Photo credit: Shutterstock

This article, builds up over my recent presentation on Content Curation for Education that I delivered at Emerge2012 virtual conference.

In that presentation I claimed that the adoption of 'curation approaches' will directly affect the way competences are taught, how textbooks are put together, how students are going to learn about a subject, and more than anything, the value that can be generated for 'others' through a personal learning path.

If we learn not by memorizing facts, but by collaborating with others in the creation of a meaningful collection-explanations of specific topics/issues/events then, for the first time in history, we can enrich planetary knowledge each time we take on a new learning task.

And it's already happening.

Yes, we are only at the very early stages, but, in my humble opinion, there are enough signs and indications that this is not going to be something marginal.

In this article I outline ten key factors, already at work, which, among others, will very likely pave the way for a much greater and rapid adoption of curation practices in the educational / academic world.

These factors are:

1. An Overwhelming Abundance of Information Which Begs To Be Organized


2. A Growing Number of 'Open' Teaching / Learning Content Hubs


3. Constantly Changing Information


4. Real-World Info Is Not Held Inside Silos


5. Fast-Food Info Consumption in Decline


6. Job Market Changing - New Skills Needed


7. Alternative Certification Systems Emerging


8. Teachers Can Curate Their Textbooks


9. Educational Marketplace Open to Thousands of Competitors


10. Demand for Trusted Guidance

Here all the details:

The Educational / Learning Climate Is Ready for Massive Change

There is a growing number of key trends that are both rapidly revolutionizing the world of education as we know it and opening up opportunities to review and upgrade the role and scope of many of its existing institutions, (as the likeliness that they are going to soon become obsolete and unsustainable, is right in front of anyone's eyes).

George Siemens, in his recent Open Letter to Canadian Universities, sums them up well:

'I’m concerned that the ossification of higher education institutions, and a complete failure to build capacity for adaptation, will produce a bonanza for educational technology startups at the expense of the university’s role in society.

The current generation of leaders are overseeing the large-scale dismantling of the public university. Piecemeal outsourcing, growing prominence of adjuncts, and tendering key functions of the university (online course development), are creating a context where the university will no longer be able to direct its own fate.

And it’s just starting.

Add cloud computing, mobile devices, open educational resources, increased profile of universities in developing regions of the world, global competition for international students, edtech startups, greater VC interest in the education sector, reduced federal and provincial funding, changes in the federal research mandate toward commercialization, online learning, and massive open online courses (MOOCs) and we have a climate that is ripe for massive change.'

Source: George Siemens Open Letter to Canadian Universities - George Siemens

Ten Key Reasons That Make Curation Important for Education and Learning

Navigable presentation-map of this article, including links and references - to view it just click the image above or follow this link: http://bit.ly/Curation-for-Education-map - This presentation-map was created to support my presentation-workshop on Curation for Education during the Emerge2012 virtual conference.

1) An Overwhelming Abundance of Information Which Begs To Be Organized

The goal is not (and probably it never was) to learn or memorize all of the information available out there. It's just too much even if we focus only on the very essence of it. The goal is to learn how to learn, to know where to look for something and to be able to identify which parts of all the information available are most relevant to learn or achieve a certain goal or objective.

This is why new digital literacy skills are of such great importance. They provide the mental tools for individuals to be able to evaluate, assess, filter and organize information in more effective ways than they have done until today.

The ability to think critically and to be able to 'see' and 'construct' up alternative 'views' of any issue, problem or field of interest are of the essence for those interested in learning how to make sense of the world.

Content curation embodies these research, investigative and sense-making traits.

Duration: 21':58' - The Purpose of Education - Noam Chomsky - a great explanation of what is the real purpose of education

2) A Growing Number of 'Open' and Freely Accessible Teaching/Learning Content Hubs

The rise of Open Content initiatives and 'open repositories' provides fresh opportunities to create new value from a fast-growing mass of available educational content.

The number of 'open' learning opportunities is growing so large that learners will soon need some guidance in selecting the most appropriate course, instructor, approach and institution to achieve their goals most effectively.

Here's a few references to the rising number of free, open educational resources out there:

• Khan Academy
• Open Courses everywhere
• OER
• Open Content
• MIT-X
• EDX
• Directory of of Tools for Storing Open Educational Resources

3) From a Static, Unchanging World of Information To a Constantly Changing One

As the quantity of accessible information rapidly increases both in volume and complexity and many old concepts are being replaced at an ever increasing rate by new ideas, it is important that:

a) Some of us dedicate their efforts to find, identify, monitor and update which are the most relevant 'information sources', hubs or curators in every possible area of interest. Search engines and traditional media do not presently provide this information, while being strongly influenced by 'brands' and commercial interests.

b) We equip our youth and ourselves with appropriate mental tools to be able to carry out such tasks. Some of these would certainly include online searching, research, critical thinking, comparative analysis, evaluation and verification of alternative sources, classification and labeling, questioning, summarizing and synthesis skills (among others).

The content curator utilizes these above-mentioned skills and approach to achieve his objectives. This is why curation skills are likely to become key characterizing traits of future teachers / guides, and why the adoption of curation approaches inside any learning curriculum will rapidly transform our present assumptions about how we teach and learn most effectively.

4) Real-World Information Is Not Held Inside Silos Like Academic Institutions Pretend

While the academic world, from elementary schools to universities is basically organized around subjects, the 'real world' is a complex web of situations in which the 'fields' we studied for so long but separately in school, are all deeply and constantly intertwined.

From the New York Times: '...Mr. Zimmer warned against viewing the workplace as a 'collection
of buckets or isolated specializations,' and he emphasized the interconnectedness of different
fields and skills.'

Curation fits in as a more appropriate approach to learning and to prepare for real-world work challenges, by allowing learners to construct meaning by having to research and to understand and to create new relationships between different information-elements.

By studying a topic through the creation of specific knowledge-artifacts such as collections, learning guides and data visualizations instead of through the memorization of lots of information separate information units, allows not only for discovering the true relationships between apparently distinct issues, but also for the discovery and comprehension of a topic from multiple complementary viewpoints.

5) Fast-Food Information Consumption In Rapid Decline - Curation Is the New Search

Google has lost its 'mojo'. Search results have become increasingly unsatisfactory as they are often polluted by irrelevant, commercially-driven results or by large brands which Google likes to favor over small, independent and - hard to verify - information sources.

Google itself has long realized this and has been hard-working to significantly improve its search results.
To do so it has introduced the Google Panda and Penguin algorithms which have been designed to clean up search results from low-quality, thin and spammy content. Results so far, at least from my personal viewpoint, have not been impressive.

Recently Google has also announced the introduction of the Knowledge Graph in its search results, with the specific goal of providing greater 'meaning' and 'context' to its increasingly less useful search results.

Overall, my perception is that there is a growing number of people who want to move away from fast-food information access, too heavily-driven by commercial/advertising interests (a-la-Google), and onto user-driven, quality and comprehensive curated info-hubs managed by trusted people / organizations.

Linear text results sorted by secret algorithms do not seem to provide anymore valuable quality answers and explanations to many of the queries directed at learning more about a subject.

It should be us, those who search, to establish how we want to slice and dice information results according to our specific needs. But lacking for now the technology and interfaces to do so at the individual level, most have started to rely on topic-specific trusted expert guides who can provide much better suggestions and pointers than Google own secret algorithm.

In other words, researchers, educators and guides prefer to refer to trusted 'curators' of specific information areas rather than to rely on Google-style secret and commercially-driven algorithms.

See also: Content curation and the Future of Search

6) The Job Market is Rapidly Changing

Outside of traditional 'professionals' as doctors and engineers, companies recruiting new people are looking more for 'skills and experience' than for degrees and certificates.

Fact: (in the US) 17 million college graduates have jobs that do not require a college degree.
(Source: InsideHigherEd)

That's 'over 30 percent of the working college graduates in the U.S.'

The value of traditional CVs and resumes is rapidly fading as the value of educational certifications and degrees in the workplace is gradually diminishing. Check this short video clip to get a better idea of what is happening: Epic 2020

'The diploma serves as a screening device that allows businesses to narrow down the applicant pool quickly and almost without cost to the employer, but with a huge financial cost to the individual earning the diploma (often at least $100,000), and to society at large in the form of public subsidies.'
(Source: InsidehigherEd)

'...diplomas are a highly expensive and inefficient screening device used by employers who are afraid to test potential employee skills...'
(Source: InsideHigherEd)

It's the method that doesn't work anymore. Certifications and diplomas prove little about a person skills and abilities in the real world.

Today, the job marketplace requires people who can 'think'. People who can come up with creative solutions to unexpected problems, people who are prepared to be continuously challenged by new discoveries and innovations but who can discern which are relevant and immediately useful for their goals, and people who can recognize patterns and relationships across industries and disciplines to help them find new and better ways to achieve their objectives.

Content curation offers a practical and immediately usable approach to help new learners train themselves in developing such very skills.

7) Alternative Certification Systems Are Emerging: Open Badges

An increasing number of alternatives to academic-based traditional certification systems are emerging.

These non-academic new certification systems have the power to dent into universities dearest asset: the lock between content being taught and the test/assessments that are supposed to certify a student competence on it.

These alternative certification systems are likely to provide alternative means for many individuals to demonstrate and be valued for their skills without a need to attend academic courses, to pay expensive tuition fees, to purchase new textbooks, and to pay for exam/certification costs.

As you have probably read elsewhere, tuition costs for certified academic programs are at an all-time high while the true value of these courses on the job market keeps decreasing rapidly.

'...the piles of student loans are due largely to the fact that the cost of a college degree has been going up much faster than people’s incomes.

And that has raised the specter that we might be living through a “higher-education bubble,” in which Americans are irrationally borrowing money to spend more on college than it’s actually worth.

We’ve just endured two huge bubbles, which sent the value of stocks and then homes to ridiculous levels, so the theory isn’t implausible.

Of course, a college-education bubble wouldn’t look exactly like a typical asset bubble, because you can’t flip a college degree the way you can flip a stock, or even a home.

But what bubble believers are really saying is that young people today are radically overestimating the economic value of going to college, and that many of them would be better off doing something else with their time and money.'

Source: New Yorker

Check also: What's a Diploma Worth

Can curation help traditional academic / educational institutions save themselves from this? I doubt it, as only a handful of these institutions have actually acknowledged and recognized these changes taking place, and as these transformations are taking place at a much faster rate than institutions own traditional change-pace.

But, as the few who have already moved on to ride such deep changes (instead of being run over by them), these institutions could better manage their future sustainability by rapidly upgrading their role and function to where they can still provide a valuable and in-demand service to both society and individuals.

Here a few simple ideas.

Move from teaching and certifying to:

a) curating talent - breed new talent by providing motivated learners with the ideal conditions to study, research and develop new ideas.

b) curating educational resources for a specific area of interest / language / region / by creating and maintaining highly qualified 'learning paths', and providing assistance, specialized training and resources, to those in specific need of it.

c) curating human guides, training future curators - by cultivating and supporting the development of skilled information-guides and coaches that possess the skills of a curator and those of a great story-teller.

See also: Open Badges

8) Teachers and Professors Can Now Curate Their Own Textbooks

'...teachers can (and should) take control of their courses by creating their own interactive textbooks'

(Source: PLPNetwork)

Whether liked or not by most academic institutions, this is already another outstanding fact: both inside and outside academic walls teachers and professors, as well as independent trainers, are now starting to curate their own textbooks by leveraging both the incredible amount of 'open' educational materials available online as well as a growing number of tools / services that makes it possible and easy for them to do so.

