An intellectual curiosity, curated content…

The need for intelligent filtering
As technology continues to improve, more and more people will begin to feel the effects of information overload. We are bombarded by content from all directions and most of the time we have no idea where to look. We have no idea what is or is not significant. Out of this phenomenon emerges an important trend to watch in 2011—how we apply intelligent filtering through artistic “curation.” Historically, the term has not been used outside of the art world. That said, welcome to the age of the digital curator. One of the most critical roles a business can play in today’s information society is to lend a helping hand in the process of intelligent filtering.

What’s the buzz around curated content?
Content curation is mastering the art of sourcing and sharing only the best ideas. The digital curator participates in the act of finding, organizing and presenting the most valuable content on any specific issue. This is a powerful concept because curation does not focus on creating new content, but does focus on sharing what content is significant. This emerging media space is where opinion leaders will continue to provide and prove their added value.

Models for content curation
Content curation can be broken down into micro-activities:
• Amalgamation: presenting information in a single location
• Refinement: conveying content in a more simplistic format
• Distillation: finding insights within a collective data set
• Mashup: mixing content to create a new point of view
• Chronology: organizing information sequentially to show an evolving understanding

Curating companies and services
Many of the world’s top businesses have adopted and successfully monetized the curation of content. Amalgamation, refinement and distillation are at the heart of Google’s product offering. Millions of people use google.com as their digital curator. Sites like wolframalpha.com (whose goal is to make all systematic knowledge immediately computable and accessible to everyone) and hunch.com (whose computer algorithms hope to provide highly-customized recommendations) have followed in Google’s footsteps. At this year's SXSW festival, Ogilvy debuted a visual notes service called Ogilvy Notes that refines ideas into pictures. Last year, Bloomberg launched a real-time financial news “mashup” service called First Word which is the “go to spot” for Wall Street traders who want short, succinct, and relevant company news. Smart brands understand this process of intelligent filtering and those that adopt models for content curation will likely win more trust and attention from their customers.