Managing options

Robin Good: Steve Buttry, who has already written several articles on content curation (see the end of his original article), just published this in-depth essay celebrating the launch of a new curation team at Digital First Media and pointing to many of the critical factors neeeded for a content / news curator to be effective.

 

He covers a lot ground while giving a particular emphasis to the importance of linking and attribution. He writes: "Where you can’t learn much about the source of content you’re curating, consider crowdsourcing the question: Note the name and organization, tell readers what you’ve found and that you’re continuing research and ask them what they know about the source.

Where the source of online content is unclear, you should be clear about what you know and where you found the material."

 

and...

 

"Sometimes the name of a person or organization is not sufficient attribution.

 

If the person or organization is not well-known, do a little research (Google will provide quick answers in many cases; sometimes an “about us” page will help).

 

Especially in political content, you want to note whether you are linking to partisan sources. A liberal or conservative think tank or political action committee is an entirely different kind of source from a professional media outlet or an independent fact-checking site."

 

Steve Buttry also includes some valuable key guidelines on "how to add value" when curating content and suggests several types of curation approaches that can be used in the newsroom.

 

Good advice on curation and practical tips. 8/10

 

Full article: http://stevebuttry.wordpress.com/2012/07/19/curation-techniques-types-and-tips/

 

(Image credit: Shutterstock http://tinyurl.com/crw65b4)

Via Robin Good