The other day, I was sent a really good article by Mattew E. May entitled ‘The Downside of a Good Idea: T.M.I.‘.

Of course, one should never judge a book by its cover (or an article by its title for that matter) because I immediately assumed that this was another article about social media and, well, people sharing too much information! As a friend mused earlier, has social media removed our ability to keep our mouths shut? But no, it’s not about that at all.

In the article, May discusses the findings of Indiana University cognitive scientist Robert Goldstone who sets about trying to ascertain the best way to structure a community or organisation to get the best solution to a problem out of the group.

Goldstone argues one of the drawbacks of good ideas that are freely shared is that once they are out there in the ether, they can stunt innovation by distracting others from pursuing even better ideas. I have considered this notion briefly myself in a previous post about the death of the original idea. In a murky, often over-saturated environment – it can be very hard to be innovative. Especially when one considers that necessity is the mother of invention, if there’s no immediate need – why would you bother?

In the article, May notes Goldstone’s observation that “it turns out not to be effective if different inventors and labs see exactly what everyone else is doing because of the human tendency to glom onto the current ‘best’ solution.”

Goldstone reportedly tested this theory in a study in which he divided participants into three groups in ‘virtual’ environments. Each group was given a simple problem to solve.
“Participants guessed numbers between 1 and 100, with each number having a hidden value. The goal was for individuals to accumulate the highest score through several rounds of guessing. Across different conditions, the relationship between guesses and scores could either be simple or complex. The participants saw the results of their own guesses and some or all of the guesses of the others in their group,” explains May.

The three groups were a “fully connected” group in which participants’ work was completely accessible to everyone else in the group. A “locally connected” group in which participants only shared information with their neighbours and a “small world” group who shared information with their neighbours and had a few other distant connections which allowed them to send and receive good ideas from outside the ‘neighbourhood’.

The findings indicated that the fully connected group performed best at solving simple problems, but the small world group performed far better at solving more difficult or complex problems. Goldstone explains that the reason for this is because the small world group encourages and nurtures diversity. This enables ‘cliques’ to come up with differing solutions to the same problem thereby searching the whole problem space more effectively.

The study definitely provokes some interesting questions about collaboration. I guess in an increasingly connected space, it’s even more important for us to keep challenging ourselves to do better and to strive for constant improvement.

As you may already know, AlterSage Consultants is the brainchild of Christine da Silva and was established in 2006 to address the need for an agency that would holistically approach online marketing that clients would increase both brand exposure as well as ROI. During its nearly three years of operation, we’ve earned a reputation in the industry for our effective online marketing campaigns, integrity and strong client and partner relationships.

The team, known as the Sages, works closely with each client, taking into consideration the client’s current marketing campaign, goals and audience to ensure they achieve the best possible ROI from their online campaign. Our specialty is Search Marketing with the focus on Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and Pay per Click Campaigns (PPC) whilst complementary services offered include Online PR, Social Media Marketing and Usability Consulting to name a few.

During 2009 our client list grew substantially and new clients include Plastiq (a division of Nedbank), Hollard Insurance, World Check, Russian Bear Vodka and Hansgrohe to name a few. We’ve also re-signed valued clients like Interflora and Exclusive Getaways (also currently undergoing a facelift).

The Sages consist of a group of highly experienced individuals that all share a commonality: a passion for everything online. Our name “AlterSage” implies “Gurus of Change”: “alter” to change and “sage” a guru or an expert in a particular field. Staying true to our philosophy, we continuously re-evaluate all in-house processes and strategies to ensure the team stays ahead of the curve to consistently offer clients up-to-date strategies and unsurpassed service.

We’ve also recently decided that it was finally time to consolidate our website and blog and merge the two platforms, Joomla and WordPress into one.  Besides a few design tweaks the most notable being the AlterSage blog which now features the same look and feel as the rest of the website.  We’ve made signing up to our newsletter super convenient, so if you have not already done so, sign-up to receive our monthly newsletter on the left. Also ensure that you bookmark the updated RSS feed to our blog and connect with us on our other social platforms!

As a new service offering, we’re introducing Mobile SEO (aka .Mobi SEO) as a new online marketing element. With the use of mobile web growing, we are one of the first agencies in South Africa to officially offer Mobile SEO. Last week Opera Mini released a State of the Mobile Web report focusing on the growth of mobile web in Africa from 2008 to 2009. From April 2008 to April 2009 Opera Mini’s users alone increased with more than 140% and page views increased with 249%.

We are still tweaking a few areas here and there, but please browse through the revamped website and be sure to leave us a comment below.

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.