Contemporary speculations about communities and markets highlight the emergence of "smart mobs," dynamically forming collaborations between individuals abetted by ubiquitously networked devices and systems such as mobile phones, weblogs, GPS, personal stereos, PDAs and wearable computers (Rheingold, 2002). Market analysts refer to the inadequacy of out-dated 'interruptive' advertising to speak to the needs of the emerging Generation-C, the connected community (Ahonen, and Moore, 2005). Traditional concepts of branding are being replaced by so-called “tribal branding” that is fluid, contingent and collaborative rather than fixed, authorized and corporate. In this paper we draw on our own studies into the potential uses of mobile camera-phones in community formation, brand subversion, and user experience to examine critically the assertions of Generation-C theorists.

It seems that interacting agents adopting dynamic performance strategies produce Generation-C densities that are lumpy and unstable. Advocates of “swarm intelligence” also hint of thresholds, or "tipping points" in group behaviour where an event, or a critical mass of engagement can trigger a sudden cascade of activity, or inactivity. Generation-C densities are cut through with discontinuities, violent edges, aberrations and stark thresholds, all of which resonate with the realities of urban experience. In this paper we adopt de Certeau’s commentary on everyday things (de Certeau, 1984) to show the value of an edgy and agonistic orientation to ubiquitous technologies, where we take the rough with the smooth, against the romance of me-generation utopians.