The Emergence of Content Curation

The old saw about content being king has been reinvigorated  to some extent by the newly emerging field of content curation. Of course, for those of us who have been curating content (unknowingly) for the past few years, we understand the basics -- but Robin Good's pertinent post is very helpful for those just stumbling upon the concept:

What the web needs to become even more useful and meaningful again (like in the old times, where only few websites existed) is a specialized middle layer of editors that gather, filter and distribute relevant information on specific niches of interest.

I have written and discussed at length of something very similar
since 2004, when I started writing about the concept of newsradars and newsmastering:

[...] the emerging newsmaster, is not just like the typical passionate Twitterer who shares all kinds of valuable information she finds. Her value, as I see it, emerges from focusing only on one, very specific topic, and acting as an always-on radar. Its unique value is not just in the ability to capture everything being said, written and published on a specific topic, but very much into her ability to filter, select and editorially curate (titling, sequencing, grouping, commenting, etc.) the flow of information she manages.

The future of content won't necessarily be hinged on how original it is, rather, it'll be hinged on how searchable and relevant it is. Of course, the pundits will insist the emphasis should be on original content, but these are the same pundits who believe there's a dup content penalty. Sorry, it's not the content -- it's the link love.