Robin Good: Maurice Boucher takes a stand for human curators in the arts, by placing string emphasis on the fact that purely alorithmic solutions cannot really discern people expressed needs and desires from unexpressed ones.
His central point is this: "At the heart of the online music curation role is the possible solution to the expressed need versus unexpressed desire problem that permeates the Internet and prevents us from developing internet culture beyond purely commercial interests."
He writes: "...I know of no algorithm that can work out the difference between what people ask for and what they actually desire.
That is the philosophical question that really is the core software requirement of a music recommendation engine, and music curation is an ideal testbed case to see if we can build a layer on the internet to act as verification of the search process.
...communicating socially and informally (with strangers) and sharing music is not enough to build a bridge between what people ask for and what they desire.
People have to have a sense that some agency is acting at least semi-exclusively for them and has some insight into who they are."
"At the heart of the online music curation role is the possible solution to the expressed need verses unexpressed desire problem that permeates the Internet and prevents us from developing internet culture beyond purely commercial interests."
"The artists have to be included in the equations that run the algorithms of curation and filtering for the internet to have a future beyond being just another compendium of useless facts and trivia."
Rightful. 8/10
Full article: http://north.com/thinking/guest-post-web-curation-and-filtering-defining-new-roles-for-digital-artists/