Why aren’t you paying attention to attention? The web has always had an attention-based economy, which companies have attempted to monetise, usually via advertising. But for the past year, Steve Gillmor, Seth Goldstein and others have been trying to move this idea to the next level. If you can capture your own ”attention data”, then two important things follow. First, you could use your time and attention better. Second, you could trade your data with companies for other benefits.
The first point is becoming important because of ”information overload”. There are too many websites to visit, too many RSS feeds for anyone to scan, and people are straining under the volume of their email. That’s why we have BlackBerrys. The second point is becoming important because of the volume of information companies are compiling about users and their online behaviour.
In the early days of the web, sites measured attention by the number of hits they attracted. Putting ads on a site converted some of this attention into cash. But visitors were generally anonymous, and one hit was as good as another.
Today, companies such as Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Amazon and eBay are interested in collecting much more specific, and much more personal, data. The things to which you pay attention — what you search for, the products you look at, the ads you click, what you buy — provide a picture of who you are. You even help by creating wishlists, rating or reviewing products, selecting news feeds, and so on. This enables sites to do a better job of targeting ads and suggesting things you might like. That’s good for you, and even more profitable for them. But before long they may know you better than you know yourself.
One result is AttentionTrust.org, a non-profit organisation cofounded by Gillmor and Goldstein ”to promote the principles of user control of attention data” (www.attentiontrust.org). Its four principles are:
- 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. 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.
AttentionTrust.org offers Attention Recorder, an accessory for Firefox. This lets you save ”attention data” (based on your browsing) on your hard drive, and release it to approved services if you wish. This has limits: it doesn’t capture important consumer data such as the songs you listen to, the movies and TV you watch, the food you eat, and so on. Also, some argue that the things you ignore are also important attention data. But Attention Recorder is just a start.
Separately, Goldstein has set up Root Markets
This information would be valuable to any company with products to sell. It might also be of great interest to a potential future employer or spouse — and not necessarily in a good way. The problem is that, unless you are browsing anonymously, companies are collecting this information anyway, and they are going to get better at it. Who should own it: them or you?
Even if no one pays attention to AttentionTrust.org, at least it is highlighting a problem that may be small now but could become much bigger in the future. – Guardian Unlimited Â