Potential for Scoop.it at Events

Alan Cann is a fan of Scoop.it. In a post on “Scoop.it masterclass” he described how he has “written about Scoop.it several times recently, but [is]still getting blank looks from lots of folks” and so went on to explain that “Curation, it’s all about curation. What is curation? Adding value to information“. In a subsequent post Alan reported that “The Scoop.it saga continues” and admits that, although he is a fan, “What I still haven’t figured out is how to use Scoop.it for education, beyond the informal contexts that I’m already using it for“.

I have also been exploring Scoop.it. I am thinking about the potential the service may have curating content related to an event, as opposed to subject areas such as “The latest news about microbiology” and “Annals of Botany: Plant Science Research” which have been the focus of Alan’s curation activities.

I have therefore set up a Scoot.it topic on “IWMW 2011 (Institutional Web Management“, UKOLN’s annual Institutional Web Management Workshop (which this year takes place at the University of Reading on 26-27 July).

The page currently contains content published by event organisers, primarily on the IWMW 2011 blog. The blog has been set up to highlight the key aspects of the event (the plenary talks and the parallel sessions) in advance of the event. We hope that this will provide evidence of the relevance of the event for those who are involved in the important task of managing institutional Web services and convince managers that, at a time when funding is tight,£250 for a two-day event (which includes accommodation) is a bargain for the professional development and networking opportunity which the event provides (especially in comparison with similar events for those involved in Web management activities).

I suspect, however, that the Scoop.it page should become more interesting as more varied content is published about the event (ideally with the #iwmw11 event hashtag so that such content can be easily discovered) by those intending to attend the event or have an interest in the topics which will be addressed at the workshop.

Our intention is to update the IWMW 2011 Scoop.it page on a weekly basis over the next few weeks and then see if we can update it more frequently during the event itself. I should add that although the official programme for the event has been finalised in light of various recent announcements (such as the Cookie legislation and the requirement for Universities to publish data related to the services they provide) we are exploring ways in which such topics may be address at the event.

If you do have an interest in either the topics which may be published on Scoop.it or, indeed, the opportunities which Scoop.it may provide, we invite you to follow our Scoop.it page. And if you’d like to read some more about this service, which, perhaps surprisingly, was developed in France, you may wish to read the guest post on the TechCrunch Europe blog by Guillaume Decugis, CEO of the company behind Scoop.it who explains “Why this could be the moment for the curators“.

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