Twitter is no different. This week, it introduced a "Lists" feature, which allows users to organize the people they follow into neat little categories. Blogger Pete Cashmore suggests this feature is the "long-overdue cure to information overload" and may create a brand new job title: real-time Web curator.
Cashmore dubs niche-specific Twitter users "link gatherers," whose job it is to provide the latest information about their niche subject to the world via Twitter. As Cashmore sees it, this is a job, not a hobby - and link gatherers should be paid for their work:
Most of these link gatherers have "real" jobs, you'll notice; I see no reason why that should remain the case. In the attention economy, wherein the scarce resource is time and the abundant one is content, those who effectively allocate our attention create value.
Where value is created, it follows that money can be made. The inevitable outcome: Web curators are not just real-time but full-time.
Moreover, Cashmore believes journalists are well-qualified for this job opening:" Journalists, it would seem, are well-placed to capitalize on the trend, since directing an audience's attention via links is not materially different to editing a newspaper or magazine."
If this idea takes off, will j schools start offering how-to courses in link gathering?
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