(By the way… here’s my street-corner ranting: http://www.stevediogo.com. If you’re interested in exploring the content and business models that are working, check out.)

Saying that we’re in the “curating” business is like saying we were in the fish wrap business. Of course it’s part of what we do. It’s always been part of what we do. It’s called editing.

Navigating this business today takes creativity the likes of which we’ve never seen. But isn’t creativity why we got into it in the first place? We all need to stop the hand-wringing, learn the business and trudge on. There’s great work to do out there if we just go do it.

First of all, let’s explore the Kingdom – such as it is. If “content” was king, i’d love someone to show me examples of that. The King’s have been the folks at the pointy end of the funnel. The folks that owned the printing presses, TV antenna’s, cable TV franchises, and such. This expensive infrastructure gave them the power to say yes, or no, and therefore the folks who made content had to go ask them for permission to publish and distribute.

Go ask any musician, author, or artist if they ever felt like a “King” when they moved their music, book, or painting through the old world of distribution. The Kingdom was controlled by the folks that owned the tools.

So, argument #1, content was NEVER king. And if anyone has an example otherwise, bring it on.

Now, on to Curation and why I think calling it King is a good thing. In the past, publishing was a walled garden owned by the folks who controlled the system and the machines. Curation is about a creative enterprise, the gathering and selecting, and organizing of things -it’s a human skill that is inherently allergic to scale.

So, Curation is about moving power from the center of the network to the edges. A writing can both create and curate. A musician can publish their music, and gather links to their favorite artists and influences. Music downloads are income. Music links to affiliates are also micro-payments. Together, music comes to me curated from artists, not labels. How is this bad for artist or creators.

Yes, piracy is bad. But Aggregation and Curation isn’t about piracy -it’s about an evolving link economy that shares fairly with creators, publishers, and curators.

Are the economics built and working yet. No, but there’s some evidence that the flattening of the distribution system puts customers closer to creators…and gives Makers more of a chance to build relationships with readers and fans.

Curation is a buzz word. But the buzz is good. So I’m all about it -until someone shows me a better way.