educated curation - a white paper on curating quality content and managing digital assets

What is Educated Curation?

©2013 Margaret Carroll Boardman Ph.D. for GR2 LLC and IG Inc., all rights reserved

By: Margaret Carroll Boardman, Ph.D.

What is Curation?

• Curation is derived from the verb “to curate” from the Latin word

curare meaning “take care.”

• Curation is performed by curators.

• The professional skills, as well as job function and responsibilities of an “educated curator” are related but distinct from a private collector.

Private collectors hire curators to organize their work.

Curators manage more than one private collection.

• A curator is by definition an overseer or manager of assets.


Explosion of Data on the Internet

This is what happens on the internet every 60 seconds . A partial list = nearly Google 700,000 queries, 168 million emails, 98,000 tweets, 600 YouTube videos, and 6,600 new photos in Flickr. Credit: Daily Mail, U.K, 21 June 2011 via Go-Globe.com

©2013 Margaret Carroll Boardman Ph.D. GR2 LLC and IG Inc., all rights reserved

Why Educated Curation Necessary & Vital

• Educated curation is increasingly a necessary and vital service because “the human touch” is needed to verify quality information on the internet.

• Educated curation is a solution to:

People searching the internet and not being able to quickly find quality, verified information.

Companies (for-profits and non-profits) and professionals with quality information not able to “make their individual” voice heard.

Countering searches being driven only by aggregated “hoarding” of coded meta-data regardless of content quality.


Digital Content CurationBased on Traditional Curator Role

Digital content curation is based on the traditional curator role – managing assets of value and significance.

The difference is that instead of managing assets that are physical artifacts, the educated digital curator manages digital media.

• Examples of traditional artifacts = artwork, illustrations, historical memorabilia, archaeological finds, stamps, coins, antiques etc.

• Examples of digital media = photos, videos, online documents, MP3 music files, bookmarked webpages, reader/follower comments etc.


Traditional Curation Functions

Historically, an educated curator’s responsibilities have included:

1. Searching for Assets –

This requires following a set of collecting rule and guidelines, including a pre-determined budget approved by a professional organization (non-profit or for-profit business, e.g. art galleries, museums etc.)

Search and locate assets

Evaluate assets

Acquire additional assets for a collection

2. Editorial Context –

The curator “places the collection” in context referencing external, credible sources.

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(1 of 2)


3. Managing Assets –

Once the nucleus of a collection has been acquired, the curator oversees the management and maintenance of these assets including:

Cataloging

Organizing special exhibits

Educational outreach

Further asset acquisition to complement and add value to the collection

4. Managing more than one collection at the same time.

Traditional Curator Functions (2 of 2)


Traditional Fields of CurationUntil the 1990s, curators have traditionally worked in 3 fields:

1. Business & Legal - The organization and management of business assets – this includes document, film and photo repositories needed by corporations and law firms to properly: a) answer legal issues and b) organize intellectual property assets to leverage brand history. In the entertainment industry this includes the proper organization of footage , artifacts (props & sets), and costumes.

2. Culture - the organization and management of cultural assets – books in a library; historical artifacts in a museum; works of art in a gallery; documents, photos or films in an non-profit archive e.g. the Rockefeller Archive Center (New York); or specialized document and media collections for governments (e.g. National Archives, Presidential Museums, the Smithsonian Institute).

3. Science - The organization and management of scientific collections - scientific curators in the fields of biology, botany, ecology, paleontology, and zoology that locate, organize, and classify flora and fauna (e.g. The Field Museum of Natural History, The Peabody Museum of Natural History).


Traditional Curator Jobs• Archivist – curates information determined to have long-term

value.

• Librarian – curates collection of books and new media formats.

• Scientist – curates science collections for use in scientific study.

• Historian - curates specific data sets about past events, evaluates how these sources relate to one another on a timeline.

• Academic Scholar - curates data into an organized system in order to facilitate classification, analysis and the publication of research conclusions.

• Museum Curator – curates artifact collections in a museum for use in exhibits and sets standards for preservation and use in education or training programs.


Curators Work Closely With Private Collectors

• Curators work closely with private collectors whether in traditional curator fields or in the new field of digital content curation.

• Curators and private collectors have similar roles but their functions differ.

• Curators work with private collectors , acting as a 3rd party on their behalf.

• In order to understand curation (traditional or digital), it is important to understand the various different types of private collectors and their varying needs


Curators and Private CollectorsSimilar but different roles/functions

©2013, all rights reserved, IG.Coms

CURATORS PRIVATE COLLECTORS Use a set of guidelines approved by a

professional organization with a clearly defined mission statement

Use personal taste in acquiring items for a private collection

Adhere to a specific budget approved by a professional organization with a clearly defined mission statement

Acquiring is done by one collector who decides how much of a personal budget to spend on his/her collection

Search and acquire items for a variety of clients (one or more private collectors)

One private collector acquires for one specific collection

Work on several to many collections simultaneously

Sometimes, a private collector functions as the primary curator of his/her collection

Work alongside and for private collectors

Private collectors hire curators to manage their collections


Digital Age Information Explosion

A New Need for

Digital Curation


What is Digital Curation?• Digital curation involves working with digital files (photos, documents,

videos, soundtracks) in all stages of the data’s lifecycle. This includes:

Acquisition

Maintenance

Preservation

Adding value

• Digital curation reduces duplication of effort in creating new data.

• Digital curation enhances the long-term value of existing data by making it available for further use.

Source: Digital Curation Centre, a "world leading centre of expertise in digital information curation“ based in the U.K. that began assisting U.K. government and higher education research institutions with curation in 2004.


Digital


Internet Currently Promotes Aggregated Collecting

The majority of blogs and websites represent the voice of 1 individual or the mission statement of 1 organization.

• In presenting only 1 view, customers/readers/followers/fans are left wondering – “What other related viewpoints and contextual information am I missing?”

• This 1 individual or company perspective promotes aggregated mega-data.

This is similar to the aggregated hobby collector promoting quantity over quality.

This promotes the creation of ever more mega-data with each individual hoping to promote their own voice louder than others.

SEO (search engine optimization) promotes reaching the top ranking in an internet search based on mega-data quantity, not content quality.


The Problem with Aggregated Collecting …

• Aggregated data requires customers/readers/followers/fans to “connect the dots” and find the through line between your files.

• Most customers/readers/followers/fans visiting your website or blog or website WILL NOT take the time or effort to “figure out” your content.

The Solution:

• The professional collector of digital data who knows the value of their content needs to hire an educated digital curator to help manage their digital assets.

• The educated curation process is targeted at rising above the current quantity over quality system by applying the “human touch” to involve collaboration, sharing and industry peer participation in quantifying mega-data.


Educated Digital Curator Clients (1 of 2)

1. Private companies that want to:

Make their corporate social responsibility activities known to the public.

Place their products/services in context within their industry and on a timeline.

Leverage intellectual property that they already own to generate new social outreach and promote education on their mission (e.g. historical artifacts, trademarks, brands, photos etc dormant in their archival filing system).

Leverage social media products (videos, endorsements, ad campaigns) already produced by transforming and updating them with collaborative curation.

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Educated Digital Curator Clients (2 of 2)

2. Non-profits (including educational institutions, museums, NGOs) that want to improve their social outreach, education initiatives and collaboration within the non-profit sector.

3. Private, professional collectors who are interested in highlighting some of their collections online as part of:

educational outreach or social media.

collaboration and sharing with other professional collector associations.

4. Government agencies and public schools that are interested in providing special insight into the programs that they manage.


Conclusion


Educated curation is quality content that has been acquired through collaboration, organization, and an authenticated selection process by a

professional curator