flash mob

• flashmob

Perhaps from flash crowd, a term coined by Larry Niven in Flash Crowd (1973), a story about cheap teleportation in the future.

flash mob (plural flash mobs)

1. A group of people who rapidly assemble, perform an unusual and seemingly pointless act, and then quickly disperse. [from 2003]
   • 2003 August 4, Otto Pohl, “Berlin Journal; What: Mob Scene. Who: Strangers. Point: None.”, in The New York Times‎, ISSN 0362-4331:

     Called into being on short notice by Web sites and e-mail distribution lists, flash mobs meet at an appointed time, engage in some organized spontaneity for a few minutes, then rapidly disperse. The activities are innocent, if mysterious, and tend to bring together loose groupings of surprisingly conventional looking young adults.

• flash mobber
• flash rob