Lord of Curation Series: Willy de Backer

Our Lord of Curation series presents to you some of the great curators on Scoop.it. They are here to share their insights and advice with you.

Willy De Backer is a European (Belgian) journalist, sustainability opinion-leader and professionalconferencemoderator with more than 25 years experiences in European Union politics. After having worked in politics (European Parliament) for 10 years, he co-founded Internet news portal EurActiv.com in 1999 and served for 8 years as chief editor expanding the service from a start-up to a successful online media company. From 1 June 2007, Willy went freelance focussing his research and writing on issues related to climate change, energy security, green economy and sustainability in general. He was one of the first professional journalists who started using social media (Blogs, Twitter, Facebook, and other) to share his opinions on how to rethink our economic, social and political values and institutions in an age of “peak everything”.

-What is curation to you?

I am an information junkie with very broad interests in different topics (politics, economics, culture) and a love for stories which make me think. Like the brothers Grimm collected fairy tales and in so doing revolutionised German and international literature, I love to collect stories which can define a new narrative on how we should overcome our unsustainable way of producing and consuming on this small planet. On my “Great Transition” scoop.it website, I share the stories that I find inspiring on this quest for a new civilisation blueprint and sometimes add my own personal comment. When I think a story really deserves more than just an alert, I will expand on the ideas developed via my personal 3E Intelligence blog. I hope that in a small way I help decision-makers or decision-influencers to go beyond short-term and corporate or party interests. So basically, curation is my own modest seat on the Planet’s not-yet existing Parliament.

-What is your best curating secret?

Would I give that away if I had one? No, seriously, there are no big secrets. Good curation is of course all about passion, hard work (easy when you have the passion) and good and reliable sources (I use special mindmapping and other tools to monitor the web’s vast information universe). That said, a lot of my greatest finds are the result of pure serendipity. Trust your instincts!

-How has curation enriched your social media experience?

It has added a lot to my personal network of people that I trust and who in turn seem to trust my choices of good stories.

-You have a topic addressing the transition to a new sustainable and social economy. What do you think will be the most important part of this transition?

Difficult question to answer. I am sure lifestyle changes and therefore a cultural revolution (big paradigm change in values) will have to play a much bigger part than now admitted by our political elites (with the argument: “our lifestyle is not negotiable”). Technology and international political negotiations (climate or Rio+20) will play a much smaller part. Resilience to the inevitable perfect storm of unsustainability will be built from local and hopefully also virtual new communities but not without a few serious crises “shocks” (the current Great Economic Depression is only the tip of the coming iceberg).

Our Lord of Curation series continues next week. Stay tuned!

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