Content Curation with Zeef

Not long ago it was much easier to think about a problem and then go off and discover a solution. As information technology has grown more complex, it has also become harder to uncover solutions.

As a “connector of dots” it is important for me to stay on top of trends, technological developments, and early adoption. It is why I seek out thought leaders in various spaces in order to see what they think is important so I can investigate on my own and see if they’ve identified something I should watch.

Completely out of the blue today I stumbled across one of the world’s foremost content curators, Robin Good, who seems to constantly come across web applications and platforms I need to pay attention to and learn more about immediately.

So as I sought out the latest in marketing tools today, I came across a very interesting curated list of marketing tool links by Rick Boerebach the co-founder of a platform I’d not yet heard about: a Netherlands-based curation tool in beta called Zeef. 

What was so amusing was when I clicked the Zeef logo on Rick’s marketing tools page and went to the homepage to learn more about them. There were many “Popular Subjects” and one of them was Content Curation. Clicking on it brought me to, you guessed it, Robin Good’s page of Content Curation curated links!

Robin Good’s curated Content Curation links page at Zeef

I shouldn’t have been surprised. Good tries just about every platform and web app out there including his multi-category use of Scoop.it and even his use of online mindmap tool MindMeister to gather content curation links. But it’s that one Good uses at Scoop.it that is almost a one-man Zeef by itself.

ZEEF’s VISION?
We filter the world’s information with human knowledge. They then expand on why they exist and that they believe that this filtering will be done by smart, passionate and focused humans curating content: 

People are still dealing with online information overload. Particularly when searching outside their comfort zone. We believe that using human expertise as a filter is the ultimate solution. Crowdsourcing of knowledge and curation is made practically achievable and easy with ZEEF.

Our mission is to help experts create subject pages, share their knowledge and help consumers find the right information. Quickly, easily and effectively.

IS ZEEF ENOUGH?
It holds promise but I’m not sure about investing time, energy and effort in the platform quite yet. What strikes me is that it is not clear how Zeef will do, for example, what the wildly successful tablet-based Flipboard has done: make it simple for users to create their own topic-generated ‘magazines’ and now a curated shopping magazine experience. In my view embracing mobile as a curation method is “table-stakes” to be in the content curation game or how the Zeef platform will enable instant, fast, mobile and easy curation.

Zeef is rolling out first in the U.S. and later pages will be available in Dutch. I assume that, if the adoption of Zeef is rapid, they will expand globally. Smart people helping us find good solutions is enormously valuable. If you are an expert or passionate about a topic that you would like to curate and share with the world, check out Zeef and consider starting a category of your own.