How to Grow an Idea? Collaborate!

One of the best things about working on Social Media Week is that moment when a connection leads to to something fruitful.

As the number of enquiries to the Social Media Week London crew ramp up, we’re in the enviable position of being able to connect brilliant people, who are working together on some great events.

There’s some exciting stuff coming up, but you’ll just have to wait for that news. It’s worth it, trust me!

Anyway, I digress.

As is my current habit, I was watching my usual diet of TED talk videos on the way in to the office a couple of days back, in an attempt to block out the hell of rush hour on London’s tube.

What popped up on my iPhone was a talk from British author Matt Ridley, “When Ideas Have Sex“, of which the central notion is that human growth has only been possible because ideas have been shared.

His talk covers a wide range of topics and is well worth watching (see below), but the one story that stuck with me was Matt’s premise that “no-one knows how to make a computer mouse”. He explains,

“Sure some people know how to get oil or metal out of the ground, some know how to turn that oil into plastic, or the metal into circuitry, some know how to mould that plastic into shape, and some know how to put the bits of plastic and metal together into what we know to be a mouse, but there’s no-one on the planet that does all of those things”

The premise certainly fits with my experience with the development of Social Media Week and the way ideas grow through collaborations. So much so, that Collaborate, Connect, Contribute has become our mantra.

Enough from me, check out Matt Ridley’s much more eloquent TED Talk…

Matt’s website is The Rational Optimist and you’ll find him on twitter @mattwridley.

Photo (cc) joe goldberg.