(Reading time: 2 – 3 minutes)

Here’s a great question which came up on David Risley’s Inner Circle forum last week:

Is content curation really the next big thing or is just another way to try and game the system?

That’s an excellent question, and one near and dear to my heart. If you’re in the information business (and who isn’t these days?), might want to consider it yourself.

Here’s my take on content curation marketing…

Yes and no. “Content curation” as a marketing ploy is a fad, as one might suspect, just another way to game the system. However, curating content is not a fad, it’s an ancient practice, and becoming critically important as information production explodes.

Think of it this way: art galleries curate content. They collect, assess, store, interpret, display and explain works of art to an audience ranging in taste from the sophisticated to the simple. For example, Deacon and I were in Nevska Gallery last weekend.

Go visit Nevska Gallery, I’ll wait a moment or two…

As you can see, Nevska traffics in contemporary Russian paintings. And the painters (mostly) live in Russia (I asked). These are really incredible paintings, too. For instance, check out this painting of Mt Elbrus:

Elbrus - Aydemir Saidov From Nevska Gallery, San Francisco

I tried to get Tyler Tervooren to buy it, because Tyler just got back from the summit of Mt Elbrus, and in my not very humble opinion, he must acquire this original piece of art in commemoration. It’s big, too, 20×35. Who could not love such a thing. “Inconceivable.”

Anyways… (Read more about curation…)