Changes in technology have affected the way we socialize. Instead of the slow pace of wagons and trains, we have cars and jets. Instead of snail mail, we have email and cell phones that help us share common experiences with those far away. But it still isn't always easy to keep in touch, especially when we're trying to get together with lots of our friends all at once.

Two researchers in the Social Computing group came up with a way to use technology to create a sense of community with the people we care about.

They call it Swarm. It's already become a verb.

Swarm is similar to an email distribution list, but on a mobile phone. Since people carry their mobile phones with them wherever they go, Swarm is a perfect medium to connect groups of people who want to arrange meetings on-the-fly.

Users can set up lists for each of their different groups. They can have one for work groups, another for friends they party with, and one for their families. When they want to gather one of their groups together, all they have to do is send one message to contact the entire group.

"The idea behind it is that we wanted to create a constant sense of social awareness. We wanted to give people a way to have spontaneous interactions with each other on a moment's notice," said Pedram Keyani, an intern with the group.

Though Swarm is still a research project, it will work across all phone types and services. To the user, it's just a phone number they call and a website that they can access for information and setup.

"All you need is text messaging service. All the software is on the server side, so anyone can add people to a group or create a group without installing new software," said Shelly Farnham, the lead researcher for the project.

"On Friday nights, my friends and I all go to parties, and we want to spend time together at the best party. We use Swarm to report to the group, 'there's great music here,' or 'plenty of food.' The text message can be broadcast to the entire group quickly and easily, it's lightweight communication. We can then converge at the best place," said Keyani.

"It has absolutely changed the way our friends are coordinating their activities," said Farnham. "We used to send out emails to try to set up the time and place to meet. Inevitably, someone wouldn't get the message in time if there was a last minute change. They'd miss the fun."

The researchers also found that even if people on the Swarm lists didn't plan to meet up with the group, that they liked being aware of the group's activities. It helped them feel connected to their friends.

"A few people were never posting and never went to any of the places that the group talked about," said Farnham. "So I took them off the list. They got upset and I put them back on the list."

The researchers are not trying to scale this to large groups. "We don't want people spammed," said Keyani.

They've found that some of the group members have evolved into group leaders. "There are people who are scouting and they feel like they won or provided a service by letting everyone know about it. The people who create groups tend to be connectors," said Farnham.

"It's also helped with meeting new people," said Farnham. "I put someone on my list because I liked him, though I didn't know him that well. I thought he might know about good events and have good reports. I see him a lot more now because of Swarm."

"There's a concept of hyper-coordination. That's when you constantly plan and re-plan an event up until the moment it happens. Swarm goes much further, it allows you to coordinate your activities on-the-fly while the event is happening, and actually change the location and time of the meeting depending upon the availability of people," said Keyani.

It's very social computing.