things to create, curate, collate

OpenAdvent homepage (2011) CC-BY University of Oxford
OpenAdvent homepage (2011) CC-BY University of Oxford

Creating a curated collection is one of my favourite passtimes. Selecting items from a larger collection and  curating a subset for an exhibition or theme can amuse me for hours. Digital curation is Thing15 of our 23 Things.

I do think this is one way in which discerning people can add value to the internet. Making curated pathways through the never ending maze of linked content.

Some examples of curated sets I have created include:

Three online advent calendars which showcased the Oxford OER collections and OUCS services on a Christmas theme. It was not an arduous task ; the collections are rich and wonderful, and the premise of generous giving suits the spirit of the task. The calendars were wordpress sites scheduled to publish a new post each day in Dec.

I also encouraged my podcasting teams in Oxford to develop a tool for the podcasts.ox website to enable us to showcase a handpicked collection drawn from accross the collection e.g. some of our best female academics on interational women’s day. At the moment the tool  is being used as ‘featured people‘.

More recently, at the Edinburgh Gothic editathon I learned how to curate a timeline using Histropedia. If the internet keeps producing tools like this for curating content I may be done for.

I haven’t managed to persuade anyone at Edinburgh to join me in an ‘Advent of technology’ or ‘Internet of free things’. But I did get Charlie to curate this set of 23 things and the world is a better place for it.

Update: As of 1 December there now is an Open Advent calendar at Edinburgh. Check it out!

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