Nate Riggs: Social Business Strategies; communication, social web strategies, & passion in Columbus, Ohio.

Sarah and I have been watching a PBS documentary on The Medici family, known for being one of the most powerful families in Florence during the Renaissance period.  I’ve always loved learning about the Renaissance.

The middle ages had been dominated with political control, tyranny, and poverty among the serf class.  With most of Florence hit hard by Back Death, you can get the picture as to why an era of rebirth was welcomed and embraced by the people of the time.  The Renaissance was about this birth of new ideas and new ways of thinking.  People were willing to challenge the norms.  Artists and thinkers like Michelangelo, Brunelleschi and  Leonardo da Vinci were some of the media rock stars of the time.

It was also a period where media thrived.  Media symbolized this era of  new thinking and drove the spreading of  new ideas.  Keep in mind that paintings and music and plays were the media of the day.  Lorenzo de’ Medici was noted as being the patron saint of these arts, often contributing significant amounts of capital to fund artistic projects that would produce returns in status, power and respect.

{Fast forward to present day}

I can’t seem to ignore the similarities between the Renaissance and our present day movement toward social media technology.  The canvas is a bit different, but it’s driving our culture to be reborn.  Here was what was going through my head at 3AM this morning.  (Yes, I am a nerd.)

1. There’s a ton of new media going around. But instead of the Sistine Chapel, today  we have Facebook and YouTube and Ning.  Millions of people stand in awe of the creations of a small group of technology innovators, and what’s even cooler is that those media creation make it possible to continue to create.
2. Venture capitalists like spending money on things that get a lot of  attention.  Billions of dollars are commissioned thrown at visionaries like Mark Zukerberg and Biz Stone so they can use realize their vision and use their talents to create something that hopefully stand a test of time.  Rich people are looking for the next big thing – not necessarily the next best investment.  Case in point: How much money has Twitter made to date?
3. A new era of media rock stars has emerged.  People like Mari Smith, Chris Brogan, Seth Godin, Guy Kawasaki and Paul Gillin have become well know public figures, simply by sharing their ideas and vision with the world, in hopes that they can create something that changes the world.

(I’ll admit that we haven’t yet gotten to the part of the documentary that talks about all scandle, mruder and sabatoge that also happened during the Renisance.  It seems to work so let’s just skip that part for now. :-p )

How have you used new media to create something visionary?