A curated introduction to content curation, with several video clips from thought leaders and a few pointers to relevant tools.
I found this on Robin Good's topic "Real Time News Curation" - it's originally from alistarcameron.com. He talks about curation and there is great information in the video from other thought leaders on the subject.
Additional curation by JanlGordon on her topic "Content Curation, Social Media and Beyond" on Scoopit below:
What particularly caught my attention was:
"Now, in 2011, curation is coming into its own precisely because various content syndication, management and filtering technologies have reached maturity and ubiquity, to the point where "Joe Average" netizen can use them freely and effectively to create a new kind of collaboration, and a new kind of intelligence: that of man and machine working together on a new, faster, more comprehensive and more enjoyable kind of curating experience that's called:
"collaborative intelligence" -
**Curation is evolving to "collabortive intelligence" - find those people who produce quality work, who have integrity and whom you can work with, curate a topic together, faster. All kinds of opportunities can come from this and you're making a major contribution to the community.
Via Robin Good, janlgordon, Paul W. Swansen 
Ken- Hey non-profits. Here is a way to turn blog content you already have into a book that can be sold to people who support your cause. Win. Win.
Robin Good: Hyperink is a new publishing service which picks new blog authors and builds great story-books out of their already published content.
From FastCompany: "If you're a blogger who'd like to add the line "book author" to your resume but are too busy, well, blogging to get that far, e-book publisher Hyperink has a new solution for you.
Hyperink’s demand-first philosophy flips the way books are selected on its head.
Instead of starting with the writer, which is often the case with traditional publishers, they look at Google search trends, what people are talking about on social platforms, and what areas are selling well on Kindle. Once they analyze the data to identify areas where people want books, they then look for a writer (or blogger in this case) for that particular area.
...Hyperink identifies your most popular posts based on comments, views, shares, etc. and then assigns an editor to layout the content with a narrative flow.
...the typical amount of time required is just about 5-10 hours total.
Proceeds on books sold are split between both parties, giving bloggers the chance to turn their content into a passive income stream and enabling Hyperink to recoup their costs and generate revenue."
Full review: http://www.fastcompany.com/1836051/hyperink-launches-blog-to-book-publishing ;
Find out more and sign-up: http://www.hyperink.com/blogtobook ; Via Robin Good Useful presentation from Shel Holz that shows actual examples of curation for internal communications.
Needless to say, there is a ton of useful, practical information in this presentation. It is an hour long ( including Q&A) but it's definitely worth it.
Original video: http://vimeo.com/30168580 ;
Via Alison Harrison, Robin Good 
Robin Good: Surfmark is a new content curation service introducing some innovative and forward-looking features.
Surfmark in fact provides not only standard capabilities to easily capture, collect and organize content from any web page, but it adds intelligently alternative display formats to allow the exploration of such collections in multiple ways.
Another key innovative feature of Surfmark is its ability to generate bibliographies and summaries of content collections.
Surfmark allows social collaborative curation, history of all edits made, and the ability to share publicly or keep a collection private.
Collections can be downloaded in PDF or text formats and all pages saved in a collection are fully preserved with all the formatting and links intact so that you can refer back to exactly what you saw.
Free to use.
FAQ: http://blog.surfmark.net/surfmark-help/ ;
Try out and more info: http://www.surfmark.com/ ;
(thanks to Ana Cristina Pratas for discovering this) Via Robin Good, Beth Kanter Robin Good: Zeeik is a new web-based video curation site with a unique slant and some very innovative ideas.
Its key features provide some very stimulating ideas on how in the future you may go about curating, navigating and collecting video to create a guide or make sense of a specific topic.
1) Collaborative Curation First of all, Zeeik is designed in a way that puts the topic of curation at the center, while allowing multiple users to contribute, search, find and select which video clips would be most appropriate for it. "Users collaboratively make zeeiks in request-and-replay manner." Zeeiks are also similar to what a video wiki would probably be like, as they allow multiple editors to contribute and shape the final content.
