The Importance of Context in Curating Information

Sharlyn Lauby

24 Jul 2014

I spoke at a conference recently and mentioned the idea of social curation. It appeared to be a rather new concept for this particular group.

Effective curation involves consistency. If you’re curating information to help others, they need to be able to rely upon you. Conversely, if you’re following someone because they curate good information, you want them to be consistently good. Please note, I didn’t say perfect. Even great curators are allowed to have an off-day.

Because there’s so much content in existence, sometimes we need the curator to provide us context. In a recent post about curation learning, I used the analogy of content curation being similar to that of a museum curator. Building upon the museum analogy, I’m reminded of those audio museum tours.

Have you noticed during the tour when the narrator tells a story along with the history for a specific piece of art? And then there are times when they don’t say anything at all. Curation involves knowing when to let the information speak for itself and when offering context is important.

I do believe that content and context offer something different to each person. Just like art speaks to each person in a unique way. Curation forces us to focus on why information is valuable. It’s one thing to say, I enjoy reading something because it makes me think. It’s another to say I enjoy reading something because I always walk away with useful suggestions that I can apply on the job.

Two resources I’m finding very helpful when it comes to curating information are:

Pinterest – Ever read a magazine and say to yourself, I want to keep this article or image? I know it will be useful to me in the future. Instead of keeping the page, you can post a link to it on Pinterest (called “pinning”). And organize the information into groups (called “boards”)

Learnist – Now Pinterest does attract lots of pins about shoes, recipes, and travel. So if you’re concerned it might be too focused on personal activities, check out Learnist. It seems to have a larger focus on professional interests and has been nicknamed “Pinterest for Learning”.

What does this mean for business professionals? First, business pros today need to understand the difference between creating and curating content. One does not necessarily mean the other. And both are important in the business world. But, we’re all required to be good curators when it comes to the information we share with others.

[Tweet “If you’re curating information to help others, they need to be able to rely upon you.”]

We want to give good information to others. We want to receive valuable information from others. Due to the amount of information available, we’re learning at the same time others are learning from us.