Roadmap: Curating the Internet – Bessemer Venture Partners

“Getting information off the Internet is like taking a drink from a fire hydrant.” – Mitchell Kapor

Alexandra Sukin of Bessemer Venture Partners explores the evolving movement of curating the internet. In her article, she quotes Brian Solis and a term he coined in Fast Company to describe the rise of social networks based on interest graphs and close-ties as  social “nicheworks.”

Why is curation having a moment right now?

How is the internet being curated today?

Curation as a business model…the future is curated.

Content is the backbone of culture, and with the rise of emerging trends, technologies, and business models, curation will be the source of new identities, communities, and entrepreneurial opportunities.

The increasing importance of online identity, and the rise of “nicheworks.’’

As online identity becomes increasingly important and consumers are more bought in than ever to their online identities and communities, curation has emerged as a form of self-expression that sits in between consumption and creation, reports Brian Solis for Fast Company.

Steve Rosenbaum, author of Curation Nation, posits that the behavior of sharing on social media is fundamentally changing the structure of our online relationships, which can be visually represented by a “social graph” or map of relationships between social media usersInstead of our social networks reflecting just the people we know in real life, as we share, we form new connections based on our personal interests.

These resulting social graphs are known as “nicheworks,” a term coined by Brian Solis in his Fast Company article. The rise of these interest-based social graphs is re-forming behavior on social platforms. As new platforms allowing for easier and richer “micro” content creation and sharing emerge, social network users are increasingly incentivized to share content to their nicheworks.

Curators of content are incentivized both by the value they place in their nicheworks, as well as the ability to leverage curation to express their identity within those nicheworks. For example, gallery platforms like OnCyber and Hyaliko enable NFT enthusiasts to share their collections within their NFT communities by showcasing their favorite pieces in 3D galleries.

Please read Sukin’s article to explore curation tools, marketplaces, and business models. You can follow her on Twitter here.