Second, Zeeik introduces (thank you guys for showing curation startups where is the next gear) a rudimental but still highly effective navigational gizmo, allowing any topic to be easily segmented into many sub-topics and levels. This new visual navigation addition is of the essence in providing a feature that expands the potential of curated content of orders of magnitude. A navigational tool that allows you to intuitively navigate from topic to topic and from high-level view to a very detailed one is exactly what I would like to see show-up across the board of content curation tools in the near future.
3) Search, Collect and Excerpt Video Content Third, Zeeik makes easy and effective to search video content on any topic, to tap into your video assets rapidly and to trim and excerpt specific sections from any video you decide to include.
These ingredients by themselves make Zeeik a truly innovative content curation tool, and while its interface and usability may leave a lot to be desired, I think it deserves high praise for finally breaking new ground.
Zeeiks can be easily linked or embedded into any web site or blog and can be used to create catalogues, guides, tutorials, textbooks, music album, or just about anything that is video-based.
Sample Zeeik: http://www.zeeik.com/app2/vmap/view/showVMap?vMapId=1764512127
More info and sign-up: http://www.zeeik.com Via Robin Good 
Non-profits are leveraging Pinterest for social good, but how did they get there? What are the strategies behind it? Can you tell your story with a few pictures? You betcha. - KenVia Kimberly Flaherty 
Heard about ZMOT? the Zero Moment of Truth as published and promoted by Google? This is great new thinking in the marketing world, which is mostly about being engaged with consumers (or donors in the non-profit world) at every point in their decision cycle, but especially at the end of it, the Zero Moment of Truth where they make a decision to act. Every marketer, for profit and non profit needs to read this free eBook. You can download it here. -Ken 
Robin Good: Amber Naslund, at Brass Tack Thinking blog, has a great article touching on the importance of curation and on the danger of easily selling personal self-expression and serendipitous re-sharing of other people's content with true content curation.
And she is so damn right about this.
Here a few key highlights from her article:
" 1) To me – and by definition – curation requires conscious thought with the purpose of adding value, context, or perspective to a collection of things.
It’s deliberate work, gathering things together for a reason and lending a keen editing eye to those assets, whether it be pieces of art or pieces of writing.
...
2) Turning your Twitter feed into a clockwork-scheduled stream of all the stuff you find in your RSS feed is not curation, it’s distribution.
And since collecting and redistributing content is arguably easier than creating it, everyone does it.
Which serves to create a great deal of noise, and as we’ve lamented for some time now, it becomes increasingly difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff and home in on information resources that are consistently valuable, and favor mindful selection and sharing over optimizing a feed to populate a bunch of links and drive traffic or gain fans and followers.
3) Can curation be accomplished online? I think so.
But it’s rarely what we actually see happening when we immerse ourselves in social networks, and it’s not what we’re doing when we click the “share” button over and over again.
...
4) The business case for curating content has long been that you can become an expert resource for others, a trusted source of information or expertise that sets you apart.
But becoming a trusted source of information implies a willingness and ability to apply filters, to have exacting standards, to discern the good from the simply popular, the valuable from the gimmicked and hyped.
Which requires work. A lot of it.
Not just an app and the ability to put your collection and distribution on autopilot."
Thank you Amber, you are so damn right.
Insightful. 9/10
(Image credit: http://Streetfilms.org) Via Robin Good 
Discovery tools are the websites, widgets, RSS feeds, software etc. that curators use to find (discover) great content. Beth Kanter gives a nice overview of what they are and why you need them. -Ken 
Google just opened up its Grants program to virtually all 5013c's including churches, nonprofits who sell, etc. My take is that the gate is wide open now, and open for organizations that have applied in the past and been turned down. Google hasn't announced this in a broad way... you heard it here first. So, reapply if you've been turned down and apply if you didn't meet Google's guidelines before. More to come on this as news breaks. -Ken
Robin Good: That's what I suggested back in 2008 to those who wanted to stay ahead of the game while doing breaking news coverage.
