Swarming - not Bees but Us !

A new term I got introduced to over the weekend is "Swarming". I got the following from WordSpy as a definition

"The rapid gathering of friends, family, or colleagues using technologies such as cell phones, pagers, and instant messaging"

I looked up on Wiki the meaning of Swarm intelligence and got blown away by what I read -

"Swarm intelligence (SI) is artificial intelligence based on the collective behavior of decentralized, self-organized systems."

A paradigm introduced in 1989, is very relevant to the current trend of social networking. Aren't humans self-organized systems ?

It is interesting to note that technology is currently used to link together elements of a known set. Pushing the limit would require data from a larger set contributing towards decisions made in a smaller set and this decision fed back into the larger domain to help make decisions in other smaller sets.

In my opinion, people are natural discoverers and connoisseurs to varying degrees. There is a tendency to also visit and experience for themselves the benefits documented by others who have blazed a trail to a location.

Similarities can be drawn in the foraging behaviour of bees and the socializing behaviour of humans. A favored patch could be a popular watering hole (a bar).

It would be of tremendous advantage if information is provided to enable decisions to be made. To share information in a very immediate and innovative way similar to a “waggle dance” or leave dissipating pheromone trails as used in an ant colony. Instant information is very prevalent in the Web 2.0 world, but dissipating trail ? It's very relevant to humans socializing. Why have a nasty experience visiting a restaurant that is now a dried up water hole ?