There is no more need for a few academic publishing houses to maintain a monopoly on the content of whatsoever course programme, as the best textbooks and learning curricula will not be anymore those authored by one author, but those 'curated' with the best content from many experts.

Academic and independent teaching curators will design new textbook and teaching curriculums / learning paths. They will do so by selecting and pulling together the best and most relevant material in a variety of formats and configurations to satisfy the needs of many different 'audiences'.

These individuals will create also great collections of exercises, case studies, real-world examples, people's profiles and toolkits to further facilitate the exploration and learning of such topics.
See also: OpenStax College

Mc Graw-Hill Create

9) Educational Marketplace Open to Thousands of Competitors

Today there is an abundance of free and affordable digital tools, web services and apps to create, find, edit and publish courses, tutorials, guides on any topic.

There are now tens of learning marketplaces and platforms that allow anyone to offer and sell courses online. From WiziQ to Udemy the number of alternative services making it possible for anyone to deliver a 'professional' course is rapidly increasing.

Today, anyone can become both a 'resource', a supplier of content as well as a
curator / editor / publisher of new curated content resources such as book collections, expert guides,
curated and annotated lists of resources, examples, or templates galleries.

How are traditional, large and small educational institutions going to compete with this myriad of new learning providers?

There is a way.

As learning and educational content will become overabundant and ubiquitous, individuals and organizations who will be able to be the first to gain authority ad reputation in identifying, selecting and organizing the best and most appropriate free / open courses for anyone specific needs, will be the ones in high-demand and worth spending money into.

Someone will need to collect, organize and make-sense of this vast amount of 'open' learning courses and educational materials, by creating 'curated learning paths' for specific audiences and needs.

To curate the fast-growing amount of learning and educational resources available out there, may be one of the most appealing and cost-effective opportunities that traditional academic and training institutions may have at this point.

Educational institutions key advantage in this respect is their already established authority and credit and their established reach into the community or territory where they operate. On the other hand, small non -academic organizations may move into this space much more rapidly and efficiently than most traditional academic institutions will be willing to afford.

See also: Online learning marketplaces and teaching platforms

10) Growing Demand for Trusted Guidance Over Learning Content and Curricula

Finding and selecting quality open educational resources. This is where the opportunity lies.

When the educational offer becomes so broad there is a growing need to find relevant and reliable resources.

Take also into consideration that physical classrooms will inevitably lose much of their appeal and usefulness relative to distributed, synch and asynchronous and collaborative learning activities at a distance, where people of all ages, creeds and experience-levels can learn together and from each other (es: MOOCS).

Traditional academic institutions may indeed become trusted curators and guides to the greater universe of information out there, while specializing their efforts for a set of specific areas, needs and communities of interests.

With such abundance and variety (in quality) of educational materials, learners will soon express a growing demand for trusted guides to help them in selecting quality learning guides, sources, hubs and more than anything, curated learning paths and toolkits to explore and learn deeper about a specific topic.

This is where the opportunity for both sides lies.

Originally written and curated by Robin Good and first published on MasterNewMedia on August 1st 2012 as 'Why Curation Is Important for Education and Learning: 10 Key Reasons'.

The future of learning and education is one of the topics that interests me the most, and Epic 2020 is a good provocative piece on what the future of education and certification may soon look like.

I in fact believe that, besides the final epilogue, the unrolling of true recent events and the new prospected future ones, as depicted inside Epic 2020, is very realistic indeed.

Traditional educational and academic institutions may be indeed on the verge of a major revolution affecting the whole work marketplace, as they will need to face and act upon the successful evidence that new approaches to learning and working are increasingly providing.

The Future of Education: Epic 2020

Duration: 10':24'

Full integral text transcription of the original video soundtrack

It is the best of times. It is the worst of times.

Let's find out.

Where It All Started

Sal Khan

The road to 2020 began in 2009.

Sal Khan starts the Khan Academy. His goal? To educate the world.

Khan's low-tech, conversational tutorials suggest an educational transformation that de-emphasizes classrooms, campus, and administrative infrastructures, as well as brand name instructors.

Videos are hosted on YouTube and provided for free.

With an instructor of one, the Khan Academy offers thousands of videos, but the real power is in its exercise and assessment system. Teachers, coaches and mentors can set up groups of students with an exercise system that provides an infinite number of questions coupled with hints and links to content material.

Mastery is required before moving on and a game system of energy points and badges provide instant rewards. Time on task data is measured in seconds. The system measures learning.

Mozilla Open Badges

In 2011, Mozilla announces its Open Badges Project. It is a program that recognizes skills and achievements. It is open to companies, organizations, and individuals to issue, earn and display badges across the web.

Badges represent an alternative to accreditation and degrees.

Prof. Thrun

At the end of 2011, Sebastian Thrun, a computer science professor at Stanford, conducts an experiment by offering a free, no pre-requisite online ten-week course in the Introduction to Artificial Intelligence that parallels his on-campus course.

One hundred and sixty thousand people register. During the course, students post questions to the class blog, where other students use the Facebook system of likes. The best questions rise to the top.

Students then submit answers and are rated by their peers with an Amazon five-star system for the most helpful answer. The best answers rise to the top.

Students are teaching students.

23,000 students passed the online course. 253 with perfect scores.

Professor Thrun realizes that during this session, at 160,000, he has taught more students the subject than all of the rest of the computer science professors in the world.

The 23,000 who passed the course represent more students than most faculty will teach in their career. Out of the 200 Stanford students attending the traditional course, only 41 were in class at the end of the course. The other 159 opted for the online asynchronous presentation. Professor Thrun gave one of his hardest examinations. The on-campus passing rate was the highest ever.

Udacity

2012 would be remembered as the year everything began.

January, Professor Sebastian Thrun resigns his ten-year position at Stanford and launches Udacity to offer an engineering and science curriculum.

March, Udacity launches six computer science courses, all online, all free.

Udacity will contract with the very top students to represent them as an employment agent. Udacity's model is to connect world class talent to world class companies that happily pay a fee of 20 percent of their first year's salary.

50 students hired equate to a million dollars of revenue. The employment value of the top five percent funds a free education for the rest of the world.

Tuition is abandoned as a concept.

MIT-X

MIT opens registration on its MIT-X courses to start in the fall. The courses will use the latest interactive technology, and are free. For a modest payment, a certificate will be provided.120,000 sign up in the first month.

TED-Ed

In April, TED announces the creation of TED Ed. TED Ed will follow the compelling video format of TED, and will feature the best teachers in the world, paired with the best media production teams. TED Ed will be free.

Student Loans and Fee Increases

The Federal Government announces that student loans exceed one trillion dollars, more than credit cards and car loans.

Universities across the country announce tuition and fee increases double the rate of inflation.

Pell Grants Gone

The elections of 2012 result in legislation that eliminates Pell Grants and terminates the student loan exemption from bankruptcy.

Loans Collapse - Student Revolt

2013, the student loan industry collapses. Scholarship funders begin shifting their focus from providing individual student loans to funding organizations that provide free, online course content.

Across the county, students revolt over the cost of education, and demand the elimination of a set price for content and assessment. If they take content online for free, then they demand to pay only for the assessment.

In 2014, flagship state universities respond to student, parent and legislative demands by providing transferable course credits for demonstrated ability rather than class attendance.

The connection between content and assessment is broken.

The Possible Future: Applezon

Apple, with its massive cash hoard, buys Amazon to form Applezon.

Applezon uses the Amazon preference matching algorithm to match personal skill levels with company skill requirements, and moves to the student employment agent funding model.

Google Response

In response, Google buys two non-profits, the Khan Academy and Udacity.

Google expands the Udacity student employment agent model to companies at international, national, and local levels.

Academic Certification Ceases to Be The Key Gateway To Professional Work Access

The educational wars of the late decade are notable for who does not participate. Other than the elite schools such as MIT, Stanford and Harvard, colleges and universities sit on the sidelines as Applezon and Google battle for world student market share.

By 2019, residential college campuses are now maturational holding grounds for the children of the wealthy. Their focus is on comfortable living accommodations, gourmet food, recreation, social activities, and sports teams. A few trophy faculty remain to lead discussions.

Epilogue

On Monday, June 22nd, 2020, Google unleashes EPIC. EPIC, the Evolving Personal Information Construct.

At its worst, and for too many, EPIC is not used, and the world is an increasingly misunderstood and frightening place. They retreat from involvement, and seek the security of a leader, an EPIC leader.

If you want more information on the topics presented in Epic 2020, look at this complementary video entitled 'The Breaking Point':

Duration: 24':20'

Check out also the original EPIC movie and transcription from 2004.

Epic 2020 - Production credits

Photo credit: Ross Dawson

A few weeks back I have had the opportunity to catch futurist Ross Dawson, passing through Rome in between two events, and I kindly asked him if he would be willing to answer a few questions in front of my video camera.

Ross promptly accepted and here is the first part of this video interview with him.

In it I ask him:

a) what he suggests to people who want to 'make sense of the world', when bombarded by such large amounts of information. How do you make sense of how things are?

b) What is 'curation'?

c) Is there any difference between personal, serendipitous social sharing and content curation?

d) What is the key discriminator between the two?

Here the clips of my four questions to Ross Dawson alongside with a full English text transcription of each one. Enjoy.

How To Make Sense of the World

Duration: 1':20'

Ross Dawson: One of the best ways to make sense of the world is scenario planning or scenarios, where you build a number of worlds for what might happen and that's relevant to you and to use these as filters to be able to say, 'Well, when I see new things happening, how does this indicate that one world is likely or what the implications are?'

That takes a lot of work.

It's a real long term, structured process. I think it is enormously valuable, enormously worthwhile, though it does require the investment.

More generally I believe in what I call frameworks. That's what I try to do for myself and for anyone else who finds it useful to try to put a structure visually to say, 'This is a relationship to that and that's a relationship to something else.'

We have more and more visual tools to be able to do that and I think we all should try to put things down in places to try to say, 'Well, this is the central idea and that's how it relates to something else.'

I think mindmaps can also be useful, but [their limit is that] they're ultimately hierarchies.

...all of us should be playing around with saying, 'What are the main ideas in this area? What are the main ideas important to me? How are they related to each other?'

As you look at that and see new things, that's an enormously valuable filter around what is interesting, what is useful, what I need to pay attention to, and what I don't.

What Is Curation

Duration: 0':56'

Ross Dawson: Curation is selecting what is relevant, selecting what is interesting... ...and this is now becoming almost overwhelming in terms of how many people are doing that.

It's what I do for myself as I share on Twitter or on other social networks or what I bookmark for myself... the things that I find interesting and want to go back to or feel are worth sharing.

There is immense value in it.

Part of the challenge is [that] almost everybody's a curator now.

Again, curation is not necessarily filtering, it's [also] adding to how much [information] overload we [already] have.

I think that the mechanisms [we should be seeking are those that help us] combine human judgment and algorithms to curate, to select better.

Ultimately, [the goal is to reach a point] where I can wake up in the morning and I can say I know I have seen the most interesting and relevant things for me.

We're a long way away from that.

