Here is an interesting post by Aaron Kahlow. He writes about the information curation potential of
social media in his post, 2010: Social Media Removes the Dam of
Gutenberg-Google. We certainly agree with his message.
Aaron begins with the effect
of the printing press. It certainly opened up content distribution way beyond
what the monks doing hand written work could accomplish. However, it
established new controls over what content got out. You still needed to have
the resources to set up a printing press, print and distribute works.
Now we have the Web and you
might think the dam is broken. In one sense it has, as there are very few
barriers to getting content out on the Web. In 2008 there was more content
created than in the entire prior history.
The trick is finding this content, especially the quality stuff. This is
where Google has both helped and created a new bottleneck. As Aaron writes, “With
only 10+ organic results and a similar number of paid results, consumers will
only find content they seek in those 20 places -- with less than 20 percent
being relevant as it relates to information they seek.” For example a search on
“green card” will get you a lot of services that want to charge you money for
what the US government does for free.
Aaron goes on to comment
that social media can help break this new dam. Now we can “get good information
through tweets of those we follow, Facebook Sharing, and from others within our
networks who are usually connected online. We have a new discovery outlet and a
new way to find stories, whether mainstream or from an unknown blogger. We find
things based on recommendations of trusted colleagues, friends, etc.” This is how I found Aaron’s post.
Peter Cashmore raises a
similar point in his predictions for 2010 than we commented on earlier (see Reflecting on Peter Cashmore's Web Trends to Watch in 2010). Peter
wrote that, “The Web's biggest challenge of recent years is that content
creation is outpacing our ability to consume it:
"Information overload" has become an increasingly common complaint…
In 2008, the answer revealed itself: Your friends are your filter…
Increasingly, your friends are becoming the curators of your
consumption.” I certainly agree here and Twitter has served this role for
me. Much of what I write about on my blogs comes from my Twitter friends,
including the link to Peter Cashmore’s predictions.
Aaron
offers some good points to make effective use fo social media to get your
content out. Instead of having to
contact a prominent journalist to write a story about your company, you can use
your own channels such as blogs to consistently write good content worth
tweeting and sharing.
You can also leverage your own social networks to start
sharing content.
These are all reasons that we write this blog and participate
in Twitter and other social media.
Darwin
Ecosystem Awareness Engine™ is designed to address this issue of finding
relevant quality content without having to go through the filter of Google or
other search engines. Unlike Google, it does not decide what content is most
relevant but rather lays out the content related to your topic of interest in
clusters of themes and lets you explore what themes interest you. (see: A Comparison of Google Web Search and the Darwin Awareness Engine™).
Darwin
allows you to become your own curator for topics of your interest. You can also
go beyond this to act as a curator for friends or colleagues You can set
attractors on your topics of interest: people, places, concepts, and more. Then
you can see what emerges. This can be especially valuable for niche areas. You
can create your own online magazine. It can cover a much greater array of
source than Google News and it will show the relationships between news items
that emerge rather than simply displaying them. You can adjust your filters to
further focus you’re your curation efforts. We see content curation as one of
the major applications for the Darwin Awareness Engine™.
I like Aaron's conclusion about the effect of social media, "In the end, the winner is
content. Good content, sharable content, and consumer-driven content will allow
us all to have a broader spectrum of information and, for the marketer, an
easier way to connect with their base." We hope to contribute to this outcome.
