Confab | Curation: Beyond the Buzzword

Following are my notes….

Steve Rosenbaum was a filmmaker in September 2001, and the events of 9/11 taught him that individuals can tell their own stories better than the professionals can. The important part we can add is a filter, a curator, an organizer. He’s also the author of a new book titled Curation Nation.

He says the “me web” is ending — the era of needing something, going to get it. Now, he says we’re entering the “we web” — where everyone contributes.

He’s using everyone’s favorite quote from Eric Schmidt, about how much data was created through 2003, and how now that much is created every 2 days.

Rosenbaum points out that the amount of data flowing past us every day is unmanageable.

Rosenbaum rejects the idea of ‘quality.’ Can that be judged for everyone? Uses the example of Google Places accidentally getting axed by the Panda update — because it was using the same kind of aggregation that Demand Media does. So how do you judge that Places is good, and Demand is bad?

Love this story: Now Rosenbaum is telling about how our definition of sharing and permission are getting tweaked as we move toward more curation. He wrote a post for Mashable recently, and 6 lines of it quickly showed up on another site, with him listed as a “contributor,” and a link back to the full post. His initial reaction was, Hey wait a minute! And then he realized, That’s great!

Rosenbaum says curation has 3 components:

• Choose your digital clothing. Your endorsements, likes, RTs and posts matter; you’re curating your online persona. This point is so important. People who are indiscriminate in their curation aren’t valued contributors.
• Listening is more powerful than speaking. Gather, organize and filter good stuff.
• In a noisy world, customers embrace clarity. Your visitors will make content for you, and curation tools can supercharge your editorial instincts. Lists tools like Pearltrees, Keepstream, curate.us, paper.li, Storify, Scoop.it.

Create your own curation equation for user-generated content. Consider your voice and your sources. What kind of information do your customers need?