Your Attention, Please

We've moved

2009-10-28T12:43:00.000-07:00

We've decided to move to wordpress, because it has much more versatile functionality, and will accommodate some of the changes we wish to make as we grow. Update your bookmarks and RSS, and visit us at http://attentiontheory.wordpress.com/

NIN app and attention

2009-04-15T08:42:00.000-07:00

Nine Inch Nails has released an iPhone app that lets users browse the website and send messages either to each other or globally. One can go to access.nin.com (Google Earth plugin will be required to view map) and watch the messages pop up on a global map more or less in real time.

I wonder what the map will look like during a tour - more densely blue populated wherever NIN is playing that night, I suppose. This app will also let fans connect to each other during or before a show, opening up all sorts of possibilities.

Can each blue point be read as a point of attention? If we look at the flow of dots over time, can it be said to be a flowing attention map centered around NIN? Each dot also contains information in the form of a message, potentially altering the type of attention. Even when users are talking to each other on this app, NIN remains the hub, garnering some (most?) of the attention even of a two-way conversation between third parties.

Twitter and the nature of attention

2009-04-06T15:22:00.000-07:00

Not to go on and on about twitter, but it seems like everyone is worried about how and when they are going to make money.
Even Stephen Colbert asked Biz Stone about it on his show last week:

The Colbert Report

Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Biz Stone

comedycentral.com

Colbert Report Full Episodes

Political Humor

NASA Name Contest

Jon Fine posted an article on the Business Week site recently linking twitter to the attention economy and stating that attention is not worth anything anymore. He proposes that in the era of newspaper and television advertising, attention is easily measured by ratings and circulation, and since that is harder on the web and social networks like twitter, that attention has lost value:

The value of attention began eroding once web traffic entered into it, since the monetization of attention—audience—is so much harder online. Just ask your local newspaper, if you still have one, or the new York Times. So you have a steady slide downward in what people who produce what we call “content” can get from attention; a TV ratings point or circulation bump is worth way more than a web traffic bump. (This is especially true if the only monetization tools you have are the generic options, like Google AdSense or signing up with the ad networks that are broadly depressing the prices of online ad inventory.)

But hold on a second. Does this really mean that attention has lost value, or that we need different ways of measuring it? TV and newspapers are blunt instruments. An ad in one of these media guarantees nothing except the potential for people to see the ad. With media like twitter and other web content, the same potential is there, but in a more targeted way. Fine wants to equate twitter followers with attention in the same way that newspaper circulation gauges attention, and I'm not entirely sure it works in either case. The attention garnered in older media is just as illusory -- it's just that conventional wisdom has long held that circulation and ratings are metrics for attention, without much to prove it.

When thinking about attention, we need to start thinking about types and degrees of attention instead of just (potential) eyeballs. Consumers are savvy. People don't want to sift through ads to get to content. They don't want the hard sell. But they do want to know about things they might like. I don't have the answers for twitter or for internet marketers in general.

When you read the article, take a look at the comments, where there is some interesting analysis of twitter usage and other models of monetizing attention. Bob Stewart's comment is particularly interesting, as he talks about listening and the value of relationships.

Twitter's spontaneous intelligence?

2009-04-04T18:29:00.000-07:00

Continuing with Daniel Levitin's The World in Six Songs, I'm inspired to dwell on a thought experiment about artificial intelligence. One could argue that our social networks are becoming shallower and more common. Blogging networks, then Myspace and Facebook, and now Twitter- the pattern is quicker communication with less depth. Does this necessarily mean less intelligence?

If one were to counter that popular theme, what would be the crux of the argument?

Daniel Levitin, TWISS, p. 269

"An individual ant, like an individual neuron, is just about as dumb as can be. Connect enough of them together properly, though, and voila! The system-as-a-whole demonstrates spontaneous intelligence."

Using Twitter's 140 character messages as analogous to neurons, can we imagine a Twitter cloud gaining intelligence?

Yes, it's sci-fi, but fun, nonetheless.

It's Twitter's World, we just post in it.

Teaching the Attention Economy pt 2

2009-03-31T17:17:00.000-07:00

After reading Erik's recent post about the difficulty of getting students to fully grasp the concept of the Attention Economy, I came across a blog where an assistant professor at SUNY Oswego, Ulises Mejias, came up with a game to help facilitate understanding.

Ironically, the game is set up using handwritten dry-erase boards and strips of paper passed amongst students sitting in a circle, simulating online social networks and blogs.

Here are the rules to the game.

I'd be curious what other models we could come up with, if we put some time into it.

