Respect!

Garrett, my comments about Jackass were intentionally subjective because I think they're relevant in light of James Governor's original post. You're absolutely right that Jackass would make a top-notch case study in capturing and monetizing attention--but beyond the world of attention geeks like us, I think it's safe to say that Jackass commands a lot more attention than respect. And I think that's one aspect of the dynamic that has James concerned. As we evolve into a true attention economy, will we suspend all value judgments and glorify anything that becomes popular, simply because it's successful at garnering attention?

I don't want to return to an Old Media world guarded by Mandarin gatekeepers who think they know what's best for the rest of us. There's an audience for Jackass and Paris Hilton and any number of figures who wouldn't have seen the light of day in that old world, and those audiences have a right to decide for themselves where to direct their attention. Power to the user.

But nor do I want to remain trapped in this pseudo-personalized transitional environment where I'm still bombarded by appeals to spend my attention on things that are meaningless to me. The answer is better tools that understand what I'm interested in (and what I'm not) at a much more detailed level.

I think that's exactly what we should be doing. The web service part, that is--not calling you the Jackass of analyst companies ;-)

We should all be able to publish our attention data, either directly or through an intermediary, just like we publish our content via a feed. You could subscribe to the attention feeds of people who share your interests, or whose judgment you respect, and you could mashup feeds from various sources.

Capturing this data via our Recorder or some other tool is just the first step. The real value will be unlocked when we start sharing our data with each other.