In 2001, Thomas H. Davenport and John C. Beck published
The Attention Economy [link to wikipedia's entry on the concept]
through Harvard Business School Press.
Here's the money quote:
"In postindustrial societies, attention has become a more valuable currency than the kind you store in bank accounts. The vast majority of products have become cheaper and more abundant as the sum total of human wealth increases. Venture capital dollars have multiplied like breeding hamsters. The problems for businesspeople lie on both sides of the attention equation: how to get and hold the attention of consumers, stockholders, potential employees, and the like, and how to parcel out their own attention in the face of overwhelming options. People and companies that do this, succeed. The rest fail. Understanding and managing attention is now the single most important determinant of business success. Welcome to the attention economy." (p. 3)
This book and its theoretical approach tell us what to do after we go beyond providing information access. Now the work is to get the attention of those awash in information flows. It's worth your attention.
JEG
Posted by Jay Gillette at June 27, 2009 01:56 PM