There is a commodity that is at the core of our work in the communications field, and the related fields of marketing and advertising. Without this commodity, we could never hope to wield influence. Unlike oil, it is a resource that will always exist, yet it is finite; there is only so much of it to go around. This commodity is attention.
In an information/knowledge economy, attention is at the heart of just about everything. If people pay attention, you have a shot at getting your message across. If they don’t, if they choose to focus their attention elsewhere, you might as well be firing your messages into deep space. What’s more, given the nature of the Net, you can identify what people are paying attention to and use that information.
It’s interesting to reflect on the term “pay attention.” “Pay” suggests some kind of barter arrangement. When I pay money for something, I expect to get something in return, whether it’s a pack of chewing gum, a new laptop, a novel, whatever. When I pay heed, I also expect something in return, such as information of value. As more and more organizations jockey to attract the attention of key audiences, what are they giving in return? Are they even thinking in terms of an exchange? And what of those organizations that use services like Technorati and PubSub to identify where people are focusing their attention in order to use it to better hone their own messages? Are they employing any ethical guidelines to their application of the information they obtain?
These questions are new to the information age, but a non-profit organization has been launched to advocate on behalf of the people who own the commodity organizations crave. AttentionTrust maintains that individuals own themselves, their data, and their attention. Further, this ownership assumes certain rights:
- Property—You own your attention and can store it wherever you wish. You have control.
- Mobility—You can securely move your attention wherever you want whenever you want to. You have the ability to transfer your attention.
- Economy—You can pay attention to whomever you wish and receive value in return. Your attention has worth.
- Transparency—You can see exactly how your attention is being used. You can decide who you trust.
AssociationTrust defines attention, in part, as
…the substance of focus. It registers your interests by indicating choice for certain things and choice against other things. Any time you pay attention to something (and any time you ignore something), data is created. That data has value, but only if it’s gathered, measured, and analyzed. Right now, you generally lack the ability to capture that data for yourself, so you can’t benefit from it. But what if you could? And what if you could share your data with other people, who were also capturing their own data, or if you could exchange your data for something of value with companies and other institutions that were interested in learning more about the things that interested you? You’d be in control–you would decide who has access to what data, as well as what you’d accept in exchange for access to your data.
The site also includes links to some research and writing on the subject of attention.
The mission of AttentionTrust isn’t clear, and its activities aren’t defined, but the association is inviting memberships for those who are willing to abide by the four principles. In any case, this is no fly-by-night group. The volunteer board includes the likes of ZDNet columnist and attention advocate Steve Gillmor (president), Nick Bradbury, designer of the FeedDemon RSS newsreader, Seth Goldstein, Clay Shirky, and Mary Hodder, among others. Since there’s no dollar figure attached to membership (other than a suggested $25 donation), I’m signing up if for no other reason than to see what comes next.
