Habits – I have heard over time that it takes anywhere from 21 – 90 days to create a habit. I consider myself a creature of habit and also someone who may fly by the seat of my pants; a dichotomy that is always at odds. Once upon a time I created a Hootsuite account as a means to keep me on schedule with posting content, because I knew that followers only came with regular and fresh posts. I utilized a cross-platform approach, and set up my posts blast out to Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn; publishing to my coaching business pages. Curation (even though I didn’t really know what that meant a decade ago) felt like cheating to me. I never felt comfortable reposting or pulling from another’s work in a way that didn’t give full-on credit. And, even a little squeamish with combining content, because it felt too easy and not a part of the creative process. It felt like letting an expert in the field do the work and for another person to run on their shirt tails and hard work!
Now…as I have seen social media take off, and recognize that people are finding their way in the world of curation, and becoming a subject matter expertise on less than original content, I wonder if there is more wiggle room for my opposite ways of being to work in this social media space. Can curation shift my being and lead me to success? Is there a place where pushing others’ content in an ethical way is appropriate? I was sure I would be creating all types of content in 2013! I had hung my coaching and consulting shingle and the projects and work were coming in. I was headed out the door of working for “the man” and headed into the world of self-employment and entrepreneurialship. I has set the stage to use my network (no clue at the time what a PLN was either, even though I had one) and the pieces and parts were in place. I was full on ready to go! Then an internal role came up in the organization where I worked – one that I had kept my eye on over the years. I pivoted, stepped back from the idea of creation and content development and let go of all the business development opportunities that I had put in motion. I an now relearning and see that curation is a practice, perhaps even and art. Original creation, in the true sense is still there my heart is.
During previous career roles such as that of human services teacher, adjunct faculty, and later a performance consultant in the organizational development realm, it was a given that content found online or through a conference was usable and reproducible it if was to be used for teaching and learning. Content could be morphed into a new worksheet or other materials and we shared openly. This was part of the content creation process. We shared and learned from each other. Credit was given where credit was due! For individuals who were out to sell their product and were running a consulting business, their content was typically licensed and required payment to utilized it, even in the classroom. There was plenty of content to draw from that was free and an abundant of opportunity to connect with colleagues at conferences to share and build upon ideas and even get personal permission to use their work (my favorite part of content development at the time).
In this world of having your cake and eating it too, and “here’s a side of ice cream” as Leqi (2021) and colleagues put it, the big dog social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube benefit from the overall debate of whose job is it anyway for accountability in the content posted on their sites. While the argument rages on about creation vs curation – Leqi et al (2021) point out, the social medial biggies benefit by:
Broad discretion to organize (and censor) content however they choose
Powerful algorithms for curating a practically limitless supply of user-posted microcontent according to whatever ends they wish
Absolution from almost any liability associated with that content
Is this bad business? It surely doesn’t seem so because humans are still flocking to social media sites. Is this bad ethics? It does seem so! The rumblings of the curation vs creation debate are front in center at Old GigiOm’s Blog (https://old.gigaom.com/2012/03/13/its-not-curation-or-aggregation-its-just-how-the-internet-works/) where they delve into the idea of using symbols and a code of conduct to keep the honest people honest. People who are truly “stealing” content are not goin to follow the rules anyway. And, what a nightmare to manage – a big wide world of content without a means to hold people accountable to begin with. I wonder though, did social medial platforms have to become difficult to manage in content and in scope? What if appropriate side rails were set up early in Web 1.0? Hard to know now! If MSM – Main Stream Media can’t even do it right, such as giving credit to original posters where credit is due; how do we expect the general population to do so. Trust, ethics and doing the right thing runs deep on social media. As I move toward using social media in new ways, in curation and creation, and building out my new PLN, I know that I have the security of my internal ethics and doin the right and best thing for myself and for those who came before me in the content development space. I love the opportunity to share the work of others and in today’s world a hyperlink makes that so easy! This is a habit I can commit to and I don’t think that it will day 90 days!