There are news reports aplenty today about how Michigan State students used Facebook to organize an outdoor party that turned chaotic, but one aspect I find interesting is that "Cedar Fest," as the party was known, was actually the revival of an annual event that died out after a 1987 city injunction made it illegal to attend. If Facebook had any real role in amassing so many people this weekend, it might be that the thousands of people signed up online to attend gave these revelers a sense of safety in numbers, making them willing to face a government crackdown.

In the case of a post-Final Four bash, that safety in numbers *might* translate into a mob mentality. But if you're talking about a political protest in, say, a top-down and repressive society like Burma or, say, China during the upcoming Olympics, that sense of safety in numbers might be a very good thing indeed.