Digital Curator, re-defined, again.

In “The Digital Curator in Your Future” Steve Rubel discusses nothing new: the information overload phenomena. He asserts that while billions of people are creating information and throwing it up on the web, there is little assurance of accuracy or quality, however there is an assurance that somewhere someone who is an expert has addressed (or will address) the information one seeks. The problem, of course, is the noise one must move through in order to find this expert information. The author introduces the Digital Curator as the solution to The Attention Crash. Rubel’s Digital Curator is yet another creature from those that we have met so far. Rubel envisions a digital Sherpa – selfless and willing to lead the masses through information overload to the bright gems of quality information paradise. He defines these individuals as subject experts who can go to the ends of the internet to find the most relevant material. Unlike many sources who attempt to define the Digital Curator, Rubel relies heavily on the Museum Curator comparison. He discusses the role of tone and institutional direction in the selection process (Mahalo is his example of a success, self-described as "human-powered search engine built collaboratively by a team of editors and a community of dedicated users. Our top priority is providing you with spam free and relevant search results."), and attaches the concept that curators “clean up” an item before it is placed on display. He also goes to great lengths to distinguish the Digital Curator from the aggregators (such as digg) and editors.


While many of the comments left on the post commend Rubel for his ideas, I have doubts. Does the internet need subject curating? One interesting comment likened digg to a corner poster shop with Hannah Montana posters, and Mahalo as the Louvre. Basically – popular doesn’t equal quality. Another commenter called for Digital Archeologists to come and dig up all the buried material before the curator can make an assessment. Finally, a poster mentioned that they had in fact been a curator for years, though her title was “Renaissance Person,” fastcompany.com .

Perhaps the most interesting thing about this post is that I cam upon the article by looking at Megan's delicious page, tag: digital curation...