The Curator's News Feed: May 11, 2012

With a gorgeous May weekend ahead of us, the Curator team is kicking back with some reading about content curation, luxury brands getting involved in social media engagement and content management systems. Heavy stuff? Not when paired with the right Washington State wine...

Spicy Linguine with Clams and Mussels, Food Network. It’s Mother’s Day on Sunday and one of the ways I like to honor the two most important moms in my life – my mom and my wife – is to cook for them. It seems I’m taking requests this year, as my wife sent this one in with the not so subtle note of… “so, this is what I’m thinking this year…”  It looks delicious. I’ll be pairing this with a lovely L'Ecole No 41 Columbia Valley Chardonnay. It’s supposed to be 80 degrees in Seattle on Sunday. Surrounded by family, enjoying great food and wine. Sounds perfect. Enjoy the weekend, friends. – Scott

Tumblr Does Its Own Curating With New Storyboard Project, Mashable. As communicators, we’re inherently storytellers. So, I found it interesting this week when Tumblr announced the launch of its new ‘Storyboard’ initiative. What is it all about? Well, storytelling – or, more appropriately described as “tales from behind the dashboard.” With Storyboard, the social networking site will post regular features from those within the Tumblr community with unique and interesting stories to share. New features posted each day will range from highlighting content from writers and musicians to animators, scientists and comedians. The idea is to become a hub for in-depth conversations within the sites own community. The micro-blogging platform is even taking it one step further to enhance audience engagement and is asking for consumers to submit their own story or idea to share by posting it to Tumblr with the hashtag #storyboard. It’s an interesting look at how Tumblr is leveraging the power of storytelling in today’s social media-driven world. – Annie

Content Curators Are The New Superheros Of The Web, Fast Company. Great article from Fast Company about the importance of curating content online and the art - and dedication – of those who do it, and how valuable it is to people. Very applicable to what we do for brands, too. - Dan

Jimmy Choo reinvents photo sharing via branded microsite and Oscar de la Renta uses consumer inspiration for digital corkboard, Luxury Daily. It’s interesting how luxury brands are truly starting to embrace the online social movement and looking to crowd-sourcing and other social media engagement tactics for their marketing strategies. In an industry that is often stuck in the old mindset of advertising, Jimmy Choo and Oscar de la Renta are two luxury retailers who are coming up with new and innovative ways to engage their customer through digital experiences and interactivity that will theoretically create a more involved and long-term customer. – Julia

Facebook Launches App Center, CNET. Facebook has joined Apple and Google in launching its own “app store” of sorts, an interesting move since Facebook doesn’t have an operating system with which to run applications. Rafe Needleman at CNET rightly points out that it might be better described as a showcase rather than a store, as it mostly serves as a portal to Apple and Google’s app stores. Still, if the Facebook phone rumors are true, this may be important foundational infrastructure to help prepare them for success out of the gate. - Matthew 

A Closer Look At Chorus, The Next-Generation Publishing Platform That Runs Vox Media, TechCrunch. I’ve used my fair share of blogging platforms and content management systems, and I know I’m not alone in being frustrated with the limitations of most of them. This behind the scenes look at Chorus, the platform used by Vox Media, reveals a super-charged publishing tool that’s miles ahead of most other CMS options out there. It’s a platform built to accommodate the needs of a user-driven network as well as hundreds of writers and editors for Vox’s growing stable of media properties. Quite simply, it’s a system that makes sense for a modern media outlet. – Lisa