Curator of truth

Some call it curation; I call it personalization.

Both are far beyond RSS, which was keyword based and that's all. Now when you give yourself over today to say an ICurrent.com you get stories that are about a subject, that the curator or personalizer (ICurrent.com) understands has multiple characteristics and thus is related to multiple sources that may not include keyword matches.

It's the semantic web, early in its development, and it's wonderful to see.

My example is Bob Dylan, who I have had as an alert with MyYahoo since 2003. But for the most part I get stories that have "The Times They are a-Changin' " in the lede. In other words I've gotten stories about the new trash pickup contract in New Orleans (the times they are a-changin) to the newest fashion tips out of the Paris show (the times they are a-changin) to the expectation that the Democrats will throw out the Republicans and vice versa (the times they are a-changin.)

Obviously none of those stories have anything to do with Bob Dylan except that the ledes invoked his famous song.

That's why my MyYahoo alert became something I never looked at. Once I discovered ICurrent.com and began to get stories everyday that were serious music stories that included reference to Bob Dylan I have been a happy camper, and a day doesn't go by that I don't open that email from ICurrent.com to check out the story.

More and more publishers are appreciating the semantic web

Here's a good tutorial of where we are today.

Here's the address: http://emediavitals.com/article/1005/how-publishers-curate-world-content

And the full story:
It's nothing new that many news websites augment their own content with repackaged content from around the Web, but the applications have evolved along with the technology. Content providers are experimenting with all sort of ways for editors and technology to push outside content to readers, whether through aggregation or curation (for a lengthy discussion about the difference, check out the Nieman Journalism Lab).

Curation platforms, which have moved beyond the RSS feed, provide varying levels of automation, functions and technology to suit a media company's needs. News organizations are even investing in curation platforms; the New York Daily News holds a stake in LOUD3R and The Washington Post recently acquired the personalized news aggregator iCurrent.

While publishers choose to utilize aggregation and curation platforms in a variety of ways, the main point is clear: Many media companies see benefits in collecting content from around the Web. Publishers find curation can attract and retain readers by offering the best of all content, rather than the best of just their own content. Here are a few ways publishers are deploying these platforms to add to their site's content:

Topic hubs

Topical pages have gone beyond story lists, pulling in interactive content both inside and outside of news organizations. Events such as the World Cup often inspire topic pages, as seen with the The Washington Post's interactive map powered by the curation platform Daylife.

Upendra Shardanand, CEO of Daylife, said publishers commonly use the platform to create microsites, sections and photo galleries, which can be both curated and auto-generated from sources the editor selects ― blending original authoring with real-time updates. “If you go to bed and something happens, it will be on the page,” he said.

On the continuum of editorial control versus automation, Daylife focuses more on editorial oversight to help the editor “discover and curate content to make a great page about anything,” Shardanand said. The platform also powers Forbes' Billionaires page.