Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Curation Nation could use some curation itself. The book contains a lot of information, but it doesn't really say anything. The first 100 pages summary: there is a lot of crap on the Internet and it needs to be curated... I know that already, that's why I bought your book!
It goes on to profile different acts of curation such as the Huffington Post, aggregation through twitter, blogging, etc. Nothing really jaw dropping. Don't expect a unique insight here. Chapter 4 says don't piss of your consumers with crappy customer service because they have a voice now...this book was published in 2011 right? Do people/companies not know this by now? Did we really need a whole chapter on this?
The book's plea is "attention is the new economy." I partly agree with this, but don't expect this book to give any spectacular information on how to turn that attention into a tangible profit making business. While the book's purpose is not solely making money off of curation, it does suggests more of a "build it and they shall come" strategy hoping for your attention to somehow be monetized later through advertisers. If that floats your boat, this book may be for you.
Curation Nation contains thoughts from notable figures such as Clay Shirky, Alan Webber, Robert Scoble, Andrew Keen, Seth Godin, Mark Cuban, and others. Unfortunately none of the interviews led you the reader to know where curation is headed...all they know is we need it. Again, I know we need it, that's why I bought this book for some direction and to help make sense of it all. Ughhh
Alan Webber perhaps gives the best quote from the book: "Nobody has figured out a killer model of what exactly is exciting about a wonderfully produced movie, magazine, book, or record. Creating unique, memorable content isn't a formula -it's a happy accident. In the same way publishers struggle to figure out curation, there will be few leaders and lots of followers searching for the future economic model for content."
Curation Nation is for the lowest common denominator who are absolutely clueless that there is too much unfiltered information online and that it needs to be sorted. It will fill you in, provide you with a history of how we got here (unnecessary to the book) and where we currently are with no breathtaking insights. You'll get a bunch of information, but again, the book doesn't say much other than we need curation.
With the text being 259 Pages, it could have been cut AT LEAST in half. The future of curation fascinates me very much and I wanted to like this book. I expected this book to be GREAT judging by all the big name endorsements...but sadly I was let down.
P.S. If you happen to stumble across this book in the bookstore, just skip to the conclusion...you'll get all you need to know about the book saving you time in our limited "attention based economy."
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Curation Nation: How to Win in a World Where Consumers are CreatorsBusiness Leaders Are Buzzing About Curation Nation
"An indispensible guide to the brave new media world."—Arianna Huffington, editor in chief, the Huffington Post
"Gives me hope for the future of the Information Age. Rosenbaum argues for the growing importance of people—creative, smart, hip—who can spot trends, find patterns, and make meaning out of the flood of data that threatens to overwhelm us."—Daniel H. Pink, New York Timesbestselling author of Drive
"A testament to the strategic mind of a genius and a road map for developing engaging consumer experiences by curating content around your brand." —Bonin Bough, Global Director, Digital and Social Media, PepsiCo
"Perfectly on-trend—an insightful guide to the future. So entertaining you won't put it down."—Chris Meyer, author of Blur
"Read this book. Embrace curation, and you'll be ready to ‘crush it' with focus and passion in the noisy new world of massive data overload."—Gary Vaynerchuk, New York Timesbestselling author of Crush It
"Provides a wealth of real-world examples of how businesses can use the Web to give their customers a valuable curated experience."—Tony Hsieh, CEO, Zappos.com, and New York Timesbestselling author of Delivering Happiness
"Our best hope for sorting the good from the mediocre in our increasingly overwhelming media landscape."—Clay Shirky, author of Cognitive Surplusand Here Comes Everybody
About the Book:
Let's face it, we're drowning in data. Our inboxes are flooded with spam, we have too many "friends" on Facebook, and our Twitter accounts have become downright unmanageable. Creating content is easy; finding what matters is hard.
Fortunately, there is a new magic that makes the Web work. It's called curation, and it enables people to sort through the digital excess and find what's relevant.
In Curation Nation, Steven Rosenbaum reveals why brands, publishers, and content entrepreneurs must embrace aggregation and curation to grow an existing business or launch a new one. In fact, he asserts that curation is the only way to be competitive in the future.
Overwhelmed by too much content, people are hungry for an experience that both takes advantage of the Web's breadth and depth and provides a measure of human sorting and filtering that search engines simply can't achieve. In these shifting sands lies an extraordinary business opportunity: you can become a trusted source of value in an otherwise meaningless chaos of digital noise.
In Curation Nation, Rosenbaum "curates the curators" by gathering togetherpriceless insight and advice from the top thinkers in media, advertising, publishing, commerce, and Web technologies. This groundbreaking book levels the playing field, giving your business equal access to the content abundance presently driving consumer adoption of the Web.
As the sheer volume of digital information in the world increases, the demand for quality and context becomes more urgent. Curation will soon be a part of your business and your digital world.Understand it now, join in early, and reap the many benefits Curation Nation has to offer.
Learn more at CurationNation.org.
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