How to Curate Data – We have so much data and information. How do we deal with the sheer volume? How can we tell what is worth storing or referring to and what is fake or useless to us?
Gather Details – The first step is to gather details. Whether you start with many details ad pair down or start small and grow the data where needed, you must find the right system.
Curate Like a Museum – Museums must pick what will be displayed and how it is organized for the visitors. They expect to see what aligns with the museum’s topic and what exciting items to display. That is the same attitude you want when curating your data.
Write a Data Plan or Charter – Decide when working with data or a project to create a plan for the data. What kind of data do you need? Is this a deep dive or an overview? In what format will the data need to be presented? A podcast or a blog article, or an infogram?
Make it Your Own – Take data that others created and research with it. Then make it your own. You do not wish to plagiarize or copy other people’s work or steal their efforts but instead, learn it and give it a new life with your perspective and creativity,
Get the Data to The Right People – figure out with data the correct format for it. For example, some data is great for video and others for audio, and some information is excellent for text and graphics.
Give the Proper Attribution – Always give the proper attribution and credit people’s work. It will provide appropriate credit to the data source and help people find more details if they are curious about the topic.
Pare It Down – Too much data or overwhelming people with a flood of information will weaken your message. Instead, pare down the details to the right level for the audience and the topic. Imagine if you had to pay for each word. What words and sentences would go away?
Challenge
think about how it is that you’re curating your data. Whenever it is you’re trying to look up a particular topic, do some research on a specific issue. What process do you take to ensure that you’re getting good information that’s accurate for your project?
