Social curation is much more than just a market. In 2010, “curation” popped up on tech blogs and VCs’ radars.
Since then, people have been asking whether curation is a legitimate trend, a new market to be exploited, or just the latest buzzword. Some people, including GigaOM writer Bobbie Johnson, have wondered if curation is a bubble, and if it is, when is it going to burst? When Johnson asked this question, I think the jury was still out. As the chief evangelist for the social library Pearltrees, I was directly involved in the “Web curation” movement early on, and I think it is now clear that social curation is not a bubble. The more I watch the development of social curation and the more I learn about the what, how and why of it, the more convinced I become that what we’re seeing is going to grow well beyond a simple market.
One of the characteristics of online activities that transcend simple markets is that they are analogous to behaviors that seem to be hardwired into humans. I agree with his perspective. Real Time News Curation. The 3 C’s of Information Commerce: Consumption, Curation, Creation. InShare180 Over the years, social networks have lured us from the confines of our existing realities into a new genre of digital domains that not only captivated us, but fostered the creation of new realities. As George Bernard Shaw observed, “Life is not about finding yourself, life is about creating yourself.” Such is true for social networks and the digital persona and resulting experiences we create and cultivate. It was the beginning of the shift in behavior toward an era of digital extroversion, self-defined by varying degrees of sharing, connections, and engagement. On Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, et al., we were attracted by the promise of reigniting forgotten relationships and enamored by the sparking of new connections.
With each new connection we wove, we were compelled to share details about ourselves that we might not have divulged in real life. Our concerns of privacy or the lack thereof, now require education. The 3 C's: Creation. Curation. Consumption. Why We Need It. The time it takes to follow and go through multiple web sites and blogs takes tangible time, and since most sources publish or give coverage to more than one topic, one gets to browse and scan through lots of useless content just for the sake of finding what is relevant to his specific interest.
Even in the case of power-users utilizing RSS feed readers, aggregators and filters, the amount of junk we have to sift through daily is nothing but impressive, so much so, that those who have enough time and skills to pick the gems from that ocean of tweets, social media posts and blog posts, enjoy a fast increasing reputation and visibility online. Photo credit: dsharpie and franckreporter mashed up by Robin Good "What we need to get much better at is scaling that system so you don't have to pay attention to everything, but you don't miss the stuff you care about... "Ev Williams at a Girls in Tech event at Kicklabsvia Stowe Boyd's blog. Content Curation is Here to stay. In a labyrinth of content, consumers have always looked to opinion leaders who could edit content for them and direct them towards relevant information.
Oprah‘s book club moved masses of people towards her recommended list of books and authors. The web is facing the very same crisis today. A plethora of information that is strenuous to navigate through, we rely on peers and opinion leaders to direct us to safe ports, where we can find the supplies that we seek. In every market research that I have conducted, recommendation by peers is the single largest influencing factor. These would be relatives, neighbours, colleagues, even the odd celebrity endorser. I believe the definition of ‘peer’ has changed drastically. This is the environment that has made space for the Content Curator. Conventionally, a search would be performed in a search engine like Google. On the other hand, a content curator collects the best of information and showcases it at a single place. A required Skill. Content Is No Longer King: Curation Is King.
A timeline of Curation. Curation is not Aggregation!