What's it all about?

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.