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: Nonetheless Magnify.net founder Steven Rosenbaum states "“I believe in the freedom of innovation", his company has just been awarded U.S. Patent No. 8,117,545 covering hosted video discovery and publishing platforms.
The patent description clearly covers any web-based service which allows you to create a topic-specific channel with manually or auto-curated video content.
Here the exact wording: "A hosted system provides any Internet user with the ability to quickly set up and customize a video channel, preferably as a web page or site that can be reached from any Internet-accessible device having a web browser.
The solution includes tools for use by channel site creators to customize the look, feel, and page design.
A particular web page or site may be associated with a given subject.
As used herein, a page or site that has such an association is sometimes referred to as “subject-specific...”
I don't know what's your take on this, but I personally don't see this as good news for curation and video curation startups, who are presently innovating in this space (like Blinkx, Redux, Chill, Vodpod, Magma, Yokto, Shufflr, Griddeo, Shortform, Mixd.tv, Embedr, Plizy, Vidcaster, Yubby, and many others).
Patents, whether in the hands of large or small players are the antithesis of open innovation and it is for me difficult to support who in the name of a better future, choses to utilize the means of his worst enemies to achieve its business ends.
While Magnify.net investors may indeed pretty happy about this, I am not.
Worrysome. 4/10 (Pass this news on)
Via Robin Good 
UnionDocs, a center for documentary art in Brooklyn, NY, will host a workshop in transmedia storytelling with five artists, game designers and storytellers to showcase and discuss their exploration and development of innovative approaches to visual... 
“Question Bridge: Black Males is an innovative transmedia art project that facilitates a dialogue between a critical mass of Black men from diverse and contending backgrounds; and creates a platform for them to represent and ... |
The Yahoo!'s Content Optimization and Relevance Engine (C.O.R.E.) creates 13 million story combinations a day on Yahoo!'s home page. Check out this data visualization: http://visualize.yahoo.com and explore what readers in different age and demographics groups, or with different interests or locations are reading on Yahoo.
A great interactive visualization example that show how curating existing data and presenting it in an accessible and interactive way can create extra value.
Check it out: http://beta.visualize.yahoo.com/core/ Via Robin Good 
"One of the most talked-about--and harrowing--Sundance films wasn't a film in the traditional sense. Hunger In L.A., which screened at the New Frontier Pavilion, is an interactive experience that puts participants in the middle ... 
Question Bridge: Black Males is an innovative transmedia art project that facilitates a dialogue between a critical mass of Black men from diverse and contending backgrounds; and creates a platform for them to represent and ... |
