« Ebay patent ruling | Main | Why immigration reform »
May 24, 2006
Attention Economy
One of the other hot discussions I missed last week concerned the Attention Economy. For those of you whose might not remember, the concept first arose in an article by Michael Goldhaber in 1997- The Attention Economy: The Natural Economy of the Net" in the online journal First Monday:
If the Web and the Net can be viewed as spaces in which we will increasingly live our lives, the economic laws we will live under have to be natural to this new space. These laws turn out to be quite different from what the old economics teaches, or what rubrics such as "the information age" suggest. What counts most is what is most scarce now, namely attention. The attention economy brings with it its own kind of wealth, its own class divisions - stars vs. fans - and its own forms of property, all of which make it incompatible with the industrial-money-market based economy it bids fair to replace. Success will come to those who best accommodate to this new reality.
(FYI - click here for additional information on the Attention Economy on the web.)
Apparently, attention was drawn to the Attention Economy (pun intended!) by Esther Dyson. John Hagel's blog -
"Edge Perspectives with John Hagel: Paying Attention" has a good summary of the discussion:
An interesting discussion surfaced over the past week among some bloggers, precipitated by comments from Esther Dyson in a debate with Vint Cerf in Wall Street Journal Online.
Esther reminded us that recent references to the attention economy are heavily influenced (directly or indirectly) by a seminal article on "The Attention Economy and the Net" by Michael Goldhaber on the subject many years ago. In the process, she made the great point that many of the recent references focus on only half of Michael’s attention economy.
I think I agree with John's bottom line on this: it is not about attention for attention sake; it is about how attention drives sharing of knowledge.
We all find ourselves in a globalizing world where we must find ways to develop distinctive and rapidly evolving capabilities. That is the only way to carve out sustainable livelihoods in the face of intensifying competitive pressure.
In this context, what we know at any point in time has diminishing value. We all need to find ways to tap into a broader set of experiences and perspectives to refresh our understanding of the changing world around us. To do this effectively, we need to receive the deep and sustained attention of those who have the most to offer and we cannot do this unless we can offer compelling value in return. If we cannot build deep and sustaining networks of attention (in other words, networks of relationships), we will find it more and more difficult to remain relevant and productive.
As such, the "Attention" Economy doesn't replace the real monetary economy - any more than open source or free software will completely replace paid-for software. Attention is part of the new I-Cube Economy where information and intangibles are major inputs to the production process. But ultimately there must be the production of something that someone will pay for. That is the trick that everyone is still grappling with.
Posted by Ken Jarboe at May 24, 2006 8:59 AM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.athenaalliance.org/mt/mt-tb.cgi/713