Not everybody is a curator
6 June 2011
You know what annoys me? Well, actually, that would be a long list. You know one thing that annoys me? The way some people on the internet use the word “curator.” People find cool stuff online and put links to that cool stuff on their website, and they say that they’re “curating” the internet.
This sums up Tumblr, and continues my post from a couple of days outlining the problem with Tumblr. I don’t have much to add really; curation isn’t a journal of cool things, it’s placing informed work within context, educating the public about the piece. Linking to a cat lying on a banister, no matter how cool that cat looks, is not curation. It’s not curation of thoughts, it’s not curation of personality, it’s just a link to a funny picture (most likely with added Impact typeface with black border, or impersonating a motivational poster for extra points).
The New Atlantis have gone to the trouble of creating a taxonomy, which I couldn’t agree with more (with special mention of Things Magazine - an example of true internet curation).
The Linker: That’s what most of us are. We just link to things we’re interested in, without any particular agenda or system at work. That’s what my Pinboard page is, just a page of links.
The Coolhunter: People who strive to find the unusual, the striking, the amazing — the very, very cool, often within certain topical boundaries, but widely and loosely defined ones. I think Jason Kottke and Maria Popova are exemplary online coolhunters.
The Curator: There are some. Not many, but some. The true online curator tends to have a clear and strict focus: he or she doesn’t post just anything that seems cool, but instead is striving to illuminate some particular area of interest. The true curator also finds things that other people can’t find, or can’t easily find, which means either (a) having access to stuff that is not fully public or (b) actually putting stuff online for the first time or (c) having a unique take on public material so that images and ideas get put together that the rest of us would never think to put together. I think Bibliodyssey is a genuinely curated site; also, just because of its highly distinctive sensibility, Things magazine.
