Is filtering Curation?
Many aggregation tools are categorized as curation tools. But is filtering curation?
Curation is a hot and emerging topic and there are new products introduced almost weekly that try to tackle the challenge of curation.
The reason for this blog post is to communicate a simple message – Filtering is not curation!
Curation by definition is organization and maintenance – A filtering system like Twylah for example is not curation, it is closer to aggregation.
This is not to say that Twylah is not valuable and filtering is not a useful activity.
This is just to say that the product of curation is maintaining and optimizing research on a topic and streams that are changing at warp speed are simply filters and not curated pages.
Moreover technologies for example offers one of the best aggregation systems in the market. We used to have them integrated in our Optimal Desktop product.
The product will take you through multiple filtering screen, helping you aggregate content, exactly the way you want it.
However this is still not the same as curation. Curators should use aggregators to find content, but they still need to make editorial decisions in their content.
If you have ever used one of these systems you know that the results, even though very compelling and useful always include noise.
Curation is the human process of taking out the noise. The product of curation always needs a human to add the ultimate value.
Our curated library on our site here, is built and nurtured over the years to offer the best of the web, in topics we are interested in.
If you want to get started with Curation, install KBrowser for Firefox, or Kurator for chrome and start building your own library.