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.

Michelle's Chewy Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

I absolutely love oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and can't really find them in stores. These are especially delicious right out of the oven with a glass of milk!

Ingredients

• 7  tablespoons butter or margarine (I like Blue Bonnet), softened
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1 egg
• 1/2  teaspoon vanilla
• 3/4  cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2  teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2  teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4  teaspoon salt
• 1 1/4 cups oats (if you use butter) or 1 1/2 cups oats (if you use margarine)
• 3/4  cup chocolate chips (I like Trader Joe's semi-sweet ones)

Directions

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. In medium sized bowl, beat butter and sugar until creamy. 
3. Add egg, honey and vanilla and mix well. 
4. Add flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt and mix well. 
5. Incorporate oats and chocolate chips.
6. Spoon dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto baking sheets.
7. Bake 10 minutes or until light golden brown.

Spicy "Firecracker" Chicken Marinade

So this is Adam's recipe!   He makes his a bit differently since he uses red pepper chili flakes and grills the chicken in the oven.  I like the grill pan better since I find the chicken comes out more tender this way.  It might be a bit faster as well =).

 Ingredients

***instructions are in relative proportions except where noted***

• 1 soy sauce
• 1 lemon juice
• 2 oil
• 1/2 chili (flakes, powder or sauce)
• 1/2 garlic
• 1/2 mustard
• dash of salt and pepper 
• 1/3 cup flour (for coating the chicken) 
• 2 chicken breasts

Directions

1. Mix all the ingredients (except flour) together in a medium sized bowl to make the marinade.
2. Cut chicken breast into chunks or strips.
3. Coat the chicken pieces with flour.
4. Mix the flour dusted chicken pieces into the marinade bowl and make sure all pieces are nicely coated.
5. Cook chicken pieces on grill pan.

Thinking Visually!

About six months ago I stumbled upon a creative agency called Cognitive Media in London.  They believe in communication through "scribing" and "visual synthesis".  This concept tries to combat information overload and in my opinion does a good job of capturing audience attention.  Watch the video below to get an idea of how ideas get disseminated through video scribing.



I had thought this idea was worthy of some attention since I hadn't seen it before.   Low and behold, Ogilvy has started offering a similar service which made an appearance at this year's SXSW with Ogilvy Notes!  I'd expect to see more visual thinking as information overload worsens.  See what Ogilvy has to say about the art of distilling information into visual notes below.



Why is this concept successful?
They take us back to the basics!  It is simple, straight forward and entertaining.  The artistic style is reminiscent of reading cartoons which for me are funny and instantly gratifying!

Tidbits & Quotes...

Sometimes I come across tidbits and quotes that are worth remembering:

• "Don't make decisions out of fear." -- Bethenny Frankel 
• "Life is too short not to eat well." -- EATALY
• "The human capacity to transform something into emotions, that is luxury."  -- Alex Atala

Chocolate Chip Buttermilk Pancakes

I had some leftover buttermilk so I decided to make pancakes.  They turned out buttery, fluffy and delicious!

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour (for pancake mix)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda (for pancake mix)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder (for pancake mix)
• A pinch of salt (for pancake mix)
• 2 teaspoons sugar (for pancake mix)
• Handful of chocolate chips (for pancake mix)
• 2 eggs, yolks and whites separated
• 2 cups buttermilk
• 4 tablespoons melted butter

Directions

1. Whisk together egg whites and the buttermilk.
2. In another bowl, whisk together egg yolks with the melted butter.
3. Combine buttermilk mixture with egg yolk mixture in a large mixing bowl and whisk until combined.
4. Add all the ingredients for the pancake mix into the large mixing bowl.
5. Using a whisk, mix the batter just enough to bring it together (it's okay if it is a bit lumpy).
6. Spoon the pancake batter onto a buttered frying pan and sprinkle on chocolate chips =).  When bubbles begin to set around the edges of the pancake and the pan side of the cake is golden, flip the pancakes and cook 2 to 3 minutes.

One Deal a Day...

I have been following woot.com for years and have gotten a few good deals off their site.  I've watched the site slowly develop from its cult following to being bought buy Amazon!  Now there are quite a few copy cats out there (ie. Gilt) with great deals that follow the same model.  So are these sites here to stay?  The one deal a day site is the virtual version of an outlet mall.  The success of Woot demonstrates the important of creating a brand or a unique identity that users identify with.  So what is the next "virtualization" of a physical activity?