"The curator is an information chemist."
So writes Robert Scoble, the Scobleizer, one of the Internet's veteran developers and journalists.
He is writing in the context of the journalist-as-curator era we are entering, in which the gatekeeping and even authenticating roles are in some question, and the role becomes one of consuming, editing and presenting more personally.
But Scoble has hit the wall, which means the rest of the pack has long since done so, because he lacks the tools for the job. His seven-point advice would make a developer prosperous.
His points (and my interpretations in parentheses):
1. Curators need to bundle. (Is there a tool to package the most relevant 10 Tweets? No.)
2. Curators need to reorder. (Is there a tool to take someone's package and place new emphasis on some components? Not really.)
3. Curators need to distribute their bundle. (Is there a way of combining the elements you want, then sending them across networks? Not exactly.)
4. Curators need to editorialize. (Part of the value of the new editor is the added value of commentary, but is there is a tool to easily do that?5. Curators need to update. (The ability to take the package and revamp it isn't going to be addressed by the blog; it needs more dynamic firepower from software.)
6. Curators need to encourage participation. (Widgets to build the audience into the creation aren't around.)
7. Curators need to track the audience. (Tools aren't there to give real-time audience measurement and to understand particularly who they are.)
As journalists morph into curators, Scoble offers some clear imperatives for the industry serving them.
if the role of the modern newsroom is less about gatekeeping and more about curation, then a raft of new guides and principles need to emerge as assistance.
It's good to see such a sound voice as Mindy McAdams at University of Florida weigh in with some principles.
McAdams posts information on the way in which newsrooms can best curate content: selecting representatives, culling, providing context, arranging individual objects, organizing, providing and tapping into expertise, and updating.
Sound familiar? No different, it seems, that any job as curator.
Dean Singleton, the CEO of the MediaNews chain, is adamant: "If you need to offshore it, offshore it."
He told a publishers gathering this week that his company now considers outsourcing a routine matter, because it makes no difference technically if a desk is across the room or across the ocean. He says outsourcing some functions, particularly in copy editing and page layout, may be necessary for the survival of a newspaper.
Disclosure: Our newsroom now in-sources (to a central production unit inside our company that also handles pages for dozens of other newspapers worldwide) the mechanical part of pagination. We make the editorial decisions on stories and pictures and have the final say on display type. But it permits our editors to work more with content and less with the tedious part of pagination --- the part that was thrust on newsrooms about 15 years ago and isn't taught in any journalism school
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