Tuesday Buzz: The Great Aggregation Debate

When Nate Silver calls you out for something, you’d better be listening.

And Vox  (opens in a new tab) Editor-in-Chief Ezra Klein was definitely listening yesterday when the FiveThirtyEight  (opens in a new tab) mastermind expressed anger about Vox’s use of the graphics built by Silver’s team.

Yo, @voxdotcom  (opens in a new tab): Y’all should probably stop stealing people’s charts without proper attribution. You do this all the time, to 538 & others.

— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) April 13, 2015  (opens in a new tab)

Only about 20% of the maps @VoxMaps  (opens in a new tab) tweets were actually made by Vox. Always a link to a Vox story, rarely to original source.

— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) April 13, 2015  (opens in a new tab)

But give it up for Klein, who found a good opportunity to turn what could have been an embarrassing moment into an opportunity for analysis of what makes aggregation valuable. Klein apologized for a piece that didn’t do a particularly great job on the credit front  (opens in a new tab), and discussed the history of aggregation, starting all the way back with Time Magazine, which drew earlier criticism for its aggregation activity.

Klein defended the value of aggregation, saying that, when done well, it adds value for everyone, but noted that he understood Silver’s point.

“But while aggregation has always been a clear service to readers, it can be enormously frustrating to writers,” Klein wrote in his blog post  (opens in a new tab). “I’ve worked for months on a piece only to find the best bits summarized elsewhere, under a less responsible headline—and then watched the Facebook shares tick past the original.”

For associations that aggregate content on blogs and websites, the key thing here is that sharing has to be done in an ethical way. Reorganize it. Share in a way that adds content. Link back. Show respect for sources you’re crediting. That’s how it’s done.

A Contrarian for Your Inbox

Provocative thought starters for assns! First issue on 4/15. Sign up 2day 4 the http://t.co/A92i0SIuFF  (opens in a new tab) #assnchat  (opens in a new tab) #associationforum  (opens in a new tab) #asae15  (opens in a new tab)

— T.B. Woke-Democrat 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🇺🇦 🟦 (@pinnovation) April 13, 2015  (opens in a new tab)

Want to get challenged by your email? If so, Jeff De Cagna of Principled Innovation  (opens in a new tab) has the ticket. The strategist, known for offering provocative takes on important issues in the association space like business models and membership, is launching a new newsletter called The Association Contrarian. The first issue publishes April 15. Be sure to sign up here  (opens in a new tab).

Other Links of Note

More journalistic food for thought: Trevor Timm, executive director of the Freedom of the Press Foundation, suggests that journalism  (opens in a new tab) could face serious threats if it’s tied too closely to Facebook.

Get the best conference experience possible! Callie Walker at MemberClicks shares how  (opens in a new tab).

Think like a library: CQ Roll Call’s Connectivity site has a great feature on the American Library Association’s Ilovelibraries.org initiative  (opens in a new tab), which works to get librarygoers interested in advocacy issues.

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