Acceso usuarios
Debora Lui
Social curation is the process through which the general public, rather than web publishers themselves, tag, organize, and share content with others. In this paper, I focus on the case of Pinterest, an image-based social curation site. I specifically highlight how the individual acts of collection on the site contribute to a new kind of public construction of knowledge online. This is specific to Pinterest, I argue, because the way that the site is set up—both in terms of its technological and business structure. My goals for the paper are as follows. First, I question how Pinterest’s notion of curation compares with traditional or already existing notions of professional curation and personal collection. Then, I offer an analysis of the activity on Pinterest; whereas users believe they are participating in personal acts of collection and reflexive identity building, I counteract this with an examination of the entire business “ecosystem” of the site, showing how these personal activities can also be understood as public acts of knowledge production. Finally, I question notions of agency and power within the context of this public/private divide on Pinterest and what implications this might have for social media at large.
