Curating Content with @Flipboard (udpated)

Over the last few months, I’ve played around with various content curation tools. I’ve also been trying to publish an enewsletter for work, but I keep asking myself, why bother with desktop publishing? So, instead of using ReadItLater’s Pocket–except for stuff I definitely want to keep track of–I’m going to switch to using Flipboard as a way to share content in a visually appealing way that works on mobile devices.

Read this follow-up blog entry about Flipboard in K-12.

What I like about @Flipboard is that you can flip content into it from any web site–which is a must-have feature–on a computer. That makes it easy to author blog entries, web pages then flip then into an ezine of your own creation, such as one for work (e.g. ECTOBuzz below is my attempt). You pretty much don’t have to worry about creating a visually appealing layout since it’s done for you.

You can also choose to tweet content as you “flip” into an existing ezine, so that’s a neat feature.

6 Suggestions for @Flipboard (Updated: 3/17/2014)

1. Auto-populate the title into the tweet or G+ post. You can flip content into a magazine, and at the same time, post to Twitter/G+/Facebook. The only problem is, you either have to copy-n-paste the title or type something. The link usually goes in bald, by itself, with no description or title. 
2. Allow Flipboard magazine editor (like me) to set a picture as part of the Flipboard screen. You can promote any entry to the cover, so I suppose you could embed content (pictures, etc) there.
3. Flipboard would allow me to set an “auto-post” to Twitter/Facebook so that after a certain number of flipped articles, my ezine would advertise itself. That way, I wouldn’t have to do it manually.
4. Make the excellent Flipboard bookmarklet–available for computer browsers–available for use on iPads. 
5. Make it possible to “flip” 1 content item into multiple Flipboard magazines, rather than just one at a time. There’s often stuff I’m curating I’d like to see appear for different audiences targeted by the Flipboard ezine created for them.
6. You can embed Flipboard ezines in web pages, blog entries, GoogleSite wikis; read how here.
7. Replace Flipboard’s search tool for new content with Zite’s. Since Flipboard is acquiring Zite, it would be great to see Zite’s content acquisition engine replace Flipboard’s. This isn’t a dig at Flipboard, but Zite’s content acquisition engine brings readers into contact with content I haven’t seen before, unlike Flipboard’s which just shows me results of searches. I don’t know how Zite does it, but they make it possible to see fresh stuff.

I’m grateful to @louismcdonald for pointing out how to embed Flipboard ezines in a web page, although, I regret to say, it doesn’t work for Google Sites.

Here are my Flipboard content curations, and I invite you to subscribe:

https://flipboard.com/cover/everyday-learning-bXR9dN Everyday Learning is my regular content curation…pretty much what I’m reading that I think is worth sharing with others. It’s where I’m sending the majority of the content I once sent to my Twitter stream. I wonder if that will result in less Twitter followers since I won’t be posting as much.

https://flipboard.com/cover/shreds-of-privacy-b57ZlE Shreds of Privacy is a collection of entries that focus on privacy and encryption issues. As Americans, we all need to be more informed about this topic and what’s happening. This is a specific area where I share about my interests in this area.

https://flipboard.com/cover/ectobuzz-bJdViE ECTOBuzz is my burgeoning attempt to capture content and make it easy to share with people at work. I’m hoping to use this as an outlet for articles that focus on blending technology into instruction, such as Chromebooks, iPads, eLearning, LMSs, research, etc. More importantly, I intend to author content and then flip it into ECTOBuzz to give it a particular feel.

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Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin’s blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure

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Tagged: ContentCuration, Flipboard