4. What is Attention Economy “ ...in an information-rich world, the wealth of information means a dearth of something else: a scarcity of whatever it is that information consumes. What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention and a need to allocate that attention efficiently among the overabundance of information sources that might consume it” -- 1971, Herbert Simon
5. The shift is happening Minerals, volcanoes, sea water, chemicals Physics, chemistry, geology Molecular biology, physiology, ecology Life What do we get: The whole world demand a new way of thinking.
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10. Illusory attention By setting up some expectations in advance, the speaker seems to be fulfilling each individual’s needs and paying attention personally to everybody. Illusory attention helps create an apparent equality of attention and it can go beyond that to create a feeling obligation on the listeners part. In some special circumstances, asymmetry exists between two parties of a conversation. Attention Illusory attention
11. Characteristics o f Attention Attention flows both ways Attention can be passed
In 1978, Herbert Simon was awarded the Nobel Prize in economics for his pioneering research into the decision-making process within economic organizations. He did lots of works in economic, psychology, business administration and other fields.
Life In its existence, the planet Earth held no life. Various kinds of minerals, volcanoes, sea water, chemicals and so on are understandable by physics, chemistry, geology. Fairly suddenly, life emerged in tremendous variety. The laws of molecular biology, physiology, ecology are in charge now. What do we get: The whole Net and cyberspace demand a new way of thinking. But the new concepts need not to be built on top or in addition of the old concepts.
A Feudal system Back to 15 th century, Europe is still ruled on feudal lines. Following Columbus’s discoveries, the feudal lords tend to think they can apply the same feudal economy to the newly discovered continents. The capitalist, market-based industrial economy eventually grew so strong in North America and dominate back to Western Europe. What do we get: The economic laws are not timeless. They hold true in a particular periods and in a particular kind of space. The net brings us to a period when billions of people can interact at the same time. This is different from what we prevailed for the last few centuries.
Information would be an impossible basis for an economy because economics are governed by what is scarce, and information, especially on the net, is overflowing. Having someone’s attention, one can covert it into a physical action, like raising their hands. Everyone must have some attention to survive. The potential driving force: Having attention is very desirable. Attention is difficult to get owing to its intrinsic scarcity.
I might begin by asking you for information, such as who you are and what you do, not necessarily because that is of great interest to me, but because it is a good way to get your attention.
Obviously, the audience is paying much more attention to the presenter than the reverse. But by setting up some expectations in advance to the audience, the presenter seems to fulfill each individual’s need. This is called illusory attention. It makes every individual believes the presenter is paying attention to him/her. It helps create an apparent equality of attention, and it can go beyond that to create a feeling of obligation on the listeners part. The audience members can each feel they have not paid as much attention to a speaker as the speaker has paid personally to them, even though, the reverse is closer to the truth.
Example: In a factory, repeating the same motions over and over (polishing one corner of a car) -> such repetition allows standard prices and wages The entire money system is based on the simultaneous inter-changeability of units of money and of standardized goods 1 dollar = 1 dollar, 1 quart milk = 1 quart milk In attention economy, this exchange is no longer possible. Attention doesn’t come in precise, indistinguishable units, neither does the illusory attention for which it is exchanged.
In the case of the ultra-rich seeking political office, the price they must pay per vote keeps rising, and no matter how good the advertising geniuses they hire, they have to be good at attracting attention on their own.
I am an employee of SAP He is the author of the Design of design She is the singer of Down by the water
A graphic here (the movies we watch, the music we listen, the books we read define us) A continuing growth in the capacity of those on the web to send out multimedia or virtual reality signals, and thus to capture attention through all these means All this and more will make the web a better and better means of transmitting and circulating attention, a circulation that is essential for a full-fledged economy to emerge Individual attention getters of all sorts will find it ever easier to get attention directly through the web