Once again it is all about sifting through everything and gathering the best for a specific audience. It's all about quality, and nothing about speed.
Original video 4':31": http://youtu.be/f5KO24k9A9c Become the expert, and filter, don't just post.... -Ken Via Robin Good 
A brief reminder of the basics for a thank-you. And all gifts need a thank-you! Automate this through your email giving or tracking program. Almost all of the software does this, but if yours doesn't, do it by hand. Personalized thank-you's are critical. And, to add my own opinion, if you or your volunteers can send a hand-written thank-you note via traditional snail mail, that is even better. -Ken Robin Good: Great advice for curators of all kinds from Henry Lowood, curator of the history of science and technology/ film and media at Stanford University libraries.
Here my key takeaways [my own words]:
"Sometimes things are not what they seems to be.
Avoid terrible mistakes by going beyond the surface and thinking "like a detective".
If you include in a collection things that may not seem what they look to be, because you have not explored them enough, you run a big risk of losing your reputation as a "trusted" curator for that topic.
Those who are "experts" in that field, will easily spot those inconsistencies as they pay great attention to such details.
It's therefore important to "slow down", and to look in depth at the context of the item you are "curating".
Go and look well and make sure it really is what you think it is."
Must watch (especially from 12':25"on):
(Spotted by Beth Kanter) Via Robin Good |
Link shortening and tracking service bit.ly has released new data on the best and worst times to share links on popular social networks. Worth reading and following... if you're going to put a lot of work into Social Media, do it the smart way. -Ken 
WP Pinner is a plug-in built for WordPress users to track Pinterest sharing. It mounts a dashboard in the WordPress admin area for stats. Via janlgordon 
Robin Good: Adam Vincenzini on TheNextWeb has put together a nice and useful list of the 30 dedicated search engines that you can use to explore and research specific content areas.
From blogs to video and forums, here is a good list of search engine tools from where you can start your own research.
Helpful. 7/10
Full list: http://thenextweb.com/lifehacks/2012/04/29/30-specialist-and-super-smart-search-engines/ ; Via Ana Cristina Pratas, Robin Good 
Robin Good: YouTube auto-generated channels are channels that are automatically created by dedicated algorithms to collect trending and popular videos by topic.
"Auto generated channels act like user channels in that you can subscribe to them and stay updated on new videos.
In addition, auto generated channels provide:
-> The ability to subscribe and get regular updates about this topic on YouTube on your feed
-> A way to find other channels related to this topic
-> More context about this topic from Wikipedia or other sources
YouTube algorithmically determines the central topics in a video and then uses that information to develop great collections of videos for any topic of interest.
These channels do not convey any editorial opinion.
Example: http://www.youtube.com/topic/1ww-xJuh0ew/digital-curation ;
More info: http://support.google.com/youtube/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=2579942
(Thanks to Alex Briscese for pointing me to this) Via Robin Good 
Robin Good: If you are just about to start testing how effective a content curation tool like Scoop.it can be for building your own reputation and visibility in a specific interest area, this 10-step guide by Shirley Williams does provide some important information on how to start with the proper foot.
The guide is illustrated with many screenshots and it pinpoints the key items you need to be paying attention to when starting to curate a dedicated channel.
Informative. Useful for novices. 7/10
Full mini-guide: http://socialmediapearls.com/10-steps-to-curate-your-social-media-content-with-scoop-it-for-increased-value Via Shirley Williams (XeeMe.com/ShirleyWilliams), Robin Good Robin Good: PageOne Curator is a new plugin software for WordPress which allows anyone to easily integrate images, video, news and other content coming from other sources.
PageOne Curator provides funciotnalities to easily tap into selected RSS feeds and to search directly the major content and multimedia search engines out there.
