Blood sucking vampires and other new media stories

Guest blogger Kyle Van Blerk, creative partner at integrated consultancy Meteorite, reflects on new media.

So, word on the information super-highway is that content curation is the next ’billion dollar’ opportunity.

In the age of sharing, liking and +1ing, how you share content is now almost as important as the content itself.

According to Facebook, 30 billion pieces of content are shared each month on the social network, with no sign of slowing.

But content curation is fast becoming internet Marmite.

You either doing it, or you’re fighting it.

If you’re a creator, you see curators as the afore-mentioned blood-sucking vampires.

If you’re a curator, you see the creators as a particularly well-stocked blood bank.

But think of it in terms of an artist and an art gallery.

The artist wouldn’t exist without the gallery, and the gallery wouldn’t exist without the artist.

Creating content is all fine and well, but if there’s no-one out there to get it, share it, and like it, does it make a sound when it falls over in a forest? Well, you know what I mean.

Could content curation be the organic, natural solution to the age of information overload?

As the unnervingly clever Clay Shirky once said, ’It’s Not Information Overload. It’s Filter Failure.’

And it’s content curation that’s providing this filter for a lot of people, literally organising the web into relevant, easy-to-digest sections.

Massive brands like Mashable and The Huff have built entire empires on being aggregators of other peoples work and views.

So why all the bad vibes?

Money. As usual.

Curators aren’t asking permission to share content, and they certainly aren’t offering any revenue share either.

So what’s the solution?

Money. As usual.

A ’Like’, RT or +1 is all well and good, but if it’s not benefitting the creator financially in some way, you could argue that’s it’s just a load of free PR.

Enter Flattr.com – a micro-payment system that encourages people to share money as well as content, all with the click of a button.

(I won’t get into the beautiful irony that it’s been created by one of the dudes responsible for The Pirate Bay, but anyway…)

This way, not only do you get to big someone or something up, but you actually make a tangible contribution to them.

Who knows, it could even lead to more creators creating more content of a higher standard.

And that way we all win.