Evolutionary Psychology and the Musical Attention Economy

2009-03-30T15:18:00.000-07:00

I recently read Daniel J. Levitin's latest book, The World in Six Songs, and as with everything I read these days, I'm finding ways to apply it to AE. I've worked in the music industry my entire career and have been amazed at how Attention is used and abused. Paris Hilton signing a recording contract? William Hung? William Shatner? (Shut up, Erik.) What is it that pisses people off so much about this? Is it merely the transition of Attention earned into a sellable song, an easy form of monetization? That's how I had thought about it until reading Levitin. Here's a quote from TWISS, p. 141:

"What you want for a communication medium is one in which honesty can be readily detected, what ethologists call an honest signal. For a number of reasons, it appears that it is more difficult to fake sincerity in music than in spoken language."

And there it, for me, at least. I prefer Bob Dylan, Conor Oberst, Paul Westerberg, and Amanda Palmer, people I've heard others complain about not being about to sing properly, a complaint most would agree applies to Hilton, Hung and Shatner, as well. But in the cases of Dylan, Oberst, Westerberg, and Palmer, they are sincere to a fault, and thus have legions of die-hard fans. They succeed despite limitations.

I know I'm not alone in this; most people's shit-detectors must be working pretty well.

Maybe this is merely another example of quality over quantity. Listening to popular lies is far less fulfilling than unpopular truisms. Any punk, metalhead, or rapper would probably tell you the same.

For further reading of Levitin's argument of how the musical brain created human nature:

Click here

Teaching the attention economy

2009-03-19T13:50:00.000-07:00

Last year, I read with the students in my American Studies class Michael Goldhaber's article on the attention economy, with mixed results. They understood the concept at the broadest level, but were largely unable to wrap their heads around the finer points. We talked about celebrities and how Paris Hilton could conceivably never pay for anything because people want her attention and will give her things for it. We talked about reputation and respect. But when pushed to the limits, they couldn't get past either attention as another form of money or credit, or returning to a barter system.

We then read Cory Doctorow's Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, which I think is a good treatment of an attention economy. The concept of Whuffie made more sense, but again, there was resistance, due to the fact that it is science fiction, and takes place in a post-scarcity world.

I think maybe that's one of the problems - scarcity. Goldhaber talks about attention as a scarce, and therefore valuable, resource. The problem is it can't replace material goods, especially scarce goods such as food. How can we imagine an attention economy that is not simply a credit/money replacement or a barter system? How do we get to the point where attention translates into food and shelter and luxury items and more attention, and do we want to get there?

Twittering attention

2009-03-06T08:15:00.001-08:00

Twitter has been getting so much attention lately, and for good reason. A lot of people have been using it to try to get attention, while others are using it to make connections (not that these are mutually exclusive). For example, I was in Whistler, BC a few weeks ago, and I sent a few tweets about my experience skiing there, and withing a day I had three new followers, all of them marketers in the Whistler area.

For me, twitter is a good tool both for gaining attention and making connections, but what I find is that as my followers grow, it demands more and more of my attention. I have been thinking in terms of "attention bandwidth" lately, and how much to let in. I really do care about my personal friends and I don't mind hearing that they are "waiting in line at Starbucks" (as rob says) from time to time, but I can't afford to be inundated with this minutiae, especially when it extends to not just friends but acquaintances and business people. This is also true in other social networking realms like facebook, and in real life. How often to we avoid that person who talk on and on about every little thing she has been thinking about since we last saw her, with no attention to our time constraints or interest levels?

How do you manage your attention bandwidth, whether online or in person?

follow attention economy at twitter.com/attentionecon
follow me at twitter.com/emarsh

The Election, As Told By Status Updates

2008-11-11T01:14:00.000-08:00

I suppose we've stepped up a notch in instant gratification by sharing our thoughts with the world through Twitter and the Status Update features on social network pages.

My remarking on that is, well, unremarkable. But, when I spent as much time on November 4th reading friends' up-to-the-minute Facebook updates as I watched CNN for election updates, I realized we had hit another plateau.

I was moved.

You can pretty much follow the sequence of events, just by the nature and tone of the updates. While I kept the posts in their natural chronology, for brevity's sake, I did omit a few that seemed repetitious.