I'm surprised, still, the art of curation or the science of curation, whichever it is, is still not as advanced as it could be or should be.

Is Social Sharing a Form of Curation?

Duration: 0':47'

Ross Dawson: Is social sharing the same thing as curation?

It's an interesting question. I think for some people, they are the same, but in many cases, social sharing is who you are as a person.

It's what you think will interest your friends, which shows something about yourself.

Whereas curation is [geared] usually to a particular area.

Sometimes, they can overlap, but [a curator] is usually [someone] saying, 'I'm in a particular area. I am the expert. I know what there is. I'm doing that for people who are interested that topic, people I want to demonstrate my expertise too.'

The curation largely becomes a professional activity and social sharing, by its name, a social activity.

Again: In some cases, they can very largely overlap and I think they significantly do for me.

What Intent You Have Determines The Type of Curation You Do

Duration: 1':11'

Ross Dawson: I think it's very interesting to look at the intent of curation.

In some cases, it is to demonstrate expertise, to become famous, which is valid, but that's different from where you say, 'I am contributing. I found something really interesting and I want to give that to others.'

I [often] talk about this idea of contributing to the 'global brain' and having that intent means that when you find something you think will be valuable to others you [do whatever is in your powers to make them see it]... that's that intent of contributing.

There's three, perhaps, [types of] intent.

a) One is to contribute to others, to give.

b) Another is to develop your own expertise. I think that's one of the ways to be able to search for and share things actually does make you know more, and I think that's very valid.

c) [The third one, which] is equally valid, though perhaps a little too overdone at the moment, is just people curating so that people look at them...

...and that's -- I suppose -- the three different intents, that people have, behind curation.

Playlist - Compilation of all Clips

Duration: 4':14'

Originally written and curated by Robin Good and first published on MasterNewMedia on June 19th 2012 as 'Curation - A View from The Future: Ross Dawson'.

Photo credit: theprint

Let me clarify a few key points:

1. Curation can be effective only as much as it effectively provides a quality filtering mechanism that can replace my need to consult multiple sources. When such need is forgotten and a curation channel becomes another broad aggregation and republishing venue, the end result is more content to go through and little or no insight gained.

2. Shallow curation efforts, where the main goal is to republish selected content with the minimum effort and time, are going to be effective only for the very short term. As soon as quality, value-creation creators start to emerge and gain authority, the gap between them and the others will be very hard to fill.

3. Curation is an effective means to build a strong relationship with a niche audience of passionate people to engage, not a marketing strategy that caters to gain a broad audience of readers by virtue of quantity and breadth.

4. The key element that makes curation work is the competence and focus of the curator and of the topic he has selected. Repeated efforts to create curated channels that mix and match broad and highly competitive topics are bound to see a very short life.

For these reasons, I think that much of the apparent new curation work being done is bound to be soon disappointed by the results it will gain. Though the apparent new curation 'leaders' are working around volume and breadth, I have a strong feeling that within a year this panorama will have already evolved significantly in its natural direction.

Highly specific news and content channels, curated by passionate and competent editors will gradually become the new reference and models for curation work.

This article is all about starting to identify some tentative reference points that can be used to anticipate these changes and position one's own curation channel in a way that it will guarantee the greatest return on investment, over-time, possible.

My goal, is to help you understand how you can start to evaluate and distinguish value-creating content curation, from shallow aggregation, noise-making republication and pure content regurgitation before it is too late or someone else in your same niche will have done it before you.

Here's is my official checklist, to identify value-creation curation, from everything else.

How Do You Recognize a Quality Content Curator

If I was asked to evaluate the curation work of different people, without being able to know who these authors are and for which reason they were doing it, I would use the following criteria to identify the best curators among them.

In my personal experience a good, value-creating curator, can be easily recognized by looking at the work he does. If he does one or more of the following he is likely to be a true, value-creation, sense-making curator:

• Optimizes

  
  Optimizes titles as to make them relevant to his/her audience. Tites are often still badly written, by using either a classic journalistic approach or by using tricky psychological approaches to make the titles appear more interesting. The curator's task should be the one of make titles relevant to his specific audience-tribe, by making the title highlight and explain what the content is truly about.

  
  
  

• Edits

  
  Edits / rewrites titles, descriptions and more, to further customize the message relevance, language and focus for a specific audience-tribe.





• Formats

  
  Formats curated content with microscopic precision by utilizing character styles, chunking, use of bulleted/numbered lists to provide greater legibility and to communicate more effectively the key concepts present in the original content.





• Selects

  
  Selects and adds relevant images, photos, illustrations that fully complement and reinforce the content they are associated to.





• Excerpts

  
  Excerpts selected text and passages from the actual content, to help the reader understand as rapidly as possible what the content is about and why it would be relevant to read it.





• Writes

  
  Writes his/her own intro, to contextualize and explain the relevance of the content to his specific audience-tribe. Brings in a 'personal voice' that threads together news or content coming from many disparate sources. Threads and guides the reader through it like a museum guide.





• Classifies

  
  Curates his channel and content metadata. Provides comprehensive tags, titles and classification categories for the content curated.





• Links

  
  Integrates extra links to extend-expand the scope of the article or to provide further reference to specific concepts.





• Personalizes

  
  Personalizes each curated item differently for each social media channel/audience when needed / appropriate.





• Vets

  
  Vets and verifies original source for quality and integrity (by reading all of the original content) and exercising a critical role in deciding what to publish and what to censor.





• Credits

  
  Credits and provides full attribution to all sources used. Goes out of his way to reference and cite personal sources (when appropriate) and credits always for received leads, tips and suggestions as to make of this activity a new virtue (as it truly is, by providing access to new unknown sources and showcasing the transparency of the author-curator).





• Filters

  
  Spends most of his / her time vetting and filtering out most of the incoming content, not approving and publishing most of the incoming stuff.





• Taps

  
  Taps frequently into a personally selected circle of trusted curators in related, complementary, or similar topics.





• Suggests

  
  Suggests and recommends in turn to other curators specific stories for their newsradars.





• Searches

  
  Spends time looking for more content / context to add to any item when this can help enrich, or make more interesting valuable an existing story. Looks for additional references, reviews, citations or stories that can help complement the existing view.





• Scouts

  
  Is always looking for new, credible and interesting content sources. Is never happy with the sources he has and loves to discover new ways, tools and networks where useful sources can be found.





• Hacks Filters and Searches

  
  Engineers filters and specific persistent searches to help himself find always highly relevant and useful content to curate.





• Is Transparent

  
  Publicly states focus, target-tribe, communication objective(s) and criteria by which content is selected or excluded on his newsradars or curated channels.





• Recommends

  
  Publicly recommends other newsmasters, curators and specific newsradars.





• Crowdsources

  
  Crowdsources recommendations, tips and suggestions from his readers always acknowledging their contributions.

The more of these activities you incorporate in your content curation workflow, the higher the quality and the value that you will be creating.

I myself strive to gradually master and integrate all of these actions in my daily curation work. It is not easy, nor fast, but it is something meaningful for me and it makes me feel I have truly contributed to 'make sense' of the information and resources available out there.

How Do You Recognize a Wasteland-Filler - Aggregator - Republisher?

On the other hand, if I was asked to rapidly identify 'zero-value' curators, such as those who are simply republishing other people's content, have a relatively broad focus, mix multiple topics together, and who provide no other additional value, or those using curation tools to produce a constant flow of blog-like content without much thought about its editorial quality or depth, these below, would be the traits I would use to easily identify them.

• No Additional Value

  
  Republishes news / content without contributing any additional value. Such curators feel or have learned from others that their job is to aggregate, pick and republish what tickles their fancies. They are happy and content with this and miss to see that the contribution they believe they are making, is in reality a burden for most anyone else.





• No Editing

  
  Republishes content without editing any part of it. Stories, news, content of any kind is republished 'as is', often officially justified as an effort to act as 'keeper' and 'defender' of the original content as originally published. In reality such 'no editing' approach is son of a drive to use these curation tools to generate some type of new content with the least effort possible. This in reality does not help make greater sense of content originally prepared with a specific goal or audience in mind, or to repurpose it or contextualize it for a specific community of interest.





• No Selection

  
  Republishes content simply because it includes keywords that are 'on topic' or contain certain keywords.

  The selection is therefore driven by a software aggregation filter, and when the checking and vetting gets also to be very light, then you start seeing regurgitation of content that should not have passed through the largest net. Keywords drive over meaning.





• No Filtering

  
  Republishes any content independently of intrinsic value. As long as a news story, article or report 'talks' about a certain topic, it is selected and included. Little attention is given in questioning and scrutinizing what's being said or communicated inside of it. The goal appears more one of catching and republishing anything that is 'out there' and which 'mentions' a certain topic, rather than a mission to unearth, distill and illustrate-explain-organize any content - even that which does NOT mention that keyword - that can be relevant to our 'specific' focus of interest.





• Quantity Wins

  
  Goes for quantity of content published rather than quality. Feels good the more content he is able to 're-publish'. Is unhappy when there is little or no content coming in to 'curate'. The effort / goal is clearly toward quantity, persistence and volume rather than on quality, timing and precision perspective.





• Time-Saving Attraction

  
  Is in for the time-saving benefits, the amazing ease of doing it and the super-short time-to-publish. Nothing wrong for having those desires. Let's just not call them 'curation'. Time-saving publishing and 'content curation' are actually at the opposite extremes of the same continuum. There can't be no curation when the key goal is to publish 'quality' content in the shortest time possible.





• Broad Focus

  
  Utilizes very broad newsradar titles often integrating two or more wide topics instead of a specific one.
  Lacks specific, strong focus. Approaches curation as mass media broadcasting, with the idea of trying to capture the widest and broadest audience possible.





• No Tribe

  
  As a consequence of his 'broad focus' lacks awareness of which tribe he / she is communicating to, and is therefore unable to use a consistent language, or one that has strong affinity with the 'tribe' being served.





• No voice

  
  Lacks a personal 'voice'. Does not add, comment or write. When he does he does so informally and without making his personal style and views influence it.





• No Viewpoint

  
  Lacks of opinion, viewpoint. Does not take a position. Acts as a ticketmaster at a movie theater. Takes no risks, and doesn't make string comments. Likes to think he is an 'objective', detached 'selector' of the best content passing in front of him.







• No Synthesis

  
  Lacks ability to synthesize the key parts of a curated content. Makes no effort to facilitate the emergence of core ideas, concepts and factual information from the content he curates.





• No Language

  
  Lacks a unifying, constant, coherent language. The one that he uses is mostly borrowed from the curated content itself.

I think this recent article by Forbes clearly highlights the driving force and mentality behind the idea of curation as a smart alternative to blogging and as a shortcut to achieve SEO visibility, traffic and reputation-authority with minimum efforts and time.

Winning The SEO Battle Through Content Curation
by Pawan Deshpande - HiveFire

On the opposite side stands this excellent video introduction to the type of 'curation' I like to talk about, which clearly explains the difference between those who collect, republish and re-share existing content, and those who take existing content and 'curate' it to generate new, additional meaning and value from it, on very specific topics.

Why Curation? by Idiocreative

Duration: 8:50

A Word on Scoring Systems

Finally a word on 'scoring systems' that attempt to help readers identify supposedly better curation work.

I am very skeptical that any such system can work, especially when the criteria it utilizes are kept secret, and when some of the users of the system have access to them.

