Welcome to the Rotation Curation Movement, or, as it is known on Twitter, #RotationCuration (and #RoCur for the sake of character-saving brevity).
The Rotation Curation Movement began on December 10, 2011 when the Swedish Institute and VisitSweden began turning over the country’s official Twitter account, @Sweden, to “a new Swede every week.” That is, each week another more-or-less average Swede is given unrestricted access to the use of the @Sweden Twitter account to tweet whatever she or he wants to share with the world. You can read about the rationale for this unprecedented social media experiment here: About – Curators of Sweden.
It took about a month for the rest of the world to tumble to the implications of what Sweden had done, but on January 15, 2012 @PeopleofLeeds was launched, representing, well, the people of Leeds, England. Then on January 18, @WeAreAustralia and @TweetWeekUSA took off, a mere 6 hours apart from one another, followed on January 21 by @CuratorsMexico and @BasquesAbroad.
By this point — although we didn’t realize it at the time — we had the general parameters for what has now become the Rotation Curation Movement: official projects, unofficial projects, country projects, city projects, and cultural group projects. Initially it seemed as if these projects were primarily similar in their focus on their own particular locations and the term #LocationCuration came into use to reflect this. While location as a focus is common among many — but not all — of the projects, it has now become clear that the key characteristic of commonality is that all of the projects rotate in a new representative curator each week — thus the more comprehensive term #RotationCuration (and #RoCur).
To give full and proper credit where it is due, Murray, @auldzealand, coined the hashtag #RotationCuration on March 22, 2012 in the following tweet:
@Howl2z @jennyrev I have been mulling this over too. @thisisiceland is definitely #LocationCuration, just not #RotationCuration
Likewise, also to give due credit, the original #LocationCuration hashtag was coined by Kirkstall Online, @kirkstallonline, in late January, 2012.
Please follow @RotationCurator for the latest updates on the Rotation Curation Movement. Also, please see the Wikipedia article on Rotation Curation.
- to the very courageous @TweetWeekSyria (and Tweet Week Syria), the first #RotationCuration project with distinctly political ramifications.
- to Meera Ghani (founder of @Iam_Pakistan) for launching @iamclimate, the Earth’s very first issue-related #RotationCuration project.
- to Katja Frauenkron and Rainer Klute for launching @createandrotate, the Earth’s very first art-related #RotationCuration project.
Here is a chronology of the 70 Rotation Curation projects: Rotation Curation Chronology
Here are the projects grouped by type (chronological within group):
Countries
- Sweden – @Sweden
- Australia - @WeAreAustralia
- United States – @TWkUSA
- Mexico – @CuratorsMexico
- United Kingdom – @PeopleofUK
- Ireland – @Ireland
- Ukraine – @WeAreUkraine
- New Zealand – @NewZealand
- France – @weareFrance
- Austria – @WeAreAustria
- Fiji – @WeAreFiji
- Pakistan – @iam_pakistan
- Russia – @We_R_Russia
- Syria – @TweetWeekSyria
- Philippines – @WeAreFilipinos
- Earth – @WorldCuration
- Malaysia – @twt_malaysia
- Singapore – @hellofrmSG
- Germany – @I_amGermany
- Denmark – @denmarktweets
- The Netherlands – @Netherlanders
- China – @curatorchina
- Wales – @Pobol_Y_Cymru
- United Arab Emirates – @weareUAE
- Morocco – @MoroccoCuration
- Canada – @PeopleOfCanada
- Turkey – @curatingturkey
- Cyprus – @JustACypriot
States, Cities, Counties and Neighborhoods
- Leeds, England – @PeopleofLeeds
- Munich, Germany – @MunichLovesU
- London, England – @londonisyours
- Södermalm, Sweden – @sodermalmsweden
- Northumberland, England – @VisitNland
- Bristol, England – @Bristol52
- Harrogate, England – @PeopleofHGT
- New York City, USA – @TWkNYC
- Isle of Wight, England – @UKIsleofWight
- Minnesota, USA – @TweetWeekMN
- Manila, Philippines – @TweetWeekManila
- Hessle, England – @HessleTweets
- Bangkok, Thailand – @Bangkoking
- Dresden, Germany – @WeAreDresden
- Portland, Oregon, USA – @PeopleofPDX
- Negrénse Nation, the Philippines – @IamNegrense
- Hamburg, Germany – @WeareHH
- Bremen, Germany – @Iam_Bremen
- Vermont, USA – @THISISVT
- Ingolstadt, Germany – @Mein_Ingolstadt
- North-West of France – @IamNWofFrance
- Frankfurt, Germany – @WeAreFFM
- Melbourne, Australia – @weMelbourne
- Mindanao Island Group – @OneMindanao
- Mumbai, India – @WeAreMumbai
- Toronto, Canada – @AnotherToronto
Peoples, Cultural, Professional and Other Groups
- Basques (worldwide) – @BasquesAbroad
- Indigenous Australians – @IndigenousX
- LGBTQ (worldwide) – @TWkLGBTQ
- Fairfax Bus Riders, Virginia, USA – @ffxrider
- Forsbergs Skola, Stockholm, Sweden – @forsbergsskola
- Financial Times writers – @FTinsider
- Livemint writers – @Mint_In
- University of Michigan Students – @UmichStudents
- Catholic Youth Ministries – @CatholicYMcur
- createandrotate – @createandrotate
- Neil’s Twitter Wife – @NeilsTwitrWife
- Francophones – @francotweets
- Finns in Sweden – @Ruotsi
- Shias – @AllAboutShias
Issues & Events
- Earth’s Climate – @iamclimate
- Olympic Torch – @0lympicTorch