I like the idea of a code of conduct for aggregators, and bravo to Maria Popova for helping to create one possible model—and for describing the labor associated with blogging, Tweeting, and in general being what Popova calls a “curator of interestingness.”
Discovery of information is a form of intellectual labor. When we don’t honor discovery, we are robbing somebody’s time and labor. The Curator’s Code is an attempt to solve some of that.
Now, I have no idea how you police this kind of thing. On the internet, no one (except you) knows where you saw it first.
Still, with media types now expending so much labor as curators of interestingness—often in lieu of doing journalism, which is what people used to mean when they said things like “discovery of information is a form of intellectual labor”—it does seem time for a Curator’s Code.
