Rethinking the Information Economy: Is it really an Attention Economy?

I have a Google Alert set to the word "rethinking," and it is fun to check out the diverse subjects that pop up in that daily digest. These posts serve to stimulate my own thinking-- and rethinking-- and I am enjoying the seemingly random ideas that people are rethinking, courtesy of the information filters of Google.

The range this week went from Rethinking Sex Work as Labor, to Rethinking the Personal Carbon Calculator, to Rethinking Healthcare. It would be easy to spend a lot of time nosing around this stuff. People are spending a lot of time rethinking the world! It's inspiring, and time-consuming, even when I manage to just scan and stay disciplined in my reading. But I only have so much attention.

The I ran across an entry from synaptify.com on Rethinking the Knowledge Economy. For the full and fascinating post, see http://synaptify.com/?p=613686
In his December 5 post, Dominiek ter Heide begins by reviewing the common understanding of the distinction between data, information, and knowledge:

• Data is raw facts
• Information is data that is organized, analyzed or placed into a certain context
• Knowledge is internalized information: skills, experience, cognition, etc.

Now things get more interesting...

Informational v.s. Physical

To understand the fundamentals of the problem, we have to take a look at the difference between information and physical objects. Physical objects abide by different laws than information. A physical object can only exist in one place in one time and it deteriorates when used or touched. Information on the other hand, can exist in many places at any time and multiplies when touched.

Thanks to zero-cost communication, the replicating nature of information has showed itself over the last decade. There are now vast amounts of knowledge (and obsoledge) being generated every day, making many derivatives of information (content, knowledge) a commodity. Kevin Kelley explains this well in his essay ‘Better than Free’, where he compares the internet to a giant copy machine where the copies drop in value. Interestingly, when those copies become abundant, the value starts shifting to what’s scarce: the attention of people. This is where the concept of the Attention Economy starts.

From Wikipedia: Attention economics is an approach to the management of information that treats human attention as a scarce commodity, and applies economic theory to solve various information management problems.

Attention Economics!! This has my attention. Stay tuned for further exploration.