Website emerged from the Jamaican Diaspora Future Leaders Conference 2009. Coincidence or Copycat?

Though I saw the Minister of State in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Foreign Trade at Christopher’s and spoke briefly about the event. I really had no intentions of going, and for clearly good reasons.

I simple never got the feeling that there would be any ground breaking or real creative forces present at such an event.

While surfing the web for some data I came across this article “Jamaican Diaspora Future Leaders Create Website to Increase Communication Links” from the www.sflcn.com

Just getting to the points of interest are from the article above is:

(1) Jamaicans living in the Diaspora now have a greater opportunity to network among themselves, and to know more about Jamaica than ever before, as a result of the establishment of a Diaspora website.

(2) We have created a website, jadiasporafutureleaders.com, and the idea is we want to turn this into some kind of hub. So we collected the information from everyone who came to the [Future Leaders] conference, as well as an area of interest or skill-set.

(3) From their website : “It will also provide them with a platform on which to build local, national and international partnerships with potential investors. These partnerships will not only benefit Jamaica as a whole, but they will also offer Jamaica countless opportunities for social, national and economic development. Through the EXPO and other similar types of business initiatives, we will facilitate networking and lay the foundation for Future Leaders to contribute in their own meaningful way.”

Interesting when I read it. As from the Jamaica Diaspora Conference 2008 there was the creation of The Jamaican Diaspora Social Network (JDSN) an unofficial site, but none the less currently has 89 active prominent members. Prior to that the creation of The Jamaica Entrepreneur Association (A Social Network Website only serving Jamaican Entrepreneurs Worldwide) with 75 active members. The latter helped stage Kingston Venture Capital Conference & Expo on January 22, 2009.

What’s the point?

Reading the article in question above along with the link for “Expo” info under jadiasporafutureleaders.com clearly shows a duplication of ideas.

Is it a coincidence that the views expressed by the representative in the article above is also a member of both the social network websites created from 2008 seeking to do the same mission?

What say you?