[HN Gopher] When Curation Becomes Creation
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       When Curation Becomes Creation
        
       Author : Hell_World
       Score  : 34 points
       Date   : 2021-07-24 11:44 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (queue.acm.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (queue.acm.org)
        
       | specialist wrote:
       | The moment curation becomes creation is when there's a choice, a
       | decision, to show this but not that.
       | 
       | It does not matter how that choice is made. Any choice is
       | editorial.
       | 
       | --
       | 
       | This OC is an _okay_ summary of the current conundrum.
       | 
       | > _...despite intense scrutiny from the news media and grassroots
       | movements of outraged users, platforms continue to operate, from
       | a legal standpoint, on the friendliest terms._
       | 
       | But. These discussions of Section 230 are so weird. As though
       | journalism, media, publishing, editorial began in 1996.
       | 
       | We'd all benefit if the people arguing about this stuff
       | 
       | - had some direct experience with publishing, editing, writing
       | 
       | - ditto moderation
       | 
       | - have at least read Herman & Chomsky's Propaganda Model
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda_model
       | 
       | --
       | 
       | In the 1980s, we worried about "infoglut". How to take sips from
       | a firehose.
       | 
       | I was a "thread blaster" (moderator) on CompuServe and then ran
       | my own BBS network.
       | 
       | Stupid teenage me figured out the most import role in a digital
       | era was _editor_. Filtering signal from noise. Choosing what was
       | worth remembering. Gathering, organizing, interpreting the useful
       | bits. (I couldn 't even dream of stuff like altavista and spam
       | filters.) Imagine my chagrin, learning about journalism years
       | later, that I was reinventing the wheel.
       | 
       | I'm learning to just accept "kids these days" complaints are the
       | norm. In other words, I became the grumpy old man.
       | 
       | But with hindsight, I really would have thought that The
       | Establishment media would have competently defended their turf.
       | They haven't even showed up. Maybe they still don't understand
       | the true nature of the threat.
       | 
       | --
       | 
       | In conclusion:
       | 
       | Facebook became editor with the newsfeed feature. What ever that
       | algorithm is (or isn't) makes them responsible for the content.
       | 
       | Google was always editor.
       | 
       | Any media which uses recommenders to boost engagement is doubly
       | responsible for their content. They are not simple transmitters
       | of bits and bytes from A to B. They are not common carriers like
       | telephone, cable, and postal services. Just the fact that
       | Facebook employs human content moderators proves this.
        
         | dogorman wrote:
         | > _The moment curation becomes creation is when there 's a
         | choice, a decision, to show this but not that._
         | 
         | What does curation mean to you, specifically?
         | 
         |  _(transitive) To apply selectivity and taste to, as a
         | collection of fashion items or web pages._
         | 
         | https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/curate
         | 
         | If there is no selection, no choice or decision of what to
         | show, then in what sense is there any curation? Selection is
         | the _essence_ of curation.
        
           | specialist wrote:
           | Ya, I just argued that curation is creation. OC's definitions
           | are muddled. I'll ponder which distinction I'd make. Thanks.
        
           | pixl97 wrote:
           | Curation is the creation of a new set. A viewpoint that didnt
           | exist in the original.
        
       | imvetri wrote:
       | "When Curation Becomes Creation" means "Words to vision and
       | vision to words"
       | 
       | A basis for a generative AI model that should exist, but not yet.
        
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       (page generated 2021-07-25 23:02 UTC)