21
April
2011
|
04:17 AM
America/Los_Angeles

How Curation Can Rescue Great Content From The Tyranny Of The Timeline

When I first started blogging in 2004, I didn't like the way blogging software gradually pushed older stories off the page and into the archives.

It tended to discourage me from writing some posts because I didn't want to lose better, or what I thought were more important posts, from the home page.

Because once articles enter the archives it is like disappearing into a deep well. They are gone. And search won't help because search only works if you know something is there.

This tyranny of the timeline, where each new post pushes one more post into obscurity, still continues today and it has accelerated as the amount of new content rises to ever greater levels.

That's one reason why I published my book, "In My Humble Opinion: Notes from a SIlicon Valley Watcher." It was a way to rescue some of my favorite essays and posts from the oblivion of the archives.

Online curation is another way to do it. Here is an example: I made a Pearltree that contains my favorite essays/posts from the past few months:

Google's Search For Quality... And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance

Some Thoughts On The Social Distribution Of Mass Media...(SoDOMM)

The Demise Of Social Media And The Return Of Mass Media

The World Has Room For Only Nine More Googles... Or 1,000+ Startups

Support Good Journalism And 'Pay The Wall'

Muckraking: A Disappearing Form Of Journalism?

Wow. Twitter's Response To Bad Press: Unfollow

Analysis: Here's Why Demand Media Valuation Is Greater Than NYTimes...

Saturday Post: The Evolution Of Homo Extrovert

Curation And The Human Web...

Aggregation Is Not Curation - There Is A Big Difference

Yes, you could bookmark this page and come back to it, but with the new generation of curation tools there are better ways.

For example with Pearltrees, you can grab my collection of essays and add it to your own (free) account. You can then add your own favorites or delete ones you don't want. You can edit the curator! And there's built in sharing services that make it easily accessible to others.

And you can do this with any good content you find on the Internet. Through curation you can save it from the obscurity of the timeline. You can save it for posterity and for others, or simply for your own uses and pleasures.

As content mills such as Demand Media, (and as others follow suit) continue to churn out a Tsunami of mediocre content -- the deluge is swamping all content. The black waters of the media Tsunami will carry away the good and the bad. And search cannot help.

Curation becomes the only way to rescue great content and keep it safe.

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SVW Essays