Robin Good

Key IdeasCaught Ahead Of Their Timeby Robin Good

Ideas I spotted before they entered the mainstream.
Across online publishing, curation, design, marketing, and entrepreneurship.

Niche Positioning2000 – 04
I began sharing online in 2000; I named the practice later.

Sharing What You Know (2000 → 03–04)

March 31, 2000 · first issue
I began publishing Mastermind Explorer on March 31, 2000.

What I Noticed

I began sharing what I was learning online in 2000. Around 2003–04, I began articulating this approach: share specialized knowledge openly instead of keeping it private or selling access.

Why It Mattered

Showing what you know helps people who have not worked with you judge your competence. It can build trust before they become clients.

Evidence

Dated IssueMastermind Explorer, Issue 1, dated March 31, 2000, is linked from RobinGood.com. November 1, 2001 is the archive capture date, not the issue date. The issue proves the publishing activity; it does not yet document when I named the sharing idea.

Content Curation (2003–04)

2004 primary article identified · idea date recalled
I recall identifying the broader practice around 2003–04.

What I Noticed

I saw that information abundance called for expert filters: people who monitor, verify and select what matters for a specific audience.

Early Signal

I recall articulating content curation around 2003–04. My earlier public sharing began in 2000; the dated article below is a 2004 documentary trace.

Evidence

Contemporary Evidence“The Network Second Layer: RSS Newsmastering” (October 16, 2004; archived link). A contemporaneous October 17 mention describes RSS portals for focused interests. This documents the underlying curation practice, though it does not use the later label “content curation.” The original archive currently returns a cache miss.

Online Event Models2005 – 08
Robin recalls first developing the X-Events idea in 2005; a fuller article was first published in 2008.

X-Events (Jan 2005 · Sep 16, 2008)

Primary article located · earlier article linked
The longer article says Robin first explored the idea in January 2005; it identifies September 16, 2008 as its first publication.
Before · During · After

What I Noticed

Extend a physical event beyond its venue and dates: build an online community before it, connect live and remote participants during it, then keep its discussions and content channels active long after it ends.

Editorial Work & Monetization

The article calls for an editorial team and a fully dedicated newsroom. It treats participant-created content as a core asset that can be edited, packaged into many formats and monetized. It also proposes keeping forums and topic channels open indefinitely.

Evidence

Primary source“Live Events Strategy: Mashing Up Physical Conferences With Online Extended Events” (republication dated 2023; body identifies the original September 16, 2008 publication). It links Robin’s January 2005 precursor, “Events Break Out Of The Physical Space-Time Prison”. FERPI’s January 15, 2008 report is additional contemporary context.

Publishing & Brand Relationships2011 – 17
News curation and Page Apps in the early 2010s; From Brand to Friend traces from 2013 onward.

News Curation (Early 2010s)

Period recalled · sources to map
Later expression of the earlier curation practice.
Real-Time Filtering For A Defined Audience

What I Noticed

Apply expert selection and interpretation to the flow of current news: monitor relevant sources, filter what matters and make it useful to a specific audience.

Relationship To Earlier Work

Robin places news curation and real-time filtering in the early 2010s, as a later expression of the content-curation idea he recalls identifying around 2003–04.

Evidence

Date recalledMap the dated newsletters, articles and Newsradar work to establish the sequence and earliest surviving trace.

Website Builders & Page Components (Jul 26, 2011)

Dated primary source
Original publication date printed in the article.
Page Apps · beyond the article template

What I Noticed

Non-technical publishers struggled to move beyond article pages. Robin proposed design-intelligent, function-specific “page-apps,” with pre-designed blocks people could sequence and combine to create the experience they wanted.

Why It Mattered

Designers could package their skills into reusable tools; clients could maintain professional interactive pages without depending on designers for every change.

Evidence & Later Comparison

Primary source“Web Design: The Emergence of Page Apps”, first published July 26, 2011. WordPress blocks and no-code builders are related later developments; direct influence is not established.

From Brand to Friend (2013–17)

Dated traces · origin date open
Presentation · article · book; underlying roots earlier.
From distant promotion to human relationship

What I Noticed

Brands can move beyond spotlighting the product and speak with customers directly: listen, care, build relationships and become trusted guides for their needs.

When It Took Shape

Robin says the title/book concept came from a publisher’s offer and gathered earlier ideas from the Sharewood Formula. The invitation date and publisher remain unknown.

Evidence

Dated milestones2013 presentation title · 2015 article · 2017 book. These are not necessarily the beginning of the ideas.

