At the age of five, we’re told to share with others, to speak up, create our own voice. And now, at the age of five, Flipboard’s curation community is doing just that. Exactly five years ago we opened our platform for people to collect and share stories that reflect their voice, perspective or expertise. Today the ability to curate your own magazine on Flipboard is more important than ever, for a few specific reasons. 1. It gives people a single place to collect stories that shape their daily lives—and share that inspiration with others. From collecting ideas on healthy living to educating others on cryptocurrency to presenting a perspective on immigration, the people curating stories on Flipboard give readers unique packages around almost any topic. You can browse a huge assortment of great Flipboard Magazines in our #MagsWeLove collection. 2. Publishers can curate stories into packages that cover special events or collect evergreen articles to deliver a full view into a particular area of coverage. For example, Vanity Fair covered the red carpet at the Oscars, while Axios provides perspective on the The Russia Probe. With these magazines, publishers can connect with people who want to go deep in an area of interest and leverage all of their coverage, building a new type of relationship with Flipboard readers. 3. Curation gives people and brands an easy way to bring their passion, expertise or ideas to others—breaking free from the barrage of social posts, people can create a quiet place, filled with information or inspirational ideas that others can sit back and enjoy. So instead of posting individual items on social channels, curate ideas into a Flipboard Magazine where articles, videos and ideas can be packaged together to truly tell a story. 4. If a team or group of friends wants to discuss a topic or share ideas just among their circle, magazines can be made together. Sharing via email or Slack channels puts articles randomly in someone’s stream of work, but a curated magazine puts articles into a package that anyone on the team can go back to read at any time. From research teams to book clubs, if you want to get inspired to make your own group magazine, start curating and then invite contributors. 5. Curation is a signal to the platform that brings better stories to everyone. Because Flipboard’s machine learning team can see what stories are being collected (“flipped”) into magazines, how many people are sharing those items, and what types of magazines they are being curated into, the engine can surface the best stories on any given topic. With people providing that signal, Flipboard topics can be filled with timely items others are finding valuable. Collections of stories can give people a bigger picture, a deeper dive, a more robust perspective on any issue. It takes a collection of ideas and stories to advance our awareness. In fact, sometimes it takes us hearing the same story from multiple points of view to move forward. And packaged together, the whole can be more impactful than the parts. This is the power of Flipboard Magazines. And five years later, it’s more important than ever that we share ideas, expand our perspectives and build an appreciation for other points of view. Keep on curating (just use the + on anything you see in Flipboard). ~Marci McCue is reading Semantic Infiltration by @djspooky