
Celebrating Aggregation - mattmcknight
http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2009/04/celebrating-aggregation.html
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thesethings
Like other abused buzzwords, the term "Attention Economy" got a little played
out. But I think the economics of attention is exactly why aggregation
services do provide value. When there's an abundance of information, attention
become a scarce resource.

Like Fred (author of post above), I have heard people accuse aggregation sites
of being parasites. Sure there are bad ones, but there are extremely clever
ones, too. It takes work make a rule that presents a story cluster, or karma,
and just because they aren't creating _content,_ doesn't mean they are
creative, or creating value. They are creating filters, they are creating a
picture of popularity (Hypem), they are creating a picture of relationships
(techmeme).

If there's anything I'm hungry for, it's not more content sites, it's even
more and better aggregator sites. Obviously we are, too. Every few weeks
there's a new post that asks a variation of "What other sites like Hacker News
do you visit?"

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knightinblue
Totally agree. Would add just one thing though - properly established and
enforced guidelines on what exactly constitutes 'aggregation'.

So people don't go crazy with ripping off entire articles, images, ideas etc.

