Curation Nation How To Win In A World Where Consumers Are Creators by Steven Rosenbaum

Curation Nation Why The Future of Content Is Context How To Win In A World Where Consumers Are Creators by Steven Rosenbaum

Steven Rosenabum is describing a major shift in how media is being delivered.  Consumers of media are increasingly becoming prosumers and creators of their own content.  People create a variety of sites based on their interests from cooking to baseball.  Steven Rosenbaum runs Magnify.net which aggregates video content on the web so many of his ideas come from his direct business experience.

A prosumer is a consumer who proactively chooses what and how they will consume.  A good example of a prosumer might be someone who buys green products, or only buys from the Better Business Bureau.  Increasingly prosumers are becoming creators of their own content based on what they are interested in. 

The tools of content creation are becoming cheaper and easier to get access to.  Social tools like Twitter, Youtube, blogs, podcasts, and other social media tools are easy to get access to.  It is not just the software and web which is becoming cheaper, people now can easily afford smart phones, laptops, and inexpensive video recorders.  People can use these tools to spread their ideas and opinions.

The difference between this book and other books is that Steven Rosenbaum takes it one step further.  He describes how to curate content, picking out and organizing materials for blogs and websites.  He even describes content strategy citing Kristina Halvorson's book Content Strategy.

Then Steven Rosenabaum talks about how curation scales with aggregation mixed with selective content on websites like The Huffington Post, Blog Her, and Linked In. This creates a larger picture of curation both on the small individual level and on the larger scale of big commercial websites.

None of the material is particularly new.  However, how it is presented is new. This is a solid overview of how to organize social media tools.  It pulls many disparate threads together to create a picture of a strategy to manage and organize social content. The book can be a bit diffuse at times.  This book would be useful for people interested in new media.

Daily Thoughts 7/20/2011

Print shows the poet Henjō with two other women reading poetry.
Date Created/Published: [between 1795 and 1801, printed later]


Daily Thoughts 7/20/2011


This morning, I read some more of Curation Nation.  The author is describing how people are beginning to switch from being only consumers to being prosumers which are consumers which proactive choices about what they will buy.  He also is describing how many consumers are also beginning to produce material using blogs and other mediums.


Today, I checked the Twitter account, looked over the displays, checked the donations, and checked the ereference in the morning.  I also took some time to look through the Local History room drawers on the library.  There are quite a few interesting images of the Bookmobile from the 1920s and other pictures which are from the library.

I did my tour with the Red Hatters.  It was a little different than the standard library tour because they had special questions about the collection like what the genealogy and black history resources are as well as about the art and historical objects were throughout the building. For example, they asked about the United States flag from the Citizens of Mount Vernon presented to the 4th Battalion, 8th Coast Artillery, N.Y.G. presented on July 3, 1919 in the library.
 

Web Bits

10 Unconventional Bookstores for Your Browsing Pleasure
http://flavorwire.com/194844/10-unconventional-bookstores-for-your-browsing-pleasure

Content Farm Cartoon.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/07/17/opinion/sunday/20110717_McFadden_Cartoon.html 

Daily Thoughts 7/19/2011

Lesser, Ury, Im Café Bauer, 1887

Daily Thoughts 7/19/2011

I read a bit more of Curation Nation this morning.  The author is talking about how it is important to keep close tabs on customers because anyone can create complaints then publicize them widely using the internet.

This morning, I made several telephone calls to remind people about programs, specifically the Computer Class tonight and a Writers Networking Event on Thursday.  I also updated the Twitter account and checked the displays.

I also visited the local history room to look up information on our library.  We were started in 1854 as a school library with 200 books which could be taken out by the adult community.  The current building was built as a Carnegie Library in 1904.  I learned we originally circulated sculptures, toys, and pictures in addition to books.  I rather like the idea of circulating sculptures.

I am prepping for a tour I do tomorrow for the Red Hatters which is a womens society.  Mainly I am going over the art in the buiilding including the murals in the Doric Hall entranceway.  On one side is the Ruins of the Parthenon and on the other side I think it is the ruins of Vesuvius done by Edward Gay in 1924.  We also have copies of the Unicorn Tapestry which is in the Cluny Museum in Paris as murals in the rotunda where we show art.  These were done by Louise Brann.  There is also a mosaic glass ceiling in the Doric Hall done by Alfred H. Freeman.  It looks like by Tiffany glass, but is not.

I also spent some time going through the clipping files looking up some of the local people that they were interested in.  We have extensive clipping files in the Local History room as well as lots of old photographs.  They probably should be digitized and organized a little better.  It was interesting looking at the old library bookmobile photographs from the 1920s.

On the way home, I read some more of Curation Nation.  It reminded me of how little time I spend in front of video camera.  I should probably get a smart phone and a video camera, but they cost a decent amount of money.      

Daily Thoughts 7/18/2011

A Writer Trimming his Pen, Jan Ekels

Daily Thoughts 7/18/2011

I finished reading On Leadership today which is part of Harvard Business Review's 10 Must Reads series.  A lot of it was about self management and self-awareness.  It basically says unless you have yourself organized you won't be able to organize other people.  I also started reading Curation Nation by Steven Rosenbaum.  I like the idea that we are all curators of everything we put online.

Today, we finished a five foot banner in Microsoft Publishers for the CD Music collection.  I checked the Twitter account and the displays as well.

Our Sony representative came by and opened the display for the Sony Readers.  We now have three circulating sony PRS-350 ereaders.  These are the first circulating cataloged ereaders in Westchester county.  One of them has already gone out five times on the new record for the PRS-350.  The checkout is for two hours at a time.  People are coming and using them to find out how an ereader works or want to see how the Sony E-reader is different from the Kindle or Nook.  We have a user agreement for the ereaders.  We got the Sony grant for the three free ereaders.  They also sent us a lot of promotional material. http://ebookstore.sony.com/library-program/

We are not using Overdrive to fill the ereaders.  Right now, we have started by downloading 108 free books from the Baen Free Library, Project Gutenberg, and other sites.  We will be adding more free ebooks slowly and may eventually start purchasing books for the ereaders.

I read some more of Curation Nation.  The author is specifically talking about curating content on the web.  This means organizaing and selecting specialty information for websites.  This can range from cooking sites to books.  The author describes how The Huffington Post rose to prominence by aggregating content from a variety of sources as well including their own content editors.