Stone World’s “Industry Perspective” column has revolving articles by the Stone Fabricators Alliance (SFA), The Natural Stone Institute (NSI), and the Rockhead Group offering insight into the workings of each organization, and their place within the industry.

Upon closer look, these three groups, although unique and separate, when assembled together resemble most of our own businesses. The NSI being the CEO of the organization, the Rockheads attending to business matters and the SFA fabricating in the shop, all working together to form the foundation of a successful enterprise. Working individually, they offer their own area of expertise and support to their base of members. 

With the numerous array of social media available these days, we see countless other groups forming separate factions, splintering off in multiple directions into general stone fabrication, porcelain issues and machining solutions to name just a few. While most of these groups offer valuable insight themselves, we are beginning to see an incredible dilution of information within the industry as a whole. With the multitude of group channels active now, it is increasingly difficult to navigate all the different options to seek specific content, or to even keep track of which sites you contributed to last.

For many things in life, variety is a good thing, and it’s certainly not my place or intention to undermine the efforts of those seeking to start their own path of expertise. But like many of us, time is precious, and consolidating and focusing the knowledge of our industry into just a few channels is far more efficient, and also retains a larger pool of minds in the collective centralized hive. 

Going forward, I urge you to avoid the further fragmentation of knowledge, concentrating your efforts to create a more unified nucleus of sharing and participation, fueled by the cooperation and collaboration of the SFA, NSI and Rockheads for the benefit of a strong and focused industry.