My advice is this: Beware of any system that attempts to “score” or rank your curation work unless it transparently states the criteria and formulas it uses. Use your head to look at any curator's work and evaluate personally its usefulness and ability to satisfy appropriately your information needs.

Most of the reputation scoring systems now available online, tend to measure some parts of your activity and engagement online, with mixed results.

In my humble opinion the only reputation system that has any value today is the public endorsement by other people, stating specifically why they do appreciate your work.

It's easy to get thousands of followers, likes or shares, if like it is the case today, there are tons of people wanting to game such systems and many services selling such things for very low prices.

On the other hand it is very, very hard to get someone that is reputable and respected to openly endorse someone else unless he/she has good very good reasons and motives to do so. The risk is in fact evident, as providing easy endorsements to people or work that is not of true value will only lower anyone's credibility and reputation. And you can't use or buy fake endorsements as even if you did, they are worth nothing.

I look forward to social networks and curation tools to embrace more credible approaches to authority and reputation scoring soon.

Originally written and curated by Robin Good and first published on MasterNewMedia on November 4th 2011 as 'What Makes A Great Curator Great? How To Distinguish High-Value Curation From Generic Republishing'.

Photo credits:
How Do You Recognize a Quality Content Curator - pagadesign
How Do You Recognize a Wasteland-Filler - Aggregator - Republisher? - malerapaso

Photo credit: CaraMaria

Curating content and news is not just about the selection, editing and contextualization of stories about a specific topic or theme, but it is increasingly about how these information items are (collaboratively) gathered, organized, grouped, displayed and in which ways they can be accessed and browsed by those interested in them.

For me, one of the most fascinating aspects of this exploding content curation trend, is the speculative exploration of how 'curated' content collections could best benefit from alternative and more effective delivery formats than the classic linear, top-to-bottom, chronological, river-of-news sequence.

Nothing wrong with this format, but it is a good format only if you want to give relevance to curated news stories in chronological order. Just like most news sources have done until today. The more recent, the higher in the list.

But anytime you are working to curate content according to non-chronological parameters, you are off into a largely unexplored and uncharted land.

At least for now.

As a matter of fact, there are positively more content types than the 'breaking news' and the typical curated list, as much as there are a lot more ways to look at a curated set of information items beyond the habitual following of a linear vertical sequence.

In this article I lightly explore some of the reasons why I expect an explosion in content curated delivery formats, and then provide an extended list of both existing and new, emerging curated content delivery formats, that I expect you will start to see and use more frequently in the near future.

Here is what I see:

Is there a problem?

While there has recently been an explosion of content curation tools , 95% of them, deliver your curated collections as a linear stream of news or a typical top-to-bottom list of content items.

Some of these new curation tools output content as a newspaper page, others in a magazine-like format, others as lists, with most delivery formats grouped around the generation of page dense of titles and links. Little or no options, besides changing the number of columns, fonts, the background or layout colors are available to the new curators when it comes to selecting an appropriate delivery format for their high-value hand-picked content.

In other words, new content curation tools offer little or no features or options to help you highlight specific items or groups in your sets, nor tools to aide you in selecting the visual approach / design layout that could be most appropriate for the effective delivery of your curated collection.

How about 'navigating' a curated collection? Are you offered options and alternatives that would help your readers explore and discover valuable items in your collection more easily?

Oh yeah, you can sort and move around curated items in a few of these tools, a few have a small set of design templates to play with, but the overall visual paradigm through which the curated content is served, is basically always the same: A linear sequence of information items caged inside a newspaper, magazine-like or vertical list metaphor.

The great opportunity for curation startups is in providing added value, features and premium options that would allow curators to choose and customize the delivery format of their 'curated' content collections in ways that would enhance readers ability to explore, browse and make sense of what is being accessed.

This is why I anticipate that developers of curation tools will soon start paying much greater attention to exploring and designing new curation delivery formats beyond the popular newspaper-magazine feed we see most everywhere.

Alternative Views

Curated content collections do not need to be confined to the two-dimensional print-legacy of newspapers and magazines.

The digital space provides so many more available dimensions, that it would be a pity not to put them to better use.

For example, a simple consideration I want to make is relative to the fact that readers, rather than publishers of curated collections, could be the ones that could be placed in the position of choosing the type of visual metaphor through which they would prefer to navigate and explore any kind of 'curated' information space.

Do I want to use an horizontal scrollable timeline (see Memolane) or a fancy and zoomable iPad-like magazine or flipbook, or do I prefer a slideshow (Qwiki and Storify) rather than a visually navigable and zoomable mindmap a-la-(Pearltrees or like I often do with Mindmeister)?

It would be lovely if my readers could choose.

Or take 'faceted search'. Couldn't this be one of the new ways of delivering a curated set of information units?
If you have never heard about it, faceted classification of information units allows 'the assignment of multiple classifications to an object, enabling the classifications to be ordered in multiple ways, rather than in a single, predetermined, taxonomic order.

...for example, a collection of books might be classified using an author facet, a subject facet, a date facet, etc.' (Source: Wikipedia)

Kipcast, a company who has been a pioneering leader in the real-time automated news curation space, is making some notable progress in this direction by working on multiple fronts to gather and interlink related information items inside large information streams. See the Toronto Inside Chronicle beta for an idea of what is to come on this front by exploring the tags inside specific news stories pages.

The Opportunity

The scope of curation work, can be seen as somewhat similar to the one of an artist: helping you discover what is not self-evident, obvious, accepted. The artist highlights unique elements in his artwork and shows familiar things from a new perspective. SHe guides you in seeing things through a new light.

Curators have much affinity with some of these traits, and as soon as there will be more content curators outside of the news area, the need to utilize different and more effective curated delivery formats will be felt more intensely.

Such curators do not need to pick and choose from the stream of a multitude of news sources what to put in their curated newsradars, but rather need to create finite 'bundles' or 'collections' of content items around a specific topic or theme, unbound from chronological, time-bound, sequential linear displays.

Take for example the need to curate the best and most interesting written pieces of content that exist already on a certain topic to create some kind of an introductory digest-guide to it. How do I go about curating this collection in a meaningful format?

An infographic? A map? A diagram?

A mindmap may bring the best of all these three formats into one. A mindmap in fact allows me to group inside a small visual space a lot of information, as well as some of the relationships between the items in my collection. A mindmap also allows me to zoom in and out of information items and, in some cases, to add links and multimedia objects, such as images, maps or videos to each information node.

But mindmaps, as they work now, are badly conceived to do this kind of work.

I have tried to bend them to this need and to awaken those making them to look with more interest in this direction, but with no positive results so far.

This is where the opportunity is.

Making visual communication tools, such as mindmaps for example, serve as new curated content delivery formats, by integrating features that would specifically support both the curator's gathering and organizing tasks, the social-collaborative aspect, as well as the navigational and discovery features for the reader-viewer.

Curators crave for the ability to search, collect, clip and edit content way before thinking about how they are going to organize it and deliver it. So this is an important aspect of any curation tool, and one that makes most mindmapping tools yet not mature for this task.

...but they are, like some other curation tools, getting closer... and this is where the opportunity is.

Visual communication tools, like mindmaps or presentation tools, do not see themselves yet as potential vehicles for curation work, while on the other side, curation tools have not yet understood the potential of utilizing highly visual delivery formats as a key competitive edge in their future development path.

P.S.: In strict theory, Google could be the one company whose mission and market perception could gain a tremendous boost from launching a service that helps its users organize and curate information and content sources in effective and useful ways. As a matter of fact, it has already developed several parts of this puzzle (Google Search, Google Books, Google bookmarks, Google lists, Google Maps, YouTube lists, G+, etc.) and I would not exclude the possibility that Google may indeed surface soon such a system.

The Expanding Universe of Curated Content Delivery Formats

To help you see and explore what I am envisioning, I have spent some time exploring - beyond what I have already done here - the many different existing content curation formats as well as some of the possible new ones.

Here below, I have listed some of the most popular content delivery formats, alongside some of thse that I think will be the new and emerging ones. I hope this list can serve as a starting inspiration point for anyone involved in exploring how to deliver curated content in more effective ways.

1. Curated News Portal

   

   An aggregated information / news web site sourcing and curating stories from many different sites.

   (Alltop, Techmeme, HuffPost, etc.)





2. Newsradar - River of News

   

   A linear, chronologically ordered, curated news digest on a specific topic.

   (Techmeme, see also some of my curated news channels on Scoop.it)





3. Superguide

   

   A curated selection / collection of best content on a specific topic from various authors - sources.

   (Smashingmagazine - Responsive Web Design Tehniques, Tools and Design Strategies has many of these)





4. Directory of Tools / Services

   

   A curated list of tool / services with basic information about each one.

   (RSSTop55, Free Images Resources, Best Online Collaboration Tools, Newsmaster Toolkit.
   Oneforty is an example of a tool to create such directories.)





5. Mixtapes

   

   Curated collections of audio and music tracks, including compilations, thematic podcast channels and DJ mixes.

   (Check the MasterNewMedia's music playlist guide for tools that allow the creation of such mixtapes such as Jampri, check iTunes mixed DJ sets such as e.g.: Bria Project and the Deep House Cat Show), Dubster), check out also Huffduffer as a great tool to curate different podcasts into a channel.)





6. Twitter Lists of People

   

   Curated lists of individuals having a Twitter account and characterized by a common interest or skill.
   (Listorious)





7. Curated Video Channels

   

   Hand-made selections of video clips ordered and sequenced into a specific video channel or compilation.

   (Shortform, Magnify, YouTube Playlist)





8. Web Pages Showcase

   

   Sequence of hand-selected web pages on a specific topic.

   (Diigo and Pearltrees)





9. Visual Maps of Industry Tools

   

   A visual mindmap identifying - through different groups - the best online collaboration tools available today.

   (Best Online Collaboration Tools) - Nonetheless the difficulties of navigating such a map, it still offers some advantages over traditional linear lists. In case you want to see another very rich industry tools map, check out the newsmaster toolkit map covering all kinds of curation tools and services too.





10. Comparison Review Tables

    

    Scrollable and embeddable table of comparison for tools of all kinds.

    (Socialcompare)





11. Collaborative Toolkits

    

    Lists of tools, products or services created and curated collaboratively by multiple authors.

    (Oneforty - now Hubspot)

    
    
    

12. Curated App-sets, Suites, Packs and Toolkits

    

    These are curated collections of plugins, portable apps, or other software tools, pre-selected and packaged for a specific need or use.

    (Even Wikipedia recognizes this specific groups of curated bundles of apps and lists a few of the best ones. Popular ones include: AccessApps, Ceedo, MojoPac, LiberKey, PortableApps.com, U3, WebLaminarTools, WinPenPack. Such bundles can also include software tools for specific uses such as conversion and decoding codecs for audio-video applications like the Downloadable video-audio Codec Megapack or the many others you can find at Free-Codecs

    Also of interest are new mobile apps that offer a curated 'visual map' of relevant and similar apps on any topic like: Discovr Music, Discovr Apps and other tools from Discovr Info )





13. Multimedia Digital Magazines

    

    A magazine-like format giving emphasis to images and titles over content. Easy to browse and scan.

    (Montage, Flipboard, Paper.li, Scoop.it)





14. Curated Report Pages - News Story Page

    

    These include special online magazine or newspaper pages where multiple investigative articles, reports, video clips and other information is organized together under a specific topic.

