizing networks, resulting in new digital identities.
"To not have a keitai (cell phone) is to be walking blind, disconnected from just-in-time information on where and when you are in the social networks of time and place." (Mizuko Ito)
He called this phenomenon “Smart Mobs”, and wrote a book on the Next Social Revolution, which packed together SMS-texting, the mobile Internet, computing grids and Pervasive Computing (“smart things” through xxx chips).
Rheingold is a mixture of hippie veteran and technology scout, grey moustache, friendly wrinkles all over the face and a curious look in his eyes, permanently wondering “how to recognize the future if it lands on you”. When he came to Tokyo, he had already written books on the Personal Computer (“Tools To Think”), on “Virtual Reality”, and – most notably – on “Virtual Communities” (he even coined the term).
On that global mission, Shibuya Crossing was quite an obvious place to come to – Tokyo is the most important laboratory for electronic, digital and mobile lifestyles, and Shibuya is the town’s most hip district for youthful fashion and entertainment.
