11.19.08
The Death of the Original Idea
I remember, several years ago, while I was at University, doing an English lecture series on postmodernism. I will state right now that some of the material was the most surreal and bizarre I have ever had the misfortune of being forced to read. What I did take away from this course, however, was an understanding of intertextuality and the concept of metatextuality.
In plain English? Texts that make critical commentary about other texts and texts that are based on, or contain some elements of other texts. The concept of intertextuality also refers to the way meanings of texts are shaped by others. I suppose this is what postmodernism is. (What is ‘what is’? will haunt me forever).
So, it’s about deconstruction, derivatives, building on the old, fragmented identities and so on and so forth. But what does this have to do with internet marketing I hear you ask?
Well, there seems to have been much debate in the recent past about ‘copy cats’. We’ve seen it with the DA’s relaunch and their new branding, on several sites in terms of their design, and even with regard to other design elements.
I suppose the question now is – is this plagiarism? Or are there really just no truly authentic ideas anymore, and is everything basically just another incarnation of what has gone before?
It’s interesting to note, that (certainly in my experience) a large percentage of blog ‘content’ is just re-hashed versions of news and information that has been published elsewhere. Also, a great deal of our discourse (to use an academic term) in the blogosphere revolves around commentary. This isn’t a negative thing at all - but purely metatextuality in practise.
On the web today, in a world of stock widgets and stock templates, where the ingredients are available to all – how you use the common ingredients by process of crafty selection and combination will determine how flavourful a social media dish you whip up.
So, maybe it’s time to stop being precious about ‘my’ building blocks, in the web world ownership of intellectual property is almost a secondary consideration to reputation and impact.
With an entity like the web, which is a ‘free-access to all’ type setup, how would you retain absolute ownership of anything?
Just something to chew on.