Here is a Twitter-ish narrative of one of the most important days of our generation spanning from the afternoon of November 4 to the afternoon of November 5:

(names withheld)

- is voting
- is going rogue
- is wondering who got their free starbucks and Krispy Kreme?
- is happy she voted today!
- is solid. Solid as Barack!!!
- thinks it's funny that someone was actually stealing my campaign signs from my friends' yards
- is awaiting the results of change
- is watching CNN and HAPPY
- is going to be watching election results while he bowls
- is hopeful about tonight's results
- voted for Snoopy
- says way to go OHIO!
- is thinking she needs to go to bed
- is keeping in mind that when life gives you lemons, make lemonade.
Then find someone who's life gave them vodka and make a party!
- ...exhale
- is so relieved
- is so pumped- what a great day!
- remembers his kindergarten teacher telling him he could grow up to be president.
For the first time in many lifetimes, all children can believe their teachers.
- 's heart is THUMPING right now! I am proud to be an American! We made it Dad!
We made it!....speechless!
- is throwing a party to welcome back his faith in America.
- is not quite ready for three months of racial talk form the talking heads...
his race is Human, people.
- yes. we. did.
- WOOOOOOO - FRIGGIN' - HOOOOO!!!!!!
- is ready to fight and work for a new era of hope and possibilities.
- can't wait to hear the speech that will inspire and change the way the world looks
at the US from here on out.
- had to take a Xanax!
- realizes the phrase "Scranton in the house" is now not just stupid,
but for the next few days, a pun as well.
- says YES WE CAN!
- wow, that was a long 11 month journey. I'm so excited about the outcome,
but after seeing the speech, I'm excited about the future.
- is saying "Oh hot dam" and throwing his hands up in the ayer ay ayer
- is taking a breath and an Aleve
- now projects that in the United States of America there will be hangovers in the morning...
- is inspired!!! Thank you President Obama...I love the sound of that!!
- thinks Fox News isn't news at all; rather, it is the 700 Club and Comedy Central
mixed together. Viewers, please turn the channel and form your own opinions.
- is so happy to have stayed awake to watch history happen! What an awesome sight it was!
- is looking forward to discussions about ANYTHING other than politics
- assures you all, what you winessed last night is real.
- apparently rocked the vote a little too hard and f'd up my knee somehow.
- can't wait to see Dubya's face at the swearing in. It will be priceless.
- America, you may have have elected a black President, but 45 states have bans on gay
marriage. The Civil Rights fight is far from over!
- thinks there is a direct correlation between Obama's victory and the fact that I haven't
had a cigarette in over 5 weeks! Yes I can!
- thinks that hating Obama isn't going to fix anything. Let's give him a chance.
He is our president.
- is happy to be living in ObamaCa :)

How little we change

2008-05-08T18:04:00.000-07:00

In front of me in the coffeeshop, a 19 year old college student tries to impress a 17 year old (she'll be 18 next week!) girl with all his knowledge of law, education, chemistry (Nutrasweet vs Sugar).
Behind me, a 4 year old obnoxiously repeats "Who let the dogs out" over and over and loudly sings other songs, trying to get the attention of another 4 year old girl.
And me, I am blogging...

Voicemail Blogging

2008-02-15T11:20:00.000-08:00

Tuesday was typical, if I consider typical to be watching my second grade daughter walk in a circle for fifteen minutes, raising money for charity with her classmates.
“Now to check on the free-range children,” Principal Skinner echoed in my brain.
Leaving her school, I call Erik and Mike, realizing if I got their voicemails that I don’t necessarily need them to call me back- it’s not urgent, merely a musing idea. I could just hang up. If it had been important, I’d tell them to call me and why.
But that’s not why I was calling, I realized. I wanted to complain, not venomously, just sort of rant about paved schoolyards and Popsicles. But nowhere near my computer, I had no outlet.
So, my messages were voicemail blogs. I’m sure it drives some people crazy, and I’ve been known to leave messages until the time limit cut me off, but it got me thinking.
One of the technologies software developers are still working the kinks out of is voice recognition software. Shan Man of KUPD/Phoenix nailed a hilarious bit on his blog recently, mocking our frustrations with automated voice systems. But as this technology becomes ubiquitous, becoming standard fare on social networking and blogging sites, will it be the death of qwerty texting?
I imagined myself, instead of calling my friends, calling MySpace and leaving a voicemail blog. Someone visiting the page could read what I had just spoken into my phone, or have the option to listen to it as a stream.
I had heard recently that despite contractions (like LOL and BTW) and hurriedly misspelled words (like “luv” and “prolly”), some English teachers are finding kids easier to teach in that IM and text messaging are forcing an economical view of language on them. Restricted by time (IM) or space (texting), you only type words necessary for communicating the idea. Fewer words to edit.
This may be a quick reprieve. When voice technology completely takes over, the trend may reverse again, as people leave long, winding, sinewy blogs to be drunk-dialed and forgotten. Well, at least until all your friends post their comments.

