Building on existing stuff

The McNuggetini is … “A McDonald’s chocolate milkshake with vanilla vodka, rimmed with BBQ sauce and garnished with a chicken McNugget.” (From This Is Why You Are Fat.)

This reminded me of several conversations I have had recently re building something from existing stuff. Several friends have coincidentally came up with ideas for using the internet to publicise/galvanise action around causes. They wanted to know how to build a website, a newsletter, a discussion forum etc online.

My suggestion was: there is no need to build anything from scratch. Not like in the old days.

There are already so many existing applications on the internet – Flickr for photos, YouTube for videos, Wordpress for blogging, Google groups, and Facebook groups. Why build your own when you can leverage these applications AND their exposure?

The focus should be on the cause more than the actual technology and application building. How can you best leverage the existing stuff out there to get people engaged with your cause? Where are those people now?

“Build on”; not reinvent the wheel.

One comment on “Building on existing stuff”

1. Robert Rath said:
   

   Hi Zern,

   Amazingly I still find people attempting to do just this sort of thing from scratch for various reasons and sometimes quite justified.

   Yes there are wonderful tools and resources for putting together informative or collaborative websites but the shear choice available can be off putting. A combination of a poor initial choice and then doing ugly things to create a desired functionality can end up leaving a bad taste in the mouth. Not so dissimilar to what I imagine a McNuggetini might taste like!

   I agree; build on the tools out there but be prepared to do a good deal of research before you commit. Test out example websites, ask advise from seasoned web developers and try out some of you own.

   Just like a martini, the ingredients need to be well chosen to get the taste right!

   … Robert

   
   18 March 2009 at 10:58 am

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