Agencies, Freelancers, Design, Copywriting & more.: [Copyblogger] What is the Modern Day Medici Effect?

What is the Modern Day Medici Effect?

What is the Modern Day Medici Effect?

Medici Effect

At the beginning of 2008 I wrote a post called The Content Crossroads: Supernatural Success at the Intersection of Ideas. The point of the article is that innovative content often comes about when you connect two seemingly unrelated ideas or topics to come up with something fresh and new.

While there's a lot going on in that post, a fundamental aspect of the piece involves what's known as the Medici Effect, thanks to Frans Johansson's excellent book of the same name. Poets, philosophers, scientists, architects, painters and sculptors from all over Europe and elsewhere came together in Florence, Italy, between the 13th and 17th centuries thanks to the patronage of the wealthy Medici family.

By attracting talented souls from so many different fields and cultures, the Medicis got all these creative people in contact with one another to trade ideas and collaborate. This intersection of concepts and diverse backgrounds kicked off the Renaissance, one of the most innovative eras in human history.

A lot of people seemed to get a lot out of that post, including Copyblogger's own James Chartrand. He picked up that there was an unspoken subtext to the article that indicated we were involved in a Medici Effect of our own (this time with ~~Al Gore~~ Vinton Cerf and Timothy Berners-Lee to thank instead).

That's right… the modern day Medici Effect is made possible by the Internet and the Web. More specifically, social media.

Today, Mark McGuinness makes the fantastic possibilities of the modern day Medici Effect crystal clear in a post at Lateral Action. The cool thing is, I had no idea he was going to take this approach, and he didn't bother to link to Content Crossroads, so it likely wasn't even his inspiration.

Check out The Top 10 Social Networks for Creative People. This goes well beyond just the usual suspects, and I can guarantee this is one of the most comprehensive and meaty "Top 10" lists you'll ever encounter.