Curation Revolution - Thoughts On What Is Content Curation

Almost two years ago I wrote Curation - The Next Web Revolution. I'm glad I wrote that piece not because it is one of my most popular and cited ScentTrails, but because one of the creators of Scoop.it (Marc) saw it and offered to let me drive his magical car in beta. Scoop.it is my favorite curation tool because:

• Its community of curators is amazing.
• It is set up as close to perfect as it can be (especially love their use of leaderboards and the game within the game, in fact I wrote extensively about these tactics in my Gamification White Paper for Atlantic BT). 
• Scoop.it's ability to easily spider the social web based on keywords I provide. 
• Its ease of use.

Scoop.it's grace and helpful beauty is why I wrote Why Scoop.it Rocks. Will get around to supplementing my first Why Rocks post with another soon :). 

Two of my favorite curators are Robin Good (@RobinGood) and Michael Smorgon (@maxOz). Today I had an interesting conversation with Robin on two of his scoops. The first scoop was about how simply rewriting content isn't content curation. Here is the link and what I said:

Rewriting Content Not Content Curation (Robin Good scooped to Curation Revolution)

My Comment...

Like Robin I give this 7 out of 10. There are some curators such as Robin I rarely add much content to because they are expressing my thoughts in some cases better than me. Part of good curating is to select and share, or just select. I just posted a great Infographic by MaxOz (how the world spends its time online) because it fit something I believe or am interested in. In Such a case a rare straight scoop is fine.

Mostly I am way to talkative and full of beans to not weigh in (lol). As far as the "rewriting" goes I agree with Robin, not adding anything and calling it yours doesn't make it so. If someone were to paraphrase my writing, call it their curation and then give credit they insult me. Like shooting me and then apologizing - the one doesn't compensate for the other :).

And on Robin's Scoop of a new SlideShare-like tool called DisplayNote:

My Comment...

I just curated a piece of Robin's into Curation Revolution explaining there are times when a straight scoop or curation without much comment makes sense. This excellent summary of Robin's is a perfect example. The other thing I keep in mind on my straight scoops, curation without much comment, is where am I curating too. If I were moving Robin's notes and this new Display Note tool into my blog or my Technorati startups series I would write more, but it can be safely "Scooped" into my Startups feed inside of Scoop.it because that is where I share cool tools like this one. Sometimes I scoop naked first and then go back and fill notes in after I've had a chance to take a pass through the tool. I do this to rescue the piece so I don't lose it back into the sea of STUFF I review daily.

This "naked scoop" reflects one way I use Scoop.it to support curation. When I see something cool, something I don't want to forget, I move it to one of my feeds as a way of archiving and tagging (been meaning to get better about tagging inside of Scoop.it too since know it could save tons of time). When I am writing about mobile I check my Mobile Revolution feed for helpful factoids, authors and blogs. One role this cool tool plays is writer's assistant and note archive.

If I were writing about SlideShare-like tools I would return to this scoop and check out DisplayNote and any other similar new tools stored there as reference and helpful information, but for today, there might be little to add other than, "cool, agree with Robin and will look into it". Part of what Robin and other curators I trust do for my curation is to reduce my sourcing time. Another role to help me form up those philosophical areas I curate such as curation itself, marketing and branding. Robin and Michael also teach me new things almost every day. They keep my mind OPEN as it has to be to achieve any success in Internet marketing.

For what they do I am grateful and hopefully show my gratitude with the high respect I have for great curation and each of them. Robin and Michael (maxOz) don't need my credit, but they appreciate my input, respect and admiration. Admiration because only a fellow curator knows just how hard all of this is despite how easy they (and all great curators) make it appear. 


What Is Content CurationI share these comments because there are a lot of questions about what is content curation. I wrote a piece for Atlantic BT recently. What Is Content Curation was a fine start, but we are working on this race car (content curation) as we drive so wanted to share my conversation on Robin's scoops from today.

Martin

Great Comment From Liz Wilson on Curation Revolution Scoop.it

« I am no fan of the kind of news rewriting you talk about but I do think there is value in choosing news or analysis pieces, collecting them together and writing a summary of each as a guide to the reader.
This is what The Browser does - take a look if you don't know it.(No connection, I'm just a reader). Imho it's news curation at its best. If the magazine was just made up of links I'd never be able to pick what to read. The fact that they "rewrite" a paragraph upfront helps me by adding context and depth to the link.
That brings me to my real point: do we really need a very specific definition of curation? Isn't it many things to many people? To me, it's a general description, like "cooking". I don't suppose many of us cook the same way. (Don't get me wrong, I am completely with you and Robin - I see you both as informers/mentors). Just my tuppenceworth.  »

June 17, 6:37 AM