This paper presents the key ideas behind the ICT CROWD1 (Connectivity management for eneRgy Optimised Wireless Dense networks) project, funded by the European Commission. The project moves from the observation that wireless traffic demand is currently growing exponentially. This growing demand can only be satisfied by increasing the density of points of access and combining different wireless technologies. Mobile network operators have already started to push for denser, heterogeneous deployments; however, current technology needs to steer towards efficiency, to avoid unsustainable energy consumption and network performance implosion due to interference. In this context, CROWD promotes a paradigm shift in the future wireless Internet architecture, towards global network cooperation, dynamic network functionality configuration and fine, on demand, capacity tuning. CROWD pursues four key goals: (i) bringing density-proportional capacity where it is needed, (ii) optimising MAC mechanisms operating in very dense deployments by explicitly accounting for density as a resource rather than as an impediment, (iii) enabling traffic-proportional energy consumption, and (iv) guaranteeing mobile user's quality of experience by designing smarter connectivity management solutions. © Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering 2013.