Page 10 - AC/E Digital Culture Annual Report

10of what to read, watch, listen to. Think of Flipboard, Medium or Scoop.it.All of these “curatorial” publishing platforms, are ltering engines and public vetrinas of our interests, fears, dreams and desires as a society.For all of these reasons, in an age where everyone is a curator, a lter for what to look, see, explore and learn about, content curation may have become both a personal and a social (cultural) necessity.A personal necessity because an increasing number of people needs to pick, select, collect and organize the resources, tools and the techniques most needed to carry out their work. While in the recent past these were few and physical, now that we are in the information age, these have exploded in number and have mostly become intangible, digital entities.In an age where everyone is a curator, a lter for what to look, see, explore and learn about, content curation may have become both a personal and a social and cultural necessity.A social (cultural) necessity because by curating our most precious, interesting and rare ideas, resources, tools and visions, we are not just collecting for our own private interests, but we are also helping others discover, learn, com- prehend and make new ideas and perspectives part of their own, while preserving the path and signposts that led us there.Content Curators as Trusted GuidesAccording to Smith-Maguire and Matthews, content curators today act as “cultural interme- diaries”, helping the layman discover, learn about and appreciate great authors, books, lms and ideas he would have never met otherwise.“[Cultural intermediaries] ... construct value,by framing how others (end consumers, as wellas other market actors including other cultural intermediaries) engage with goods, a ecting and e ecting others’ orientations towards those goods as legitimate – with ‘goods’ understood to include material products as well as services, ideas and behaviours.”In this light, those who take care of selecting, organizing and making sense of resources (information artefacts), become natural “trusted guides” for anyone interested in learning more about a topic.Just as when confronted by an unfamiliar jungle or the exploration of a new territory, when we are surrounded by an ocean of infor- mation of which we know and understand only a very small part, having good sherpas and expert guides become indispensable.When we explore new grounds, when we are in doubt or we are trying to grasp and understand a new subject we do not know too well, we have learned to seek the help of someone who has more experience than us, but with whom we share some strong a nities (ideals, enemies, life values, ethics, etc.): these people are now known and referred to as trusted guides.But who are they? How can they be recognized?Trusted guides may include friends, family, experts in our network of connections, as well as people we follow on social media and with whom we share common interests, as well as life ideals, principles and ethics.Trusted guides are individuals who possess spe- ci c know-how, expertise and ability to evaluate and judge, and who continuously search, verify, vet, collect and organize the most relevant news, stories, resources and tools on a speci c topic, while contextualizing and commenting on them publicly.CONTENT CURATION IN THE DIGITAL AGE. CURATION FOR DIGITAL HERITAGE · ROBIN GOODSmart culture. Analysis of digital trends