Ben Tausig Answer In Own Puzzle

2008-01-30T22:59:00.000-08:00

Here's an Onion article you'll never see (I hear they don't take submissions):

BEN TAUSIG ANSWER IN OWN PUZZLE

The answer for 33 Across in today's The Onion crossword puzzle is "Ben Tausig."

"What makes The Onion crossword puzzle so rad is that I make the answers!" explained puzzle editor Ben Tausig, who wrote himself as the answer to the clue, "Lord across the puniverse."

According to Tausig, who staunchly defends his use of puns in his work, wordplay keeps the player on her toes."Too many people Google-cheat their way through the pop culture references and this is my stand against it," said Tausig, shuffling a Scrabble dictionary under some paper on the desk. He believes that by manufacturing a pun, especially one that doesn't make sense, he adds a layer of difficulty for the uninitiated player, creating a unique "cross-sword (sic)" identity.

The answer for 12 Down is "Seventytogo."

"Get it?" he prodded. "Twelve down, seventy to go? There are eighty-two clues in the puzzle."

When reminded there are actually eighty-nine clues in today's puzzle, he responded that "seventyseventogo wouldn't fit."

Tausig's use of obscure three-letter words is at an all-time high today.

"It's hard," said Tausig. "You try coming up with forty-five three letter words to bind my puns together."

When stuck for clues, Tausig recharges by lighting candles and listening to linguistically flexible country music, followed by viewing back to back episodes of Jeopardy! By then he has worked his mind into "a froth, excited and percolating like the proverbial Dance of the Shiva. Oh, that's a good one for next week. The clue could be Turkish McIntyre, the answer: Dance of the Reba."

When told that clue was out of bounds and didn't make enough sense, Tausig replied, "If my crosswords are too hard, then go back to your New York Times, conservative literati!"

When told his attitude was now out of bounds as well, Tausig replied, "You want an easier clue? How about: How many fingers am I holding up?"The answer was "one." Look for it next week.

Literary Fiber; Semicolon Blow

2008-01-30T20:19:00.000-08:00

In keeping with the spirit of the Book and its issues with bathrooms, I began a cleanse.

That's not news. Nobody cares. Even I barely care. But, it's inspired a rant, a release of marketing pressure that had been building in my media-saturated brain.

It begins with the cleanse's brochure, in which every sentence of the 16 page foldout ends in an asterisk, because, apparently, it's against FDA law to make any of these claims of detoxification and health without one. It also features a woman in the throes of ecstasy, looking up and into the distance with a gaped smile, with three seasonal colors radiating from her head- burnt orange, icy blue, and spring emerald. I wonder what color they had passed on for summer.

"New Season, New You!" the brochure screams.

I'm always bothered by the randomly out-of-place and ecstatic actor propped up in a marketing campaign, especially when the message is that she just can't contain her joy after crapping her guts out for two weeks straight.

This reminds me of a recent television commercial for sour cream, the one set in a backyard BBQ or birthday party or something, the one with little kids in Easter dresses running by with streamers in their hands. Everybody's dancing and gleeful because a "dollop of Daisy" made it a party. Thank God for that glop of spoiled milk.

In my fight against infinite regression, I've succumbed to comparing this all to the barrage of ED commercials we're subjected to on the Science Channel (I wonder if too many documentaries about the solar system correlates to lessened genital blood flow; the commercial now acting as an anti-promo for the channel), where getting it up is equated to riding a bike with your wife or walking with her through the park in your golden years.

But my buck stops here because, besides the implication that non-ED inflicted men will retain the talent to keep their wives at their side, I think the point is these men aren't thinking about the product being peddled. They've moved on.

With the cleanse model and the dairy children, it's implied their happiness is erupting right now, as they can't contain their joy. I make poop. There's a tub of sour cream melting and gathering bugs on the picnic table.

Weeeeee!!! Yaaaaay!!!

Mindreading and Misperceptions

2007-05-01T18:01:00.000-07:00

The woman who cut my hair this morning told me a story. She cut a guy's hair, she said, really short, and everytime she saw him at the bus stop he was wearing a hat. She assumed he hated his haircut and felt really bad for months, until he made another appointment with her. When she asked him about the hat, he shrugged and said simply: "My head gets cold."

