Digital media is evolving. After years of rapid growth, we have entered an age of digital curation. Curation means selectivity in the way we use technology—it means drilling down, finding what tools work for which jobs and honing those tools. This new era presents new opportunities for social change and economic growth.

That was the consensus amongst panelists at the Hamptons Institute, a televised conversation between new media leaders presented in July at Guild Hall in East Hampton, NY. The forum included mavericks who have fueled the fire of social for some America’s biggest brands. They delved into how consumers and brands are connecting through new platforms and shared some worthy perceptions and conclusions about the long arc of digital technology.

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Consumers are increasingly skeptical of traditional advertising, more likely to trust peers for product recommendations and completely networked – and as the digital natives move out of the dorms and into the business world, this trend is only going to get stronger. What is the impact of these networked consumers on the marketing landscape?

E-commerce grows up. Social is the new currency.  Established companies adapt to a new reality, and new companies have surfaced in the wake of social media – entirely to capitalize on social network marketing.

This is the first article in a series exploring social network trends in online commerce and how some Seattle companies are navigating the landscape.

It is interesting to note that some of the most successful new technologies don’t actually invent anything new: peer-to-peer advertising is in fact the oldest variety around. It precedes any mass medium. New technologies, however, make peer-to-peer recommendations more efficient, faster and with a broader footprint than the cave-man version.

According to Kathy Savitt, CEO of Seattle based Lockerz, 73 percent of “Generation Z,”–those born after 1992–purchase products based on recommendations from friends. Lockerz is a member-based web community that rewards users for listening to music, watching videos, answering questions and sharing photos. They base their whole business model on peer-to-peer social networking and “word of mouth” marketing strategies. Read more…

We know that in a crisis or breaking news situation, the Twitter stream can get clogged with retweets, rumor and people trying to hijack a trending topic. Enter curated.by as a possible solution.

San Bruno CA – Image Links To Google Map

Tweet From Sarah Granger – Image Links To Tweet

Thursday about 6 pm, an explosion rocked San Bruno, CA, located near San Francisco airport.

I learned about the fire via Twitter, from Sarah Granger (@sairy), probably about 8 pm.

Soon, I went into Twitter crisis mode:

• I set up a hashtag search (#sanbrunofire) and watched the Twitter trending page (San Bruno). The hashtag search immediately overwhelmed Tweetdeck. (You are being throttled.)
• I set up a tweet archive (sanbrunofire) at TwapperKeeper. And another at 140kit.
• Because Intersect just went live, I thought I’d post a story there for history’s sake. (Intersect makes it easy to find stories in time and place.)

Then I remembered curated.by, a service for curating tweets that is currently in beta.

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Down in Half Moon Bay, Robert Scoble started a discussion on Sunday about the value of “creation” versus “curation” — a discussion centered around Wednesday’s media event at 1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino. Should he attend the Steve Jobs press event and “create” original copy, an eye-witness report? Or should he sit in Half Moon Bay and “curate” news and commentary for his readers? Which path would add the most value?

Curation is a buzz word in journalism and social media circles. I don’t think that curating digital content — news and information — is the same as curating an exhibit of Degas. On the web, we don’t want to see the entirety of each artifact: each article, Tweet, video and op-ed that, in this case, Robert might use to provide us with his unique point of view on Apple’s newest gadget. Instead, we want Robert to pull the best bits (no pun intended) and synthesize them into a coherent narrative.

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