John Federico on Attention eXchange Languages

John Federico of Audible.com just gave a presentation at the Corporate Podcasting Summit in which he discussed his interest in what he's calling Attention eXchange Languages, or AxLs--XML formats dedicated to defining and communicating what a reader, listener or viewer is paying attention to. (John may not have coined the term AxL, and he doesn't make that claim, but it's the first time I've heard it.)

John mentions attention.xml and Microsoft's Simple Sharing Extensions as potential AxLs, and he attributes the former to AttentionTrust, which isn't entirely accurate. As I understand it, Steve Gillmor, an AttentionTrust co-founder, and Dave Sifry of Technorati developed attention.xml, so in that sense there is a relationship between AttentionTrust and the spec. However, our Attention Recorder uses a different spec, AttentionDataXML, and I wanted to clarify that point.

That said, it's interesting to see attention discussed in this context. The value of attention data related to podcasts and videos will be tremendous, not merely from the perspective of marketers who want to know who's listening to or watching their ads, but from the perspective of individuals who need help determining whether a particular podcast or video is going to be worth their time. As listeners and viewers, we want to know if the experience is going to be relevant and meaningful for us--what's the return on our attention?

Wordcounts and expected reading times are a first step in that direction with regard to written articles and posts, but a fully functional attention economy will require a lot more data, and some standard, some form of AxL will be an important element in that ecosystem. I'm not qualified to weigh in on the merits of any particular standard, nor is AttentionTrust involved in standard-setting, but I look forward to hearing more on the topic.

tags: attention attentiontrust attention+trust attention+data attention+economy intention+economy john+federico audible corporate+podcasting+summit attention.xml steve+gillmor dave+sifry