Curation as core competence

Yesterday we had The Guardian´s developer advocate Chris Thorpe over for a visit. He helped us hold a workshop about developing with APIs and the implications that this can have for media companies. Very interesting and inspiring.

During his presentation, Chris mentioned the verbs that usually are associated with media production:

* creation
* fabrication
* distribution
* monetisation

He noted, insightfully, that they were all industry verbs, and could be applied to most types of industrial production. But by simply adding the prefix "co-" to all of the above, we get closer to where we should be going.

Media companies are currently adding to the 'creation' by finalizing their version of something - an article or similar. But adding the co-creation aspect would be acknowledging that their version will merely be the starting point for someone else to continue creating.

So in a world where everyone creates, what should the media be adding? Curation of stories and news is something that I, and a lot of other people, have been talking about a long time. What stuck with me from yesterdays workshop was that Chris added data to that offering. Media companies should be the curators of data, as well as stories and news.

It makes sense. If curation is choice based on preference and credibility, why limit the offering to the 'finished' products? Instead, it's all seen as a starting point for the stories or projects that are to come. If you want to rewrite the article, create a slideshow of a large set of photos, or build a web app from the data - that's your choice.