Six New Emerging Trends2026
Recent concepts Robin is exploring. Some are adopted ideas; others are hypotheses to test.

Meta-curation (Jan 15)

Recent named idea · earlier phrase
TRUST-able #64 · named synthesis.
Curating trusted curators

What The Idea Says

Map the people already filtering a field, then select and interpret the strongest work from those expert curators. This adds a layer above ordinary source-finding and can position the meta-curator across the field.

Dates & Distinction

Robin says he consciously began “curating the curators” in 2026. His article attributes the phrase “meta-curation” to John Udell’s 2009 Net-radio thought experiment; it does not claim the phrase as Robin’s invention.

Evidence

Primary sourceTRUST-able #64, January 15, 2026. Robin’s underlying curation practice is older; documentary roots need tracing.

Paradata (Feb 04)

Recent adoption · term predates Robin
TRUST-able #66 · first titled article located.
Show the process behind the work

What The Idea Says

Make the surrounding process visible: why the work was made, how conclusions were reached, which sources and tools were used, what was selected or excluded, and what remains uncertain.

How It Emerged For Robin

While researching Meta-curation and how experts demonstrate credibility, Robin encountered the unfamiliar term, investigated it, then began adding Paradata to articles to use it consistently and test its value.

Evidence

Primary sourceTRUST-able #66, February 4, 2026. Keep distinct from Meta-curation: Paradata makes the process visible.

Distant Writing & the Apt Curation Model (2025 → 2026)

Synthesis of two established ideas · Robin’s application
Luciano Floridi’s Distant Writing and Tiegue Vieira Rodrigues’s Apt Curation Model, brought together in Robin’s authorship article.
Authorship through direction, curation and responsibility

What The Ideas Say

Floridi’s concept of Distant Writing describes text production mediated by generative AI, where the human directs the process rather than composing every sentence. Rodrigues’s Apt Curation Model explains how authorship remains with the human through architectural design, dialogical refinement, evaluative verification and integrative synthesis. Together, they describe authorship as responsible direction and curation of the work.

Robin’s Synthesis

In TRUST-able #79, Robin brings the two ideas together to examine who made the meaningful decisions in an AI-assisted text and whether those decisions can be checked. He applies this to authorship more broadly: the author sets direction, makes and verifies choices, integrates the result and takes responsibility for it.

Evidence

Sources + synthesisFloridi’s Distant Writing paper (2025) · Rodrigues’s Apt Curation Model (published February 26, 2026) · Robin Good, TRUST-able #79, “Who Is the True Author When Writing with AI?” (May 27, 2026), which synthesizes and applies the two.

Vetted by X (May 20)

Hypothesis · adoption unproven
TRUST-able #78.
Verification as a trust signal

What The Idea Says

As polished outputs become cheaper, people who inspect what is underneath them may become more valuable. Curation’s habits of questioning and checking can apply to apps, systems, workflows and knowledge bases.

Robin’s Example & Hypothesis

While testing The Curator, Robin found that some information had silently disappeared. He used its AI to investigate and reported the issue; the developer fixed it within a day. He proposes “Vetted by X” may become a trust marker in some fields.

Evidence

Primary source · hypothesisTRUST-able #78, May 20, 2026. Claims of broad adoption or impact remain unverified.

Liquid Content (Sep 09)

Current synthesis · term has varied uses
TRUST-able #91 · related roots earlier in 2026.
From articles to reusable resources

What The Idea Says

Organize knowledge as reusable pieces that people and AI can assemble around needs no single article anticipated. Articles introduce and explain resources—maps, directories, decision guides and tools.

Keep Evidence Attached

Preserve provenance, process and verification as knowledge changes form. Without them, a recommendation can circulate after its reasons and limits disappear.

Evidence & Related Roots

Current synthesis#91, Sep 9, 2026. Earlier related writing: June 3, 2026; knowledge-infrastructure foundation: Oct 29, 2025. Related roots do not prove the named formulation existed then.

Tools Are the New Articles (Oct 2026)

Ready for publication · not yet published
TRUST-able #97 · ready, awaiting publication.
A tool can let readers try an expert’s judgment

What The Idea Says

A tool built from an expert’s criteria may become the main published expression of expertise. The article explains those criteria, what was tested, where the tool fails, and when to trust it.

What Remains Open

The article names easier tool-building, content sameness and AI chat app directories as drivers. It says there is no comparative study yet showing that tools outperform articles for trust, clients or revenue.

Evidence

Ready · unpublished · hypothesisTRUST-able #97, “Tools Are the New Articles” (October 2026). Ready for publication; not yet published. The comparative claim remains a hypothesis.