    (Le Inchieste di Repubblica)





15. Visual Itineraries

    

    Curated visual maps and itineraries offering unique, personalized approaches to explore a certain travel interest or travel need.

    (Google Map Maker, Tripline, MapBox, MapBuilder)





16. Curated Slideshows

    

    Curated collections of tweets or news stories delivered as a sequence of slides.

    (Like Storify or Qwiki)





17. (Animated) Data Maps

    

    Data charts providing the ability to see data overlaid on maps, and / or being animated over time

    (Google Data Public Data Visualization Tools, Public Data Explorer, Google Chart Tools.

    Also interesting: Google Fusion Tables, IBM Many Eyes)





18. Curated Guides - Learning Sites

    

    Similar to custom-created textbooks, these are sites that focus on curating and organizing taccess to the very best courses and tutorials for a specific industry, topic or application.

    (Lynda.com - Please suggest other relevant examples)





19. Visual Timelines

    

    Collect an organize images and notes along a visual timeline.

    (Memolane)





20. Teacher Curated Textbooks

    

    The time for what SafariU from O'Reilly tried to do over 6 years ago has probably come. Tools will allow teachers to curate and put together their own custom textbooks using the best and most relevant content already available out there.

    (DynamicBooks, FlatWorldKnowledge MIYO, Flexbooks)
    





21. Curated Color Palettes

    

    Curated color palettes and swatches.

    (Adobe Kuler)





22. Curated Films

    

    A film or movie created by curating user-contributions (crowdsourced) on a specific topic or theme.

    (YouTube Life in a Day)





23. Live Video Curation / Live Music Curation

    

    Live platforms allowing to 'curate' live, like a DJ does, music or video selections.

    (Turntable.fm, Chill VJ set)
    





24. Summarized Open Questions

    

    A synthesized overview of multiple answers provided in an open forum or Q&A site.

    (Quora example)





25. Curated Social Books

    

    A book created by aggregating / curating personal social content posted online.

    (Picplum, TweetBookz, Facebook Books: 7 Ways To Print Your Social Media Memories)





26. Curated Infographics

    

    A 'curated' collection of infographics, created by picking and organizing different types of information and organizing them into a custom visual, or by bringing together related infographics to get a bigger picture of a specific topic.

    (CVgram is a supercool curated infographic service capable of generating a custom curated infographic of your professional profile.

    Daytum allows you to curate an create infographics out of any data you have.

    These instead are some good 'curated' infographics collections: Awesome LinkedIn Infographics, 35 Cool Infographics for Web and Graphic Designers, SEOMoz Essential SEO Infographics
    

)





27. Curated Visual Compositions and Galleries

    

    These are visually galleries and image pinboards where curators can organize, manage and publish visual sets around a specific topic or theme.

    (Polyvore, Pinterest, GimmeBar, Imagespark)





28. Curated Search Channels

    

    Curated search engines and channels do not rely exclusively on software algorithms but make large use of user-driven selections and preferences.

    (Blekko, Kikaros)





29. Curated Books

    

    The idea is not new, but the time has come now for it to become a viable reality. Anyone can put together a new book by utilizing licensed content from other sources and authors and organizing and formatting in completely new ways.

    (BookRiff, Blurb)





30. Curated Calendars

    

    A curated set of events on a specific topic or theme, organized on an easily to navigate visual calendar.
    (no tools yet available - please suggest)





31. Curated Offers and Coupons

    

    This just came to mind as I was about to close this article. I have not seen this one yet, out there in the 'wild', but I surely have no doubt that this will be another good one very soon.

    (Appsumo, Startups)

Conclusions

New curated content delivery formats are rapidly emerging to support the increasing demand for collecting, organizing and republishing-sharing information collections of all kinds.

Due to rapid surge in the amount of information available under all forms, from news stories, to photos, videos, reports and scientific info, it is only inevitable that new roles and tools will emerge to help us filter, organize, and make sense of all this information available to us.

If you are a web publisher or author, I suggest you familiarize yourself with these new curated content formats as well as experimenting and introducing new ones.

If you are a startup or a company developing visual communication services or tools to help people curate content and information of all kinds, I recommend you strive toward trying to integrate features that allow the delivery of such curated content collections in new and effective ways, by taking inspiration from the samples I have listed above.

The above are some of the reasons why I expect a blossoming of new and innovative curated delivery formats, allowing a much broader application of the curator skills to many more content contexts beyond the typical curated news or link digest.

Originally written by Robin Good for MasterNewMedia and first published on September 5th 2011 as 'Curated Content Delivery Formats: Beyond News Portals and Magazines'.

Photo credits:
What is the problem? - Aliaksei Lakamkin
The Opportunity - Leli456
Collaborative Toolkits - Aha-Soft
Curated Report Pages - News Story Page - Carl Wood
Visual timeline of events - I Love Free Software
Other Icons - Icon Finder

Photo credit: Peshkova

What happens next is that the designer grows angry to the customer instead of rejoycing for the new work, knowing that changes and adjustments are more of a pain in the ass than an opportunity for extra revenue.

At the same time the customer slowly develops a feeling of frustration and imprisonement by having to depend so much on his web designer / agency to get what he wants.

So, everyone loses in this equation.

But then, how can the typical freelance web designer or small web agency scale itself if the complexity of the technology behind a web site then binds them to the customer for any little change or request?

Small clients in turn, need to operate rapidly and independently and do not enjoy at all the idea of having to depend on someone else to make changes or improvements to their web site. Worse than this, they don't expect and don't easily accept the idea of having to pay extra money to get these small changes done.

It's really a negative vicious loop.

How can it be solved?

Read on and see what I think is about to happen.

What Is the Problem?

Web designers can do less and less, while being stretched way too thin by their customer requests, so much so that the idea of having more customers becomes many times a dreaded problem.

The paradox is that while many a web designer are more than 'willing' to help out his / her many customers with their small requests, on the other hand, accepting to work on these many little changes and revisions prevents them from being able to accept and handle new design work, which is the one that 'pays'.

Customers grow frustrated and unsatisfied with their inability to control, modify and edit their own web sites, 'just in the time'.

Even technically-savvy customers grow frustrated as well, because even though they can make adjustments themselves, they often result in less then optimally designed and usable results.

It is a vicious loop that slowly kills the web designer and his passion, while leaving often a customer frustrated and unsatisfied of his inability to modify and improve independently his own web site.

This is the problem.

Web designers do not want to succumb under hundreds of small technical requests and their customers need to be able to create 'professionally designed' web sites, without having to depend constantly on them to maintain and edit them.

How can this problem be solved?

It may actually be that the solution is already well underway.

What Is The Real Need?

Let me step back for a second and analyze more specifically what the actual need of the user-customer really is.

The problem-need of the user-customer / web publisher is the one of being able to create, and then then update / modify / review, specific content-application formats on his web site.

He may have a home page, a landing page to sell a product, a subscription page, or a directory of services he maintains. There may be a small shop, a newsradar or even a blog. The list could go on extensively.

The point is that most professional web publishers and entrepreneurs will want not just a container for text, or a simple blog, but something which integrates, several different content functionalities / formats and which looks outright 'professional', 'slick', 'usable' and 'user-friendly'.

While the functionality part may be satisfied in many cases by the vast number of plugins, and add-ons for web sites and blogs available online, the simple addition / integration of these is not without pain and it often results in a 'patched-up' solution, where you can see that many new elements have been added without having been designed to be together.

Even the many templates galleries available on the Web do not provide a solution to this issue, as the vast majority of them provide a pretty standardized approach to web site design, mostly based on blogs and traditional web site architectures. The functionalities provided in these templates are limited to providing the basic building blocks to integrate any video, audio, text, image or feed into a page, but much less on providing specific in-page functionalities, devoted to take on specific 'value creation' tasks.

Let me give you again some examples of such type of 'page-apps', as I would tentatively call them:

• Download PDF page with subscription/squeeze functionality
• Sales / Landing page for new product or service
• Catalog - Showcase page
• News and feeds page on a specific topic
• Infographic
• Step-by-Step Tutorial
• Gallery of interviews
• Catalog of special custom itineraries
• A Manifesto-declaration page
• Job exchange service
• News radar magazine and so on...

These are in my opinion, just a small sample of the type of content value components that individuals and companies operating on the web are increasingly demanding.

These individuals want better tools to produce 'professionally looking' valuable content, without needing to keep a web designer on their payroll and without needing to call the webmaster every time they want to make some little change.

Existing Solutions

The available solutions today, do go beyond standard web site templates, but without solving the issue. The possible alternatives to design a web site without using a web designer today include:

a) Templates Themes (see my Top40 Templates Design Galleries map)

d) Blog platforms

c) Web site builders

d) CSS Design Frameworks

Each one of these alternatives, provides some unique specific advantages, but as I have pointed out, none really solves the issue. Let's look at each one and see why:

• a) Templates
  Existing design templates tend to be very standardized and supported functionalities are limited to providing the basic building blocks to integrate any video, audio, text, image or feed into a page, but much less on providing specific functionalities and in-page 'value creation' tasks.





• b) Blog Platforms
  Tools like WordPress are a great solution and act as powerful enablers for all those who have some technical skill and who enjoy tweaking configuration files, learning new software and in general dealing with technical aspect of things. If you are not so technically-inclined, these consumer-CMS tools like Wordpress and its competitors, do not really provide a solution, as they demand competence in areas that have nothing to do with actual communication, the presentation of information or the delivery and packaging of it.

  As a matter of fact, even those who command such technical skills and choose to use one of these consumer CMS do then need to rely on some 'design template' to give a professional appearance to their online communication vehicle.





• c) Web Site Builders
  Limitations of existing web site builders is that, in general they tend offer a lot of easy to use tools to build rapidly and at very low cost a web site at the expense of providing a) good quality designs that can be easily customized, b) support for specific needs and functionalities that go beyond basic article publishing.





• d) Frameworks
  Frameworks, such as ...... are super-powerful tools that simplify the work of the web designer in preparing and modifying web site layouts. Unfortunately, the complexity, technicalities and knowledge required to use these tools effectively, makes them uninteresting for the average web site publisher, who would need a course about DIVs, CSS and HTML5 before being able to take full advantage of these.

What We Actually Need

What I think is needed is a new breed of tools and services that allows entrepreneurs, marketers and web publishers of all kinds to easily customize, pre-set, 'intelligent' design, which go beyond the aesthetics of creating a neat home page or article layout and into providing a very specific function.

If web designers can invest their time into 'virtualizing' their skills into sets of functional templates / apps for very specific needs, then they can also provide, rent out or sell the tools, assistance or know-how required to edit and maintain them independently.

In other words: designers should gradually become creators of design tools that 'enable' non-designers to produce effective solutions and to make them in turn distributors of design knowledge and skills to those that do not have it.

Designers need to express higher-value through their skills while being able to scale themselves.

That is: the publishing-communication tool without the design component is worth nothing. We need both the function and the design. Integrated into one.

From Static Content Pages To Page-Apps

Today, the name of the game for who wants to be effective in communicating and marketing online is engagement. To get your message across or to get people to support your cause you need to engage them. To have them discuss, to have them provide you feedback and ideas, to have them act as your best marketing agents, you need to engage them.

This is why going beyond the traditional blog post or the basic article approach is so critical in today online ecosystem.