Biological Determinism

2007-01-27T17:59:00.000-08:00

I often accuse my friend Rob of being a biological determinist, mostly because of his predilection for biological (chemical/neurological/electric/synaptic) explanations of thoughts, feelings, etc. . My arguments are more faith-based, believe it or not. I just find the biological explanations banal, unpoetic, and just not fun, and I simply don't want to believe that everything we are is determined by mechanical processes. TI argue that we can't boil everything down to simple mechanical processes, that there's so much we don't understand and that it's naive to believe that we ever will understand the big mysteries of life. I must confess, though, that I make a bit of a straw man out of him when I do this, as I know he doesn't really believe in such a simplistic model. The funny thing is I just realized he does the same to me. The impasse we've had over the last several years is that I at first unintentionally and then more craftily ascribed these view to Rob, but he has assumed I believe that chemistry, etc., has NO effect, which, of course, is silly. Truth is, we're probably much closer in opinion than either of us likes to believe. I suspect we're both about 60/40 in opposite directions.

All this came up for me just now because of this article in Edge about the neurology of self-awareness, and the fact that I have been talking to some people lately who have great knowledge of evolutionary psychology, etc. I don't know. I don't have the answers, but I love the questions. When it comes down to it, I don't know if this is an either/or or a both. Maybe just different models of explaining the same things.

Another Site

2005-05-30T23:23:00.000-07:00

I had done a fairly decent job of avoiding All Things Paris Hilton. She held no interest to me until we started talking about the Attention Economy again.

It's no secret she has no talent and the only reason she is famous is because she's very rich and has hired a publicist.

And, a Goldhaberite (?) would tell you that since forms of old wealth will be the first to transition to the new wealth.

But it begs and bugs.

In the future, she would need to do more.

On another note, erik and I have launched another site:
http://www.freshwaste.com

More on the Attention Economy, but a bit more expansive, I think we've envisioned it. Fiction, pics, music, etc.

Who knows?

rxpct...

Contagious Media Showdown

2005-05-02T06:56:00.000-07:00

This is probably getting a lot of attention elsewhere, but it's interesting nonetheless. The idea is that whoever can get the most attention wins. What is more in line with attention economy than that? Interestingly, there are different awards for different metrics, including most hits and most technorati hits, for instance, so raw attention and more specilaized attention (i.e. bloggers) are judged separately. The ultimate irony, of course, would be if the contest site itself won (which it will no matter what, as I just noticed that all entrants must be hosted on their servers, with an option to pay for the space once the contest it over). Ingenious.

vertical attention integration

2005-04-28T22:56:00.000-07:00

Today, I looked back at some old notes from '97. Although we had focused much of our interest in the internet as the main culprit in our progressively diverted attention (with nods to TV and video games, of course), I see that the main arguments remain the same. A main one being that attention is scarce and each person should be aware and in control of her own. What has changed is the increased fragmentation of attention by even newer media: blackberries, instant messages, ipods, etc., all of which were virtually non-existent then.

So, in about an hour or so I managed to accumulate quite a few ideas we can flesh out, as well as some articles I've read recently that I should return to. One thing I found in the notes is a term I/we had defined.

"Vertical attention integration" (sounds so technical), which is keeping attention patterns related so that they can build off each other, allowing short-term and long term goals to align. Not necessarily revelatory, but I think it fits the stage we are in now. Short term goals of defining terms, researching current articles, and contributing fiction and comments can help align us so that long-term goals can be reached. And any early attention generated would be instrumental in the building process.

I have my hard hat on.

What's it all about?

2005-04-27T06:40:00.000-07:00

To be honest, we're not sure, quite yet. But here's the deal.

Rob and I have thinking about the idea of the attention economy ever since it was brought to our attention in 1997 in this Wired article by Michael Goldhaber (A longer version, in the form of a conference paper appears here and here). For those who don't know, the basic premise is that we are changing from a capitalist to an attention economy, where attention becomes the new currency. Goldhaber likens this to the change from a feudalist to a capitalist society, which fundamentally changed the way people think about the world.

We started a project, mostly fiction, where we would each write installments, or vignettes, based loosely around the theme of attention economy, with interstitial pieces of dialogue and debate. We completed a few pieces, then drifted away from the project to do our own things, much of which still has a foot in this tpye of thinking. Now, we've decided to drift back in the form of this blog, which will probably include musings, critical approaches, creative writing, debates, links to examples or other thinkers, and who-knows-what-else.

Welcome to the attention economy blog. Please fasten your seat belt and keep your hands in the car at all times.

Attention

2005-04-26T15:30:00.000-07:00

Now that we have your attention...