Robin Good on curation

In interview Robin Good, that master of new media (http://masternewmedia.org) about curation -- what it is, what it requires, why it's important, how to do it.

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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