Robin Good on curation

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 same qualities apply

somewhat to a content curator,

that is the ability to listen closely to

what type of audience at the moment

he's serving and then providing

that context of the type of information

he or she is collecting make sense to them

so you may have to change titles,

you may have to change descriptions,

images, order, how you juxtapose things

but you have to customize the flow

for the purpose theme and public

you're doing that for.

So 'who you are' should come through,

to some degree, your sensibility and

your point of view, not be completely

suppressed when you're curating.

There may be different instances

and situations and business why is

pure research and information activities.

It may vary, I wouldn't be so sure

that all the time you would have to

bring out your personality but there is

no way that you cannot somehow stand

in some positions so it would be a

generic position, it may be a more

defined position for those who take

political stances or research things where

there are opposing views but in

getting there, you may be a great curator

by just standing out for your position

or maybe even a better curator by curating

all the positions that are out there

and allowing people to discover which one

fits best for them, I mean,

both of them are valid to me.

Alright, what is your advice to people

about how to go about this?

I know you have a very detailed workflow,

someone wants to go ahead and start

curating and they've got a passion for

a subject and some knowledge about it,

how would they go about it?

The first thing you want to do is to

collect your sources, the places where

you're going to gather information.

You want to start some basics so

these may be some blogs,

some video channels,

some twitter personalities,

fun pages, anything especially that is

capable of producing