Readers are looking for unique, high-value experiences, and especially for those where, beyond informing or entertaining themselves lightly, they can also contribute, share, participate deeply.

The Emergence of App-Pages

The good news, is that such new breed, as I would call it, of page-apps is already out there.

In essence, 'page-apps' are web services or software tools designed to provide entrepreneurs, business people and web publishers with the ability to add, design, modify and integrate new content and web site functionalities, without ever needing to sacrifice on quality, precision, and without needing to hire a designer and a webmaster to do it specifically for them.

To best describe such page-apps it would be good again to refer to the shortlist of web site building tools I have mentioned above, as these new apps combine some of the unique traits and features of:

1. Templates
2. Website builders
3. CSS Design Frameworks

while adding the characteristics of:

4. Content Wizards
5. Interactive Visual Canvases
6. Specific Application Use

Characterizing Traits of Page-Apps

These new emerging page-apps are recognizable by these traits:

1. Do not require coding or tech knowledge beyond knowing a URL or an RSS feed
2. Are very easy to use
3. Are simple and intuitive
4. Do not require manuals or tutorials to be used
5. Work as simple wizards or fill-in-the-blank forms
6. Can leverage both fresh new content uploaded as well as existing published content
7. Integrate 'design' intelligence across their features
   - Integrated design intelligence means that the user-customer can do no harm.
   - Integrated design intelligence means that the user can select and personalize within pre-established boundaries
8. Provide professional-looking base designs to start
9. Provide user-independent editing and customization
10. Can be easily integrated into existing web sites

Examples of Page-Apps

Many of the 'Profile Page' services provide what I would consider a page-app. Here a few:
Flavors.me
About.me

Curation tools are a good example of page-apps that have a very specific function and which, in some cases, start to show some integrated design intelligence.
Scoop.it
Montage
Webdoc

Custom landing page builders, squeeze page and video-squeeze page building systems:
Here is a reference map pinpointing some of the tools in this space.

But there are tons of examples in all possible areas:
FAQme
Postano
Kajabi

Here are some web site design tools made for designers which are already moving in the right direction:
Map of custom application builders.

Tools and services to create elegant photographer or web designer portfolios.

Shopping and e-commerce examples:
Godsie
MadeFreshly www.madefreshly.com
Blomming

Benefits

Benefits to Designers - Developers

The benefits to designers is the ability to scale themselves by 'virtualizing' their design skills and providing a much greater number of individuals with the ability to use and create professional designs.

Designers get also the opportunity to move beyond static, aesthetically pleasing designs into functional designs that allow their customers to go beyond average content publishing chores and into specific value creation offerings. While this may be considered a challenge and not a benefit, it offers designers the opportunity to build a reputation not based just on design skills but on their application to specific uses, applications and profiles/targets.

Further such tools and services free up designers from having to constantly assist customers for small changes and refinements while providing them with the opportunity to reserve their extra energies to share and divulge their design skills to their fans and customers.

Benefits to End Users

End users benefit from these new custom designed web apps by having access to 'functional' and 'professionally-looking' components that allow them to provide real value to their readers and potential customers beyond the typical articles, news and blog posts.

End users benefit by having the ability to edit and update this content value modules independently without needing to resort to a web designer or to a webmaster and therefore saving time and money to their operations.

Conclusions

I have a very strong feeling. The CMS and publishing tools we have been using over the last 10 years or so, are about to give way to a new breed of communication tools.

These new publishing instruments and tools will differentiate themselves from the traditional CMS and blog publishing platforms by allowing non-technical individuals and non-designers to create professionally-looking content-pages-with-functionalities for their web sites.

Specifically these new publishing tools:

1) will integrate a muh higher level of design 'intelligence' making virtually impossible for authors and publishers to create amateurish layouts and compositions.

2) will provide the ability not to be just'content containers' but to utilized for interacting and providing a specific function, app or service to the user such as showcasing a gallery of images, displaying a directory of services or tools, comparing different softwares, curating a thematic newsradar, and so on.

3) will be easy to use, highly interactive, will contain many great presets, and will be economically accessible to most web and mobile publishers.

In more general terms:

a) We can't expect web publishing tools, however sophisticated, to solve all of our problems as such tools are not aware of our objectives, nor of the type of message we are trying to communicate.

b) A web publishing platform / tool without integrated design 'intelligence' is worth nothing. We need both the function and the design 'intelligence'.

c) Design-wise, we are improvising too much, and relying excessively on highly expensive designers and web agencies, instead of realizing the importance of building new publishing tools that integrated both design intelligence and valuable functionality. (Considering also that this would be also a huge opportunity for web designers and agencies to scale themselves and increase their revenues).

d) The goal is to innovate and improve; not to repeat the print media approach on the web. If this is a medium that does not require readers to stay passive and read only, let's start building the tools that will empower publishers to do so, while freeing them from web designers enslavement and allowing them to produce stunning results.

Suggested reading: The CMS Is Broken by Erik Hinton

Originally written by Robin Good for MasterNewMedia and first published on July 26th 2011 as 'Web Design: The Emergence Of Page Apps'

Photo credits:
What Is the Problem? - Cyril Hou
What Is The Real Need? - tomeng
What We Actually Need - Vacuum3D
From Static Content Pages To Page-Apps - AmbientIdeas
Characterizing Traits of Page-Apps - Davide Guglielmo
Examples of Page-Apps - Michelle Gibson
Benefits - Stephen Aaron Rees

Photo credit: JGraphic, Empire Avenue, mashed by Robin Good

And assuming one wants to start playing it, what are the best strategies and approaches to make it work?

In this second part of my Complete Guide to Empire Avenue (Part 1) I have brought together some of the best resources, videos, articles and tools, that I would recommend you to look at if you want to get good at EAv.

Find out:

• Will It Take Off or Is It a Fad?
• Who Can Play
• How to Start Playing
• How to Make Good Investments Inside EAv
• Valuable Reading Resources on EAv
• Recommended Facebook Groups and Pages
• EAv Tools: Plugins, Extensions, Software

Find out more about this new fascinating universe, at the crossroad between social media analytics, social network marketing and cooperative online gaming.

Will It Take Off or Is It a Fad?

Before deciding whether or not you will invest time into Empire Avenue, I guess you may be wondering whether my excitement and passion for it may not just be the fruit of my love for new technology toys and ego-stroking game mechanics.

And you would be right in doing so. Given the shrinking amount of free time we are faced within our daily activities, any new addition, especially if of the game kind, should truly provide some tangible enjoyment, the opportunity to learn something valuable and to gradually build new relationships.

My personal impression, after having played now for just over a month, is that EAv is a truly valuable and highly innovative mix of gaming, social networking and stock market mechanics. In my experience EAv does provide enjoyment, learning and social networking benefits well beyond what I have seen elsewhere online.

I don't have a crystal ball, nor I am an official analyst for this industry sector but, while I may be certainly wrong on this, I have developed a strong sense that EAv is unlike the typical game for many reasons. EAv introduces the online public for the first time into a realm where the physically real influences the virtual and vice versa.

This is a game in which winning is a highly collaborative effort, and where adopting low-level game tactics does not pay back over the long run.

The key factor - and again I may not see this properly - in my humble opinion, that sets Empire Avenue completely apart from any other gaming and social networking experience I have been exposed to until now, is the fact that unless you truly master the art /science of helping, supporting and cooperating with others toward a mutually beneficial growth, you are doomed.

Solo plays for the sake of having the highest stock value or dividends accrue much less overall return to those who play them, as this game provides so much more than the score or dividends you are able to rack up.

At least, this is what I see.

Given the many different opinions that exist on EAv, I think that the best think you can do to find out who is really right, is either to play it now or to wait a year and half and see what happens to it.

Here, some interesting EAv mentions, thoughts and comments, which may help you further understand what this game is all about.

'The stock market aspect is a window dressing gimmick, to what could become a very valuable introduction to this diverse ecosystem of players and thinkers.

Whether we are able to get past the window dressing and wander in to a rich store of relationships, thought leadership, collaborative learning, and more... well, that depends first on where the EA designers, strategists, and engineers are currently investing their resources and talents...

and then it will depend on how many of us are willing to stop playing the popularity game and return to focusing on the development of selective and truly rewarding relationships... just like in the 'real' world!'

Source: Nicholas de Wolff on Quora

'Empire Avenue's getting traction I think because it has the potential to create a kind of contribution economy built out of social connectivity.

A contribution economy is the evolutionary 'next step' in terms of investment effectiveness and efficiency and reliable return.

It plays to the valuing of information flows as opposed to stocks, so in that sense EA has latched onto something very significant.

We're beginning to appreciate that there is an intangible asset value in highly connected and influential people and businesses.

As this becomes increasingly obvious, we can see that people and brands that are liked and that create social dialogue possess above average worth within in a network.

It makes a lot of sense for Empire Avenue to create a fun and enterprising way to mine this.

Just because it's fun doesn't mean it's entirely trivial.'

Source: Anne-McCrossan on Quora

'While it's easy to compare to Facebook games like Farmville, EA is different in that it lets you continue growing in value without visiting the site.

Just keep active on your social networks and your share price slowly goes up.

This is nice for people who don't want to get consumed by the buying and selling portion of the game, but dangerous for EA if they want to keep people engaged and coming back.

Casual people will check every few weeks or so, or just forget about it completely. If your EA value can get constant visibility the way Klout does, then there'll be a lot more long term interest.'

Source: Jay Baron on Quora

'I've been on EA for almost a year now and seen it grow from a niche community to this point where it's gaining some sort of traction.

What I take away from EA is that the game element is almost secondary compared to the great networking value the site provides.

I've met a lot of like-minded individuals and peers from my profession apart from others who share common interests. THIS is what makes the game exciting and imho will make it a success.'

Source: Yashvir Dalaya on Quora

'There are many reasons to like Empire Avenue but I also have some concerns. I’m not crazy about the 'shop' as part of the monetization strategy... yet (but I understand you have to pay the bills, and I’m sure servers aren’t cheap). My thoughts are that EA should be focusing on building their user base first and the money will typically follow.'

Source: 5 Reasons Why Avenue Empire Could Be the Next Big Thing in Social Media (part 2)

Who Can Play

There are two ways that you can start playing EAv.

a) Content Producers
If you are a blogger, an online marketing person, or someone already active on social media, then your approach to EAv is the one of a content producer and relationship maker.

b) Social Media Users
If you are someone fascinated by social media and understanding better how online marketing works, and you are NOT an active content or social media contributor, then you may approach EAv as a media investor, and even without having new articles, video clips or posts being published daily, you can participate and play the game as intensely as anyone else.

Let's look at both options:

a) Content Producers and Active Social Media Individuals

'As a Content Creator and Engager you can use Empire Avenue to build an audience across multiple networks, through Blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube and, of course, Empire Avenue and its Communities.

Success in this area means finding and attracting people to invest in, who might be interested in you, join your network and, in turn, invest in you.

By driving other people to action, you're creating an audience, enhancing your network, being social and creating value... all of which will RAISE your Share Price.'

Here are a few specific things that can help you increase your EAv share price:

1) Continue to create great content, across all of your social media channels.

2) Get other people to view, share, like and comment your newly published content.

3) Search and identify people with similar interests, passions or simply who are great communicators and online marketers and who are very active on social media.

