While we've all be eyeing the Internet as the transformative social technology of our generation, another less glamorous device has been quietly vying for the title. According to the International Telecommunications Union, almost half of the world's population had a mobile phone in 2007, with the most significant growth in developing countries.

Mobile phones are certainly everywhere, in every demographic. And while the technology is increasingly mundane -- make a call from anywhere, send a text message, ho hum -- technology often has its greatest social impact when it becomes ubiquitous or ''normal.'' Or, says Clay Shirky, ''We have reached an age when this stuff is technologically boring enough to be socially interesting.''

What does it mean for arts organizations that almost everyone in their audience has a mobile phone? Or that more and more are communicating by cryptic text messages (up to 2.3 trillion messages in 2010 according to Gartner)? As I've said before, something dramatic happens to a system when more than half of its parts are interconnected.

I've seen lots of conference and think-tank discussions about the Internet and how arts professionals can advance their work on-line. But we've had precious little discussion about the less exciting but perhaps more impactful role of the mobile phone -- especially on the global stage. It might be time for some public thinking on the subject.