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02.17.10 Social Media Is Removing The Last Of The Content Barriers  By
Bill IvesHere is an interesting post that I can certainly agree with. Aaron Kahlow writes about the information curation potential of social media in his post, 2010: Social Media Removes the Dam of Gutenberg-Google. Aaron begins with the effect of the printing press. It certainly opened up content distribution way beyond what the monks doing hand written work could accomplish. However, it established new controls over what content got out. You still needed to have the resources to set up a printing press, print and distribute works. Now there is the Web and you might think the dam is broken. In one sense it has, as there are very few barriers to getting content out on the Web. In 2008 there was more content created than in the entire prior history.The trick is finding this content, especially the quality stuff. This is where Google has both helped and created a new bottleneck. As Aaron writes, "With only 10+ organic results and a similar number of paid results, consumers will only find content they seek in those 20 places -- with less than 20 percent being relevant as it relates to information they seek." For example a search on "green card" will get you a lot of services that want to charge you money for what the US government does for free. Aaron goes on to comment that social media can help break this new dam. Now we can "get good information through tweets of those we follow, Facebook Sharing, and from others within our networks who are usually connected online. We have a new discovery outlet and a new way to find stories, whether mainstream or from an unknown blogger. We find things based on recommendations of trusted colleagues, friends, etc."This is how I found Aaron's post. Peter Cashmore raises a similar point in hispredictions for 2010 than I commented on earlier (see Reflecting on Peter Cashmore's Web Trends to Watch in 2010). Peter wrote that, "The Web's biggest challenge of recent years is that content creation is outpacing our ability to consume it: "Information overload" has become an increasingly common complaint… In 2008, the answer revealed itself: Your friends are your filter… Increasingly, your friends are becoming the curators of your consumption." I certainly agree here and Twitter has served this role for me. Much of what I write about on my blogs comes from my Twitter friends, including the link to Peter Cashmore's predictions. Aaron offers some good points to make effective use fo social media to get your content out. Instead of having to contact a prominent journalist to write a story about your company, you can use your own channels such as blogs to consistently write good content worth tweeting and sharing. You can also leverage your own social networks to start sharing content. These are all reasons that we write this blog and participate in Twitter and other social media. Darwin Ecosystem Awareness Engine™ is designed to address this issue of finding relevant quality content without having to go through the filter of Google or other search engines. Unlike Google, it does not decide what content is most relevant but rather lays out the content related to your topic of interest in clusters of themes and lets you explore what themes interest you. (see: A Comparison of Google Web Search and the Darwin Awareness Engine™). Darwin allows you to become your own curator for topics of your interest. You can also go beyond this to act as a curator for friend or colleagues You can set attractors on your topics of interest: people, places, concepts, and more. Then you can see what emerges. This can be especially valuable for niche areas. You can create your own online magazine. It can cover a much greater array of source than Google News and it will show the relationships between news items that emerge rather than simply displaying them. You can adjust your filters to further focus you're your curation efforts. We see content curation as one of the major applications for the Darwin Awareness Engine. Comments About the Author: Dr. Bill Ives is an independent consultant and writer who has worked with Fortune 100 companies in business uses of emerging technologies for over 20 years. For several years he led the Knowledge Management Practice for a large consulting firm.. Now he primarily helps companies with their business blogs. He is also the VP of Social Media and blogger for TVissimo, a new TV schedule search engine. Prior to consulting, Dr. Ives was a Research Associate at Harvard University exploring the effects of media on cognition. He obtained his Ph. D. in Educational Psychology from the University of Toronto. Bill can be reached at his blog: Portals and KM. He also writes for the FastForward blog and the AppGap blog. |
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