Good, Bad and the Copycats

With every new idea or phenomenon which comes along and changes some aspect of our daily lives there are those which follow. These copycats seek not to further the ground-breaking “discovery”, but merely to emulate it.

That was my experience recently when I came across a new site purporting to offer something different but in fact sought to cash in on the popularity of social networking.

Given that this area of internet use is fast reaching saturation point, it does beg the question that if there are so many social networking sites so that every hundred people have their own, how will anyone actually meeting a wider audience?

The question is obviously not a serious one because history has taught us that not all equivalent products enjoy the same level of success.

There will be good ones and those which fail although good or bad is perhaps not the most significant measure. Popularity plays a big part in the rise or fall of a particular social networking site, which is perhaps just as well as innovation and risk embraced by the early websites, is thereby rewarded.

Copying the architecture and working of another site is perfectly permissible, but our patience and acceptance of this practice might well be running low as we constantly look to be dazzled by what we see.

Of many of the great accomplishments achieved over the ages, very few of these were conceived and executed by the same person and in one work session.

Typically, the idea and development is pursued over several stages and by different, sometimes competing organisations. The common thread being is that the each time the ball was handed over, the carrier advanced the development in some way and did not merely copy what was there already.

My advice to the copycats out there is to not do as others have done, but think as others once thought. Do something different, try new ideas, experiment.

 
Even if you are not the one to make the final breakthrough and receive all of the credit, you can rest assured that even as a unsung hero you contribution was really and significant.