There is an underground information network proliferating across the world.

I recently attended a training conference where there was a discussion about how our method of communications is undergoing radical changes.  Those discussions we were having just two months ago are already obsolete. 

We were sharing information about internet social networks, online texting sites, and SMS cell phone communications.  We heard stories about inflated text counts and excessive phone bills because of thousands of texts.  Well those numbers and communication networks are already yesterday’s news. 

There is an extensive and growing base of non-internet messaging networks being developed by individuals and they are sharing information at the rate of over one thousand messages an hour.  Yes we are talking about over 1 million messages per month being received by a single cell phone. 

You have to wonder how one individual can send an average of 23 texts a minute all day, every day.  They have to sleep, eat, and do something else – Right? Well it is all possible with updated hand held technology, address lists and group texting. 

The implications of this type of networking are both intriguing and unnerving. 

My first indication that something was happening was when I started seeing groups popping up on social networks where individuals were sharing and asking for mobile numbers with strangers.  Groups with thousands of members and all were sharing their cell phone numbers.  I couldn’t fathom why someone would want to share their cell phone number with strangers and have to put up with all kinds of annoying calls.  There wasn’t much information outside of a one liner which said “I need numbers” and then they posted their number.

Yesterday the rest of the story fell into place when two separate incidents happened.  I was chatting with one of my clients and he was telling a story about his daughters who had thousands of incoming texts the month before.  When he asked her about the number which exceeded 20,000 she said that’s nothing I have a friend who had over 1 million incoming texts on the month prior.  While her service was limited to 250 outgoing texts by her parents, she was receiving hundreds of texts at a time as part of her text network.  He asked her friends parents if the story was true and they validated that this teen actually did receive over 1.3 million texts the month before and they actually had to terminate the service and obtain a new number.

At first this was a story and a laugh, but then last night I received a text from one of my teenage cousins who blindly forwarded me a text he received about joining a cell phone singles network.  At the end of the text it said forward this to everyone on your address book and I can see by the message it was forwarded to him.  It all started to come into focus.  They were building an information network through SMS texting that did not require permissions, could not be controlled by any corporate terms of use, and because most cell phone companies pushed unlimited texting for teen phones, it does not matter how many communications are sent or received in an hour.

My next thoughts were regarding the positive and negative implications of this disruptive change. 

A positive affect would be if there was an immediate threat or natural disaster, news would travel through this network and everyone would be aware of the issue within minutes.  Text messages can also include video and pictures.  Important information shared quickly to millions.  People would not be waiting for a news truck to setup, get the story, shoot the video, and then broadcast the event.  (news at 5…)

A negative affect would be that there could be an immediate sharing of information regardless of the content.  Take the recent broadcast email containing distorted facts suggesting that people not purchase gift cards this year from two dozen different chain stores because they are rumored to be “going out of business”.  When in fact just about all of those companies have no intention on going out of business and they are only closing individual stores which are not generating enough revenue or legally reorganizing so they do not have to go out of business.  Today this type of inaccurate email and inaccurate news takes days and weeks to replicate and these companies have time to react and halt the rumors.  Take that same news shared to millions in minutes.  There is no time for the company to react and quell the rumor.

There is no question that there is an information revolution underway and it is impossible for any corporation or government to stop the sharing of information regardless what it is.