Pulling in content is as simple as clicking a button, or if you want to have full control over what you excerpt as simple as as selecting and copying and pasting what you need.
The new software is in beta and is accessible for now by invitations only.
You can sign-up for a spot or get more info: http://www.pageonecurator.com/ ; Via Robin Good 
Robin Good: If you are looking for ways to let your scoop.it content to reach more people and to get discovered by those who are not yet aware of you, the new Pinterest integration in Scoop.it should certainly be a welcome addition.
With this new addition, not only you can share your curated stories inside your Scoop.it newsradar with your Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Tumblr and Wordpress friends, but you can also "pin" selected ones to create alternative "collections" on Pinterest.
N.B.: To access the new "Pin it" button on Scoop.it, click the sharing button below any scoop and you will find it there next to the G+ one. Via Robin Good 
Fan engagement means getting people to come back, spend time with you, and most importantly interact in some way. These are five good tips on how to do that, with the real secret being you have to ask fans for some action. -Ken Via Debra Askanase 
At the end of the Social Media for Social Good: A How-To Guide for Nonprofits is a nine-page "Nonprofit Tech Checklist". Love checklists! -Ken Via steve heye 
Robin Good: If you are curating a specific topic you may find yourself often wading through tons of useless content and wondering where you can find some good stuff.
One option is to start using some good news discovery tools which can greatly help you filter out some of the useless spammy content that fills in most unfiltered searches and feed streams.
Here is my mindmap on news discovery tools which can help you in finding your best crop of interesting stories on the specific topic you are interested in.
It contains over 30 news discovery tools and services all with a direct link.
Direct map link: http://bit.ly/bestnewsdiscoverytools
(Thanks also to Beth Kanter for featuring me and this list in her recent live presentation in NY - find out more in her curated report here: http://storify.com/kanter/what-can-nonprofits-learn-about-content-curation-f ) Via Robin Good 
Robin Good: Jim Love, writes on his blog "Change the Game", a long article about curation and its reason d'etre.
Interesting thoughts overall, but the most valuable part, is in a few paragraphs, that distill clearly three important characterizing traits for quality curation.
An intelligent agent goes through the volume and the clutter and brings us a distilled version, reduced to it’s essence.
Great curation does three things. I call them the “3 Rs” - short for reduced, relevant and reliable.
Curation reduces the volume information from a particular domain to make it more manageable. It distills things to their essence.
It ensures that the information is relevant. Does it fit our interests and our needs? This is more difficult than it seems. Especially where the topic is new or unfamiliar we don’t always know what is valuable or how to describe it. It can also be intensely personal. We all have slightly different levels of need and the nuances of those needs are sometimes subtle.
Lastly, information must be reliable. Accuracy is critical and in the current world, difficult to establish. Is the story correct? Is the source reliable?"
Rightful. 8/10
Full article: http://changethegame.ca/2012/02/05/cutting-through-the-clutter-curation-and-the-new-3-rs-of-content/
Robin Good summarizes this well. Thanks Robin! -Ken Via Robin Good 
If you want new ideas you need to keep up with what's new on the web, and to do it yourself is hard. Here is a newsletter I've subscribed to for 6 months now that points the best of whats new on a variety of subjects. The key is that what they feature is always good, and always interesting... they're not just listing everything that is new. Someone is paying attention, making a judgement, and "Curating" recommendations. I've found probably 10 web services that I use through this site, and more importantly, probably 20 new ideas that help companies and nonprofits. In fact, I was introduced to Scoop.it (this site) here. So check this out. Today's newsletter is especially interesting as it is Valentines Day themed, and features Zombie Couples Portraits. Gotta love it. -Ken 
Telling a story about an event or a cause is powerful especially when you mix videos, quotes, etc. into a cohesive whole. It becomes more real, more believable, more human... all of which make it a compelling way to tell stories. Check out Storify, it is reasonably easy to use and for now, free. -Ken |
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