Content and Curation for Nonprofits

Note From Beth:  Jan Gordon picked this one up from Robin Good's curated list.  If I was teaching a workshop on content curation,  I might pick from the skill sets list and use for a self-assessment.    These skills are higher order thinking skills.

 

There are other practical/tactical skills involved and I think Robin has a good list as well.  I'd definitely combined those into some instructional tool

 

 

Beth Kanter, Beth's Blog
http://www.bethkanter.org 

 

 

 

 

Robin Good: The Institute for the Future and the University of Phoenix have teamed up to produce, this past spring, an interesting report entitled Future Work Skills 2020.

 

By looking at the set of emerging skills that this research identifies as vital for future workers, I can't avoid but recognize the very skillset needed by any professional curator or newsmaster.

 

It should only come as a limited surprise to realize that in an information economy, the most valuable skills are those that can harness that primary resource, "information", in new, and immediately useful ways.

 

And being the nature of information like water, which can adapt and flow depending on context, the task of the curator is one of seeing beyond the water,

to the unique rare fish swimming through it.

 

The curator's key talent being the one of recognizing that depending on who you are fishing for, the kind of fish you and other curators could see within the same water pool, may be very different. 

 

 

Here the skills that information-fishermen of the future will need the most:

 

1) Sense-making:

ability to determine the deeper meaning or significance of what is being expressed

 

2) Social intelligence:

ability to connect to others in a deep and direct way, to sense and stimulate reactions and desired interactions

 

3) Novel and adaptive thinking:

proficiency at thinking and coming up with solutions and responses beyond that which is rote or rule-based

 

4) Cross-cultural competency:

ability to operate in different cultural settings

 

5) Computational thinking:

ability to translate vast amounts of data into abstract concepts and to understand data-based reasoning

 

6) New media literacy:

ability to critically assess and develop content that uses new media forms, and to leverage these media for persuasive communication

 

7) Transdisciplinarity:

literacy in and ability to understand concepts across multiple disciplines

 

8) Design mindset:

ability to represent and develop tasks and work processes for desired outcomes

 

9) Cognitive load management:

ability to discriminate and filter information for importance, and to understand how to maximize cognitive functioning using a variety of tools and techniques

 

10) Virtual collaboration:

ability to work productively, drive engagement, and demonstrate presence as a member of a virtual team

 

 

Critical to understand the future ahead. 9/10

 

Curated by Robin Good

 

Executive Summary of the Report: https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapolloresearchinstitute.com%2Fsites%2Fdefault%2Ffiles%2Ffuture-work-skills-executive-summary.pdf 

 

Download a PDF copy of Future Work Skills 2020: https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapolloresearchinstitute.com%2Fsites%2Fdefault%2Ffiles%2Ffuture-skills-2020-research-report.pdf  

Via Robin Good, janlgordon

Got this from Jan Gordon.  I like the visual showing goals.  Good to use when doing a workshop with beginners to help them think through content curation - to what end?

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This great piece was written by Joe Pulizzi, founder of Content Marketing Institute 

 

There is no curation without original content. However, curators can expand the readership and help their niche find meaning and insight in the material as it relates to them. 

 

He says:

 

"So many organizations are getting caught up in content curation, but the real power of content marketing lies in original content creation."

 

Curation is more than a tactic, it is coming to forefront because

 

**people are overwhelmed with too much information.

 

If you're going to create content, I say mixing that with curated content might be a better way to go, again this depends on many factors,  but that's only my opinion.

 

Here are a few things that caught my attention:

 

Y0ur 2012 Checklist -

 

He says, yes, you can and should use content curation techniques, but this should be secondary.

 

I say, Curation is more than a technique and will go beyond a buzz word in 2012 as people learn new techniques.

 

He says:

 

"Focus on the true pain points of your customers and start planning content series around answering those pain points".

 

**I definitely agree but this can be accomplished by curation as well. It's not an either or, a curator can add more vital information, another perspective. provide resources or any number of things beyond the original article.

 

He says:

 

"Find the content curators in your industry and form relationships with them. They’ll help you spread the word about your great content".

 

I say:

 

I believe content creators will want to seek out good content curators  to curate their work.  I watched a six minute video yesterday, the title was "Is Your Content Good Enough To Be Curated"? Now that's a shift in thinking and a very interesting question to ponder, I say, stay tuned........

 

I think both are necessary in different proportions for different types of businesses.

 

What do you think?

 

Commentary by Jan Gordon "Covering Content Curation, Social Media and Beyond"

 

Read full article here: [http://bit.ly/w104L6]

Via janlgordon

This piece was written by Heba Hosny, a guest blogger for Lauralee Walker

 

This article is full of wonderful tips for taking your curation to the next level and embellish your original content.

 

"Content curation rewards are not limited to branding and SEO; it can also enhance the visibility and the quality of your own content."

 

There are many things that caught my attention, here are just a few gems:

 

Curated Content Can Inspire Topics For Created Content

 

If you don't master this one, all the other tips won't make any sense

 

****Understand which topics are irresistible to your target audience

 

My Commentary:

 

I love this one!

 

Here's the tip

 

****Instead of taking the easy route of sharing the topic with your audience, write a blog post to "build on" it.

 

You can build on a topic in different ways:

 

**Beg to differ politely

 

**Provide additional tips and insights

 

**Ask clarifying question(s)

 

My Commentary:

 

This is a great way to add "context" it can start conversations, which invites others to add their comments, bring new observations and more information about a particular topic.

 

**A perfect segue to building relationships, community, doing business and increasing knowledge.

 

Curated by Jan Gordon covering "Content Curation, Social Media & Beyond"

 

Read full article here: [http://bit.ly/sJs2I8]

Via janlgordon