4) Learn how to recognize real valuable investments from shooting stars, or big brand names with no real action behind them. Look not at names or level of celebrity but at the level of engagement and activity these individuals have on social media.

5) Get Chris Pirillo's P3 Chrome browser extension and start looking more carefully at the various value indicators displayed for each stock and specifically at actual dividends this investment is bringing in.

6) Join Communities of Interest inside EAv and participate by exchanging, helping and supporting other fellow EAv users.

7) Use shareholder email to inform periodically your investors about your progress, expectations for the near future, and in particular, to give them specific suggestions on where and how to invest better.

8) Invite your friends and contacts from other social networks and support them in moving through the first few steps inside EAv. Each invited friend that joins EAv brings you a few thousand eaves of reward.

9) Look for new arrivals and be prepared to make smart investments on those who have just entered, and have a low price, but high probabilities of growing fast.

10) Don't go for for short-terms gains only. Invest in a mix of high-value, stable and growing stocks, as well as in a rapidly changing pool of new entrants, which in most cases you use to produce fast returns to be re-invested on high-price blue-chip shares.

b) Content Consumer and Social Media User (Not a Content Producer)

As an Investor, your job is to find other people and brands who are valuable and produce great content and to invest and network up with them.

And here are a few specific tips on how to become a great EAv investor even if you do not produce and publish any content:

1) Search and identify individuals and brands that are already on EAv and that have a growing share price and good dividends (5-figure).

2) Spot and invest into promising new arrivals (there is a section dedicated to them on your EAv home page) by looking at their initial IPO price and both at the rate of share growth as well as their apparent engagement and activity on social media.

3) Help new arrivals by guiding them into making their first investment steps properly and in understanding how to extract the best from EAv.

4) Join relevant communities inside EAv and learn, exchange and share with like-minded people.

5) Follow 'trending' and 'recommended' investments suggested automatically by the EA system, but evaluate carefully on your own, which stock you want to invest in.

How To Start Playing

Here the first three steps you have to make as soon as you sign up for Empire Avenue.

After you are done with your basic profile setup, you are ready to start investing in other people and companies.

For me it has taken a full month of playing before realizing many of the subtle variables that contribute to make one a successful and valuable player inside EAv. Actually, I think I do have a lot more still to learn and appreciate this game system to its fullest. But I'm getting there.

I consider this rather long learning curve a positive aspect of EAv, as I enjoy discovering gradually what the game can offer me and how I can be best at it.

If you are just starting out, it is therefore of the essence that you do follow some indications on how to move your initial steps, as what may seem superficially as the best thing to do, it is often not.

Probably, one of the most important things to do as you start is to learn to understand what the different indicators really mean (share price, dividends, earnings, ROI, etc.) as they are all very important in helping a player take effective decisions and in administering his money.

The great thing about EAv is that many of the best players have fully understood that to keep themselves moving forward, one of the very best and most effective action-strategies, is to help novices understand the game and master it.

This attitude generates a win-win proposition as new players do not abandon EAv frustrated or overwhelmed by its richness or initial difficulties, but instead, with the help of other successful players, they get to enjoy more of the game early on, while becoming rapidly great investments for those who have invested in helping and teaching them first.

Look therefore at the best players actions, investments, by monitoring all of their EAv activities by using the 'Watch' function and read carefully their Shareholders' Email notifications where they share their best tips and recommendations.

Here below is a short selection of the best introductory guides for new EAv players:

• A Beginner's Guide To Empire Avenue
  Why would you play a game like Empire Avenue? If you’re new to the world of social networking, it’s a fun way to learn the ropes and encourage you to participate in each of your social networks to the max.
• What's All The Fuss About Empire Avenue
  Empire Avenue is just a game right now there are interesting spin-offs that could come out of this including people with virtual currency in 'their shop' and as an interesting way of ranking people. We’ve seen services like Klout try to do this through algorithms but the approach from Empire Avenue is far more engaging.
• The Empire Avenue Experience - Part 1
  What is Empire Avenue? Many users including myself share the thought that EA is like a crowd sourced version of Klout. One tweet by Jeremiah Owyang offers another explanation �' “Empire Avenue explained in 140 characters: It’s Farmville for Social Media”. While there are certainly social media and gaming elements, Empire Avenue is also a stock market for people.

How To Make Good Investments Inside EAv

Duration: 13:47 - In this interview, Syed and Chris Pirillo discuss what Empire Avenue actually is, how to make great investments and what attitude is best to use on EAv.

• Chris Pirillo: My Empire Avenue Strategy and Tips
  This is an absolute must-read for anyone wanting to get the best out of EAv. Chris Pirillo is the top stock inside EAv and the best person from whom I would recommend you get advice from if you are just starting out.
• Empire Investment Tips for Social Media Managers
• 8 Share Spiking Tips For Empire Avenue
• Empire Avenue: The Social Media Stock Market





• TeamZen.org
  A daily updated table of the best EAv stocks to invest in. Invaluable. Highly recommended.
• Three great stock tips and investment communities that you can join in, once inside EAv are #TeamZen, #XBar and #SocialEmpire. Check them out. (Buy your advisors stock, both as an advance thank you, but also so you can see what they’re buying, by looking at their homepage profile.) These communities can provide some good help and word of mouth promotion for your stock, and I would advise at least considering a partnership with them. (Given that the cost to do this is zero, and all you have to do is to promote their ticker via your own, it is a pretty unrisky move, at least for what I can see so far.

Valuable Reading Resources on EAv

• Quora: Will Empire Ave take off or is it a fad?
• Why I Left Empire Avenue
• How to become a millionaire in less than 30 days (in Empire Avenue)
• Empire Avenue Guide on LinkedIn
  Great advice and tips for new investments in EA
• Empire Avenue TV blog
  Empire Avenue Blog created and written by Caleb Storkey for the Empire Avenue Community
• Empire Avenue FAQ
  Find answers to your questions about Empire Avenue here
• Dr Ron Kapps aka @nicheproff
  Successful strategies about how to build your brand on Empire Avenue and his community of Empire Avenue Tips.
• Empire Avenue Nederland
  News, tips and resources
• EAv ProBlog
  Daily tips and suggestions on who you can invest on. Fast movers and great new opportunities for investments.
• Empire Avenue Fans
  The Newbie how-to Guide to Empire Avenue. Find out how to get started, learn what makes up your scores on EAv, educate yourself on how to best invest. Great beginner guide. Recommended.

Recommended Facebook Groups and Pages

Groups

• EAv Nederland
• TEAM ZEN
• SocialEmpire
• Empire Avenue
• [X] Bar
• EAv Hot Stock Tips
• EAv Guide Group
• EAv Winners - Chris Voss

Pages

• Empire Avenue Guide - Facebook Page
• Empire Avenue - Independent Facebook Page - ongoing stock tips

EAv Tools: Plugins, Extensions, Software

1. Recommended Extension for your Google Chrome Browser

Google Chrome Extension - P3 for Empire Avenue
This is the Pirillo Power Pack for Empire Avenue. I strongly recommend this Google Chrome browser extension to anyone who wants to seriously play this game and make the best and most informed decisions before buying or selling shares in someone. I find it absolutely indispensable. It is free to install.





2. Zerowood

   A stock screener app by eANGLER which allows you to closely evaluate a EAv stock before investing in it.





3. Empire Avenue Facebook App

   If you want to play Empire Avenue without ever leaving your favorite social media network, you can do so by going straight to: http://www.facebook.com/empireavenuegame and the click on the blue 'Go To App' button.





4. EAv Trader for Windows App

   This is a simple windows application with some basic functionality that could be useful if you are an active EA trader. You can read all about it and see several screenshots here. To download it go here: http://eavtrader.com/windows/EAvTradersetup.msi





5. Eboardwalk EAV Apps

   Great set of tools that allow you to download some of the most interesting data from EAv, including all the stocks you own, shareholders in which you have a stake, 30-day dividend history file, Google map showing where your shareholders are, and more.

End of Part 2 - Part 1 here

Originally written and curated by Robin Good and first published on MasterNewMedia on July 19th 2011 as 'The Complete Guide To The Social Media Exchange: Empire Avenue - Part 2'.

Photo credits:
Will It Take Off or Is It a Fad? - Vacuum3d

]]> Is Empire Avenue just a fad? Is EAv just another social network and maybe a fascinating new type of news reader (like Robert Scoble writes), or is it really - like I think - a whole new ball game?

Photo credit: JGraphic, Empire Avenue, mashed by Robin Good

And assuming one wants to start playing it, what are the best strategies and approaches to make it work?

In this second part of my Complete Guide to Empire Avenue (Part 1) I have brought together some of the best resources, videos, articles and tools, that I would recommend you to look at if you want to get good at EAv.

Find out:

• Will It Take Off or Is It a Fad?
• Who Can Play
• How to Start Playing
• How to Make Good Investments Inside EAv
• Valuable Reading Resources on EAv
• Recommended Facebook Groups and Pages
• EAv Tools: Plugins, Extensions, Software

Find out more about this new fascinating universe, at the crossroad between social media analytics, social network marketing and cooperative online gaming.

Will It Take Off or Is It a Fad?

Before deciding whether or not you will invest time into Empire Avenue, I guess you may be wondering whether my excitement and passion for it may not just be the fruit of my love for new technology toys and ego-stroking game mechanics.

And you would be right in doing so. Given the shrinking amount of free time we are faced within our daily activities, any new addition, especially if of the game kind, should truly provide some tangible enjoyment, the opportunity to learn something valuable and to gradually build new relationships.

My personal impression, after having played now for just over a month, is that EAv is a truly valuable and highly innovative mix of gaming, social networking and stock market mechanics. In my experience EAv does provide enjoyment, learning and social networking benefits well beyond what I have seen elsewhere online.

I don't have a crystal ball, nor I am an official analyst for this industry sector but, while I may be certainly wrong on this, I have developed a strong sense that EAv is unlike the typical game for many reasons. EAv introduces the online public for the first time into a realm where the physically real influences the virtual and vice versa.

This is a game in which winning is a highly collaborative effort, and where adopting low-level game tactics does not pay back over the long run.

The key factor - and again I may not see this properly - in my humble opinion, that sets Empire Avenue completely apart from any other gaming and social networking experience I have been exposed to until now, is the fact that unless you truly master the art /science of helping, supporting and cooperating with others toward a mutually beneficial growth, you are doomed.

Solo plays for the sake of having the highest stock value or dividends accrue much less overall return to those who play them, as this game provides so much more than the score or dividends you are able to rack up.

At least, this is what I see.

Given the many different opinions that exist on EAv, I think that the best think you can do to find out who is really right, is either to play it now or to wait a year and half and see what happens to it.

Here, some interesting EAv mentions, thoughts and comments, which may help you further understand what this game is all about.

'The stock market aspect is a window dressing gimmick, to what could become a very valuable introduction to this diverse ecosystem of players and thinkers.

Whether we are able to get past the window dressing and wander in to a rich store of relationships, thought leadership, collaborative learning, and more... well, that depends first on where the EA designers, strategists, and engineers are currently investing their resources and talents...

and then it will depend on how many of us are willing to stop playing the popularity game and return to focusing on the development of selective and truly rewarding relationships... just like in the 'real' world!'

Source: Nicholas de Wolff on Quora

'Empire Avenue's getting traction I think because it has the potential to create a kind of contribution economy built out of social connectivity.

