Curation: Collaborative Husbandry

Attribution – The first step on receiving any new content it to examine its provenance, determining source and history (journey) to the curation site. Part of this is validation, in social media terms checking that is not spam or spoofing, and part of it is ensuring the links and references are still active and, if not, refreshing them or marking them inactive. Once validated it is important to attribute the content to the author (direct) or those who have shared the content (indirect). The reason for doing this extends beyond mere politeness as it promotes the contributors and increases their relevance as possible collaborators in this or any related collection.

Evaluation – the analytical step in the process and one that should not be embarked upon lightly, as it takes a high level of expertise to properly evaluate content. It is not just determining classification and category, it involves going several layers deeper to ascertain the nature and value of the content. Is the content authoritative, supportive, contrary, derivative, anecdotal or coincidental for example and, as a lead in to the next step, what is the etiology of the content and how is it related to other content entities?

Organization – as with any information repository the key to consistent value is the way the content is organized, and the flexibility of the structures that support it. The value of content is greatly increased if the relationships between entities can be indicated and that links are flexible enough to be easily orchestrated when new content or understanding modifies the relationship.

Commentary - Curators are also creators of content, a slight divergence from the Solis model which limits the curation role to an intermediary who is not part of the digirati (his description of the authoring elite). Commentary is an essential part of curation as it explains and amplifies the content and the relationships of content in any collection. However in an open collaborative environment commentary is not limited to just the curator or curation team. It can and should be as interactive as comment sections on blogs or message boards, with the curator as the default moderator. This is the activity that augments the content and extends the knowledge and value of the information.

Exhibition - First and foremost the purpose of curation is to care for and promote the collected content and bring it to the attention of the consuming public. This is more than just broadcast and communication it is preparing and mounting a rich and informative display of connected artifacts, which illustrate the themes, dimensions and complexities of the subject at hand. Successful exhibitions are compelling, relevant and often topical. They also do not last forever, but can be dismantled and recreated with fresh insight and perspective at a later date.

Disposition - unlike transactional data that needs to be aged and archived, social data is more like the objects in a museum, they are never destroyed or deleted, and rarely put into forgotten repositories. They are stored and maintained as objects with variable value and possibly potential future reuse, they are out of immediate sight but always available for reference or inclusion in other contemporary collections.