Hello, this is Howard Rheingold.
We're talking with Robin Good about curation
So Robin, I loved 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
today from for anybody who's online?
(RG) I think I'll you could see it this way:
we've reached somehow the limit
of understanding and making sense of the 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, you know, having been hungry
and going to McDonald's, you know: it's fast food information
but I want something more like when I go to a restaurant
I can choose to have a restaurant tjat has the foods, the quality, the level
and 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 I'm trying to make sense of the information
this is what people want more and more
because one article by itself or a link or a video
sometimes is just a little opening hole to 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.
(HR) What qualities do you think a curator ought to have?
(RG) Well, he's got to be somewhat of a very curious person
and a passionate person in the area where he wants 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 with it with time
but it would be best that you go and curate something
that you're already very passionate about, that you'd be exposed to
so that you have some sensitivity, 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 artis painting something for yourself
or are you curating something for a specific audience,
trying to intercept a specific need and resolve it
with that channel of information?
So I would think that knowing the audience and being an expert on the topic
helps someone curate whatever type of information items he has at his disposal.
That, I think, are the key elements.
Then you you gotta be very transparent and give full credit
to whoever you are 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 is like the one for a DJ.
I mean, what's the difference between putting a mixed tape and a live DJ?
I think those same qualities apply somewhat to a content curator: ////
that is the ability to listen closely to what I of volumes at the moment he's
serving
and and providing a context so that the type of information ease or she's
collecting
make sense to them so you may have to change titles may take
change descriptions images order how he just oppose things
but you have to customize the flow for that purpose the man
public you're doing that for Jordan who who you are. should come
come through just to some degree your
your sensibility and your your point of view aren't you
not be completely suppressed when you're your jury
they may be different instances any
situations business why is
a a sure research and information activities
how he may vary our I wouldn't be so sure that all the time you'd have to
bring
out your personality but that
there is no way that you can not somehow stand in some position
cell them would be a generic position it may be a bit more
I def I'm positions for those who have had it all to take political stances or
research things where their
opal's Inc views but again there you may be a great reader by just sending out
for your position
or maybe even a better curator by creating
all the positions that out there and allowing people to discover which ones
it's best for their money both of them are valid to me
are a woman what is your advice to do to people about how to go about this and be
I know %um a very detailed workflow you just
someone wants to go ahead and start curating in the butt
a passion for subject in some knowledge about it would out
how they go about
the first thing you want to do is to
collect your so say risk your
the places where you're going to gather that information you wanna start from
some basis at these may be some blogs
I some video channels says some
tweet their personalities fun pages
anything especially that he's capable of producing
on RSS feed in is very useful for
cue Radian creating channels on the information dedicated to a specific
topic
you you want them to become familiar with something that the ski
a and technically beat for it was difficult to understand is what I call a
persistent search that is the ability to set out a search for a topic
and be alerted any time something comes up so that you can discover
new things but you can discover also news sources for information that you
may not be aware of
eddie Van Ness when you bring together different sources
ones you know that once you're going to discover gradually
it the core part of your job is
to select to pick does that really count in again to customize them
personalizing for your audience for this specific communication
objective yes it out for yourself with that channel or stream of the
information you're creating
so in the job to describe is as simple as that you you may want and to
share this information to package it happened distributed in different ways
but
the core elements are basically does once they're
so many people then just worry about
a what is the tool that can do all the stuff in a simple way without needing me
to know HTML RSS tags at
persistent searches and so on so let me get a right to that
and dat is if I were to advise
a tool that I am NOT associated with commercially they think helps anyone
who's in all this
to get good grapes all what
curating information can do when I can be done
is the one you're using yourself since a few days and that's cool beat
as see okie .it
that's just bury simple to use free tool
that allows you to aggregate fielder's church put together information even
layout and publish it
within a workflow that is extremely easy
an almost intuitive to pick up
and %uh I also likes kinda the community feature a Scooby
im at the am there are people can cook can
recommend sources to you and then you have a stream sources
besides the ones that you gone out and and found
that you can go through and you can either I'm use them
you can discard them or you can say and when used as source anymore so
use dream become smarter as you as you you
mercury did is a tool I like a lot too
yes but there are actually very many tula in de-
if you recall on 2005 ahead
what was the did montel the ID March or April I was in San Francisco with you on
mountain time of bias we were talking for the first time in that beautiful
scenery aboul what we discussed in now that he's news Gration
and you with leukemia me and wondering where their
that made any sense at I'm so glad that that this time has passed and it's
become a reality I was
Solex I did last year and in the last few months where
about sixty Diff'rent corporation content curation tools have come out
that created that
at map you've probably seen which update every weekend
and what is surprising ease now all these different
areas for content curation because we study
RSS curating content in news creating news Raiders as they call them specific
thematic channels but
now there's a universe of other possibilities that is
that is DVD a curation they resell
product curation these fashion duration which is
fantastic go in CT said it's called police for
PE ow.ly voor E
and see what people can do to a team together different fashion elements like
shoes & jewelry
and attic gadgets and create day who radiate
sets said that it really a interesting and visually appealing
you so I think the horizon easy and understanding that basically anything
can be curated doesn't have to be on the news you can create stuff that
doesn't be doesn't have to be connected tweet their
or staff detachments right at this moment me
even collecting and curating what he's out there for the past
I we've got into the DL situation from the beginning until now
it's something useful and I think that direction of the future
ease if not for Google for us to create
an alternative titles Google where we can cooperatively
curating information that is out there think for a moment
if instead of depending of secret algorithms to decide for us
what is relevant we could choose individually each one of us
we charge a ranking elements we want to use
or tap into your lines and the one of my friend and the other friend
and create our own eco-system I'll
but she rated algorithm sir curated collections have information on how to
make sense of reality
instead of depending of somebody or depends on profits and as clues
is clue simply on its own earnings to decide what's best for us and that's
absurd for me because the world s now lives in an economy the information we
depend so much I needed
it is not just a matter of doing a business online it's a matter
of allow each I each one of us like to breathe get water
to be able to access information and make some good use of it
I don't know it and it and agree with these are not but to me it's a planetary
question that two people should start to addressing
yes that's why I think it a a fundamental literacy about duration is
something that everybody ought to know about it min
not just for specialists just like there are
our web sites did get a lot of traffic there are too many many many web sites
that may not get the huge amount of traffic but we wouldn't have the really
rich
eco-system online if we didn't have so many
contributors so I I really like your division which YouTube resent to
so enthusiastically in passionately I'm I really population of
a few readers that its it's not just for the individuals is further
the whole system I'm make it much much richer
then than it is already yeah we want to have different points of view all week
dust that mean
as should you formation ranking be
I on-demand fundamentalist religion because
what is that I mean if there is one entity that secretly knows what is true
or not
isn't that religion so I don't want to depend on some religious organization to
the sale
what's out there and I want to be able to tap on different points of views that
want to be able to contribute
12 other people understand what I have discovered and the system we have now
does not allow me to do this so more and more i'm looking for people can be
gateways to the information they need India's must be trusted people
so we need out a Google love the people for the people
I'm not me %uh individual curator's doing this for ourselves that's what we
need yes
this is wonderful thank you so much and and thank you for your wonderful
hospitality in Rome I will never forget it
and and hope to see you there again soon
all right thank you I had my share my mind get it
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