We're talking with Robin Good
about curation

Robin, I love your series of articles

I highly recommend them

I just wanted to get directly from you

a few thoughts about curation online

starting with

what do you think the importance

in the place of curation is,

for anybody who's online?

I think, we could see this way

We reach somehow the limit of

understanding and making sense

of information just by going out

to Google, typing out a query

and getting a listing of things

that could be relevant to us.

I think, this is like being hungry

and going to McDonalds,

like having fast food information

but I want something more

like when I go to a restaurant

I can choose the type of restaurant,

the type of food, the quality, the level,

the type of customer service

and so on, so

I am looking for a new level of

accessing information whereby

I'm not just trying to list and rank

information but then trying to

make sense of information.

This is what people want more and more

because one article by itself or a link,

or a resource, or a video, sometimes

it's just a little opening hole

into understanding that topic

while if there was some kind of

intermediate layer, whether done by

an algorithm or by people contributing

and working with an algorithm to

collect things that make sense on

a certain topic.

I think we would be in a position

to inform and learn much faster

and much better than we can do now.

What qualities do you think

a curator ought to have?

Well, it's got to be somewhat of a very

curious person and a passionate person

in area where you want to curate.

I don't think you can just go about

curating a topic because you wake up

and that's something you want to do.

Well, you certainly can and gain confidence

within time, but it would be best that

you go and curate something that you're

already very passionate about,

that you've been exposed to so that

you have some sincerity, some antennas

that allow you to understand what is good,

what is better, because then it becomes

a point of who are you doing this for.

Are you just an artist painting something

for yourself or you're creating something

for a specific audience that's trying to

intercept a specific need and resolve it

with that channel of information.

I would think that knowing the audience

and being an expert on the topic help

someone curate whatever type of

information; I see them as a disposal

that I think are the key elements, then,

you got to be very transparent and

give full credit to whomever you're

gathering in and expose, actually,

the best qualities of these sources

and people, and add something of your own

that is the ultimate quality of the curator,

like DJ, I mean, what's the difference

between putting a mix tape and a live DJ?

I think those