In this post (the third in a series), Erin Kissane uses etymology to try to bring the role of the content curator closer to encompassing the duties of a ‘real’ curator.

There is potentially much more to content curation than mere aggregation and indexing. When the role is expanded to include stewardship and care, things start to look much more interesting.

Read this post in full over at Erin’s blog, incisive.nu.

I used to keep everything here on this blog, but recently moved it all over to:

Brian Heys testing (brianheystesting.com)

You might want to update your RSS reader.

This post has been kicking around the blogosphere for several months, but it’s still a thought-provoking read for anyone involved or interested in content curation.

In the post, Robert outlines seven needs that need to be fulfilled by a truly ‘killer’ content curation tool. Do you know of a single solution that can do all this?

Read in full over at scobleizer.com.

While this excellent post focuses mainly on content curation via Twitter, the advice is general enough to be relevant to content curation on any platform.

Develop good taste, become a content sommelier, get rid of the noise!

Read the post at Blog Brevity over on Posterous.

Less content

As people flock to post status updates on social websites such as Facebook and Twitter, leaving behind their conventional websites, the first symptom we will see of the declining web is a reduction in the rate of new content being produced.

It could be argued that we have been witnessing the end of the age of content for some time. The rate of new blogs being created has declined since it’s peak in 2007, and that process will probably accelerate – certainly for poor or mediocre content.

Quality counts

Along with a general fall in the quantity of content produced, there will be a rise in the amount of quality content.

This trend has also been happening for some time, as the more dedicated bloggers who began blogging in the early days have continued to practise and perfect their craft. This process will gather further momentum as professional writers switch from traditional media to online content.

The content curator

One of the most interesting trends in the last six to twelve months has been the development of a new breed of content curator.

While content curation itself isn’t new, the concept of the dedicated content curator is one that is only just beginning to emerge; and with so much legacy content on the web in need of curation, this isn’t a moment too soon.

There are already more than enough content creators, but not enough content curators.

Commercial content curation

As businesses become more aware of content curation, they will rush to adapt their existing content strategies by culling the amount of content creation they do in favour of the lower cost of publishing curated content.

This will further exacerbate the fall in the production of new content, perhaps even reducing the rate at which quality content is produced.

An explosion in curated content

As curation begins to gain popularity as a content strategy, there will be a growth in the number of consultants offering advice on content curation to willing businesses who are eager to try curating content for their visitors.

Along with this growth, will be an explosion in the number of amateur content curators – similar to the one we witnessed for ‘citizen journalists’ during the blogging boom of the mid 2000s.

Whether this is a good thing remains to be seen. It will most likely lead to a tremendous amount of duplicated content drifting around the web, which will result in a need for search engines to modify their algorithms accordingly.

However, for talented content curators, there are currently clear opportunities for building a sphere of influence in a chosen field of expertise.