A contribution economy is the evolutionary 'next step' in terms of investment effectiveness and efficiency and reliable return.

It plays to the valuing of information flows as opposed to stocks, so in that sense EA has latched onto something very significant.

We're beginning to appreciate that there is an intangible asset value in highly connected and influential people and businesses.

As this becomes increasingly obvious, we can see that people and brands that are liked and that create social dialogue possess above average worth within in a network.

It makes a lot of sense for Empire Avenue to create a fun and enterprising way to mine this.

Just because it's fun doesn't mean it's entirely trivial.'

Source: Anne-McCrossan on Quora

'While it's easy to compare to Facebook games like Farmville, EA is different in that it lets you continue growing in value without visiting the site.

Just keep active on your social networks and your share price slowly goes up.

This is nice for people who don't want to get consumed by the buying and selling portion of the game, but dangerous for EA if they want to keep people engaged and coming back.

Casual people will check every few weeks or so, or just forget about it completely. If your EA value can get constant visibility the way Klout does, then there'll be a lot more long term interest.'

Source: Jay Baron on Quora

'I've been on EA for almost a year now and seen it grow from a niche community to this point where it's gaining some sort of traction.

What I take away from EA is that the game element is almost secondary compared to the great networking value the site provides.

I've met a lot of like-minded individuals and peers from my profession apart from others who share common interests. THIS is what makes the game exciting and imho will make it a success.'

Source: Yashvir Dalaya on Quora

'There are many reasons to like Empire Avenue but I also have some concerns. I’m not crazy about the 'shop' as part of the monetization strategy... yet (but I understand you have to pay the bills, and I’m sure servers aren’t cheap). My thoughts are that EA should be focusing on building their user base first and the money will typically follow.'

Source: 5 Reasons Why Avenue Empire Could Be the Next Big Thing in Social Media (part 2)

Who Can Play

There are two ways that you can start playing EAv.

a) Content Producers
If you are a blogger, an online marketing person, or someone already active on social media, then your approach to EAv is the one of a content producer and relationship maker.

b) Social Media Users
If you are someone fascinated by social media and understanding better how online marketing works, and you are NOT an active content or social media contributor, then you may approach EAv as a media investor, and even without having new articles, video clips or posts being published daily, you can participate and play the game as intensely as anyone else.

Let's look at both options:

a) Content Producers and Active Social Media Individuals

'As a Content Creator and Engager you can use Empire Avenue to build an audience across multiple networks, through Blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube and, of course, Empire Avenue and its Communities.

Success in this area means finding and attracting people to invest in, who might be interested in you, join your network and, in turn, invest in you.

By driving other people to action, you're creating an audience, enhancing your network, being social and creating value... all of which will RAISE your Share Price.'

Here are a few specific things that can help you increase your EAv share price:

1) Continue to create great content, across all of your social media channels.

2) Get other people to view, share, like and comment your newly published content.

3) Search and identify people with similar interests, passions or simply who are great communicators and online marketers and who are very active on social media.

4) Learn how to recognize real valuable investments from shooting stars, or big brand names with no real action behind them. Look not at names or level of celebrity but at the level of engagement and activity these individuals have on social media.

5) Get Chris Pirillo's P3 Chrome browser extension and start looking more carefully at the various value indicators displayed for each stock and specifically at actual dividends this investment is bringing in.

6) Join Communities of Interest inside EAv and participate by exchanging, helping and supporting other fellow EAv users.

7) Use shareholder email to inform periodically your investors about your progress, expectations for the near future, and in particular, to give them specific suggestions on where and how to invest better.

8) Invite your friends and contacts from other social networks and support them in moving through the first few steps inside EAv. Each invited friend that joins EAv brings you a few thousand eaves of reward.

9) Look for new arrivals and be prepared to make smart investments on those who have just entered, and have a low price, but high probabilities of growing fast.

10) Don't go for for short-terms gains only. Invest in a mix of high-value, stable and growing stocks, as well as in a rapidly changing pool of new entrants, which in most cases you use to produce fast returns to be re-invested on high-price blue-chip shares.

b) Content Consumer and Social Media User (Not a Content Producer)

As an Investor, your job is to find other people and brands who are valuable and produce great content and to invest and network up with them.

And here are a few specific tips on how to become a great EAv investor even if you do not produce and publish any content:

1) Search and identify individuals and brands that are already on EAv and that have a growing share price and good dividends (5-figure).

2) Spot and invest into promising new arrivals (there is a section dedicated to them on your EAv home page) by looking at their initial IPO price and both at the rate of share growth as well as their apparent engagement and activity on social media.

3) Help new arrivals by guiding them into making their first investment steps properly and in understanding how to extract the best from EAv.

4) Join relevant communities inside EAv and learn, exchange and share with like-minded people.

5) Follow 'trending' and 'recommended' investments suggested automatically by the EA system, but evaluate carefully on your own, which stock you want to invest in.

How To Start Playing

Here the first three steps you have to make as soon as you sign up for Empire Avenue.

After you are done with your basic profile setup, you are ready to start investing in other people and companies.

For me it has taken a full month of playing before realizing many of the subtle variables that contribute to make one a successful and valuable player inside EAv. Actually, I think I do have a lot more still to learn and appreciate this game system to its fullest. But I'm getting there.

I consider this rather long learning curve a positive aspect of EAv, as I enjoy discovering gradually what the game can offer me and how I can be best at it.

If you are just starting out, it is therefore of the essence that you do follow some indications on how to move your initial steps, as what may seem superficially as the best thing to do, it is often not.

Probably, one of the most important things to do as you start is to learn to understand what the different indicators really mean (share price, dividends, earnings, ROI, etc.) as they are all very important in helping a player take effective decisions and in administering his money.

The great thing about EAv is that many of the best players have fully understood that to keep themselves moving forward, one of the very best and most effective action-strategies, is to help novices understand the game and master it.

This attitude generates a win-win proposition as new players do not abandon EAv frustrated or overwhelmed by its richness or initial difficulties, but instead, with the help of other successful players, they get to enjoy more of the game early on, while becoming rapidly great investments for those who have invested in helping and teaching them first.

Look therefore at the best players actions, investments, by monitoring all of their EAv activities by using the 'Watch' function and read carefully their Shareholders' Email notifications where they share their best tips and recommendations.

Here below is a short selection of the best introductory guides for new EAv players:

• A Beginner's Guide To Empire Avenue
  Why would you play a game like Empire Avenue? If you’re new to the world of social networking, it’s a fun way to learn the ropes and encourage you to participate in each of your social networks to the max.
• What's All The Fuss About Empire Avenue
  Empire Avenue is just a game right now there are interesting spin-offs that could come out of this including people with virtual currency in 'their shop' and as an interesting way of ranking people. We’ve seen services like Klout try to do this through algorithms but the approach from Empire Avenue is far more engaging.
• The Empire Avenue Experience - Part 1
  What is Empire Avenue? Many users including myself share the thought that EA is like a crowd sourced version of Klout. One tweet by Jeremiah Owyang offers another explanation �' “Empire Avenue explained in 140 characters: It’s Farmville for Social Media”. While there are certainly social media and gaming elements, Empire Avenue is also a stock market for people.

How To Make Good Investments Inside EAv

Duration: 13:47 - In this interview, Syed and Chris Pirillo discuss what Empire Avenue actually is, how to make great investments and what attitude is best to use on EAv.

• Chris Pirillo: My Empire Avenue Strategy and Tips
  This is an absolute must-read for anyone wanting to get the best out of EAv. Chris Pirillo is the top stock inside EAv and the best person from whom I would recommend you get advice from if you are just starting out.
• Empire Investment Tips for Social Media Managers
• 8 Share Spiking Tips For Empire Avenue
• Empire Avenue: The Social Media Stock Market





• TeamZen.org
  A daily updated table of the best EAv stocks to invest in. Invaluable. Highly recommended.
• Three great stock tips and investment communities that you can join in, once inside EAv are #TeamZen, #XBar and #SocialEmpire. Check them out. (Buy your advisors stock, both as an advance thank you, but also so you can see what they’re buying, by looking at their homepage profile.) These communities can provide some good help and word of mouth promotion for your stock, and I would advise at least considering a partnership with them. (Given that the cost to do this is zero, and all you have to do is to promote their ticker via your own, it is a pretty unrisky move, at least for what I can see so far.

Valuable Reading Resources on EAv

• Quora: Will Empire Ave take off or is it a fad?
• Why I Left Empire Avenue
• How to become a millionaire in less than 30 days (in Empire Avenue)
• Empire Avenue Guide on LinkedIn
  Great advice and tips for new investments in EA
• Empire Avenue TV blog
  Empire Avenue Blog created and written by Caleb Storkey for the Empire Avenue Community
• Empire Avenue FAQ
  Find answers to your questions about Empire Avenue here
• Dr Ron Kapps aka @nicheproff
  Successful strategies about how to build your brand on Empire Avenue and his community of Empire Avenue Tips.
• Empire Avenue Nederland
  News, tips and resources
• EAv ProBlog
  Daily tips and suggestions on who you can invest on. Fast movers and great new opportunities for investments.
• Empire Avenue Fans
  The Newbie how-to Guide to Empire Avenue. Find out how to get started, learn what makes up your scores on EAv, educate yourself on how to best invest. Great beginner guide. Recommended.

Recommended Facebook Groups and Pages

Groups

• EAv Nederland
• TEAM ZEN
• SocialEmpire
• Empire Avenue
• [X] Bar
• EAv Hot Stock Tips
• EAv Guide Group
• EAv Winners - Chris Voss

Pages

• Empire Avenue Guide - Facebook Page
• Empire Avenue - Independent Facebook Page - ongoing stock tips

EAv Tools: Plugins, Extensions, Software

1. Recommended Extension for your Google Chrome Browser

Google Chrome Extension - P3 for Empire Avenue
This is the Pirillo Power Pack for Empire Avenue. I strongly recommend this Google Chrome browser extension to anyone who wants to seriously play this game and make the best and most informed decisions before buying or selling shares in someone. I find it absolutely indispensable. It is free to install.





2. Zerowood

   A stock screener app by eANGLER which allows you to closely evaluate a EAv stock before investing in it.





3. Empire Avenue Facebook App

   If you want to play Empire Avenue without ever leaving your favorite social media network, you can do so by going straight to: http://www.facebook.com/empireavenuegame and the click on the blue 'Go To App' button.





4. EAv Trader for Windows App

   This is a simple windows application with some basic functionality that could be useful if you are an active EA trader. You can read all about it and see several screenshots here. To download it go here: http://eavtrader.com/windows/EAvTradersetup.msi





5. Eboardwalk EAV Apps

   Great set of tools that allow you to download some of the most interesting data from EAv, including all the stocks you own, shareholders in which you have a stake, 30-day dividend history file, Google map showing where your shareholders are, and more.

End of Part 2 - Part 1 here

Originally written and curated by Robin Good and first published on MasterNewMedia on July 19th 2011 as 'The Complete Guide To The Social Media Exchange: Empire Avenue - Part 2'.

Photo credits:
Will It Take Off or Is It a Fad? - Vacuum3d

]]> Tue, 19 July 2011 0:00:00 GMT http://www.masternewmedia.org/the-complete-guide-to-the-social-media-exchange-empire-avenue-part-2