Craig's Lemonade

20 thoughts on Attention by Alex

So, after referring to his site I ran across an earlier post by Alex entitled "20 thoughts on Attention." Please go check it out, Alex gets it. The more predictable data points the better for more useful attention streams. I would add structured blogging to the list as item #21. While only in its infancy and led by pubsub, I personally believe this is an exciting area not just for the consumer examples proposed by the organization but the possibilities of structured blogs in the enterprise, throughout supply chain, and customer communications. The predictability of a structured blogs can enrich attention streams and make them much more useful to businesses of all sizes.

Alex also asked what I think about OPML. Hmmm. We are still undecided about OPML's importance other than a simple roll-up of information so we are not drinking the OPML Kool-Aid yet. Emphasis on "yet." Too many smart people are pontificating so we are still trying to determine its role in the application of our technology. Our Series B lead, RSS Investors, have two partners (John Palfrey and Jim Moore) that "get" OPML - in fact you could argue Jim is even "pouring" OPML Kool-Aid! Both incidentally are involved in the RSSLabs OPML Workstation.

So at Attensa we are very interested in the opportunities OPML can enable. Our strategy for attention streams could no doubt improve results for Dave Winer's OPML Editor as well. First things first though, as we are a business not a research organization. We have a few products to get out over the next several months and we will have a "party line" on OPML soon.

Structured Blogs and Attention Data...they need each other

PubSub is leading the cause for structured blogs and has some nice simple examples for book and music reviews replete with links to buy on Amazon. At Attensa we have been looking closely at structured data types, beyond even those of blog origin, and hope that standards such of these catch on (at a minimum) with mainstream consumers. Obviously internet retailers will also benefit if such structured blogging is accepted…and at Attensa we believe the results can be dramatically improved for all participants.

Enter “attention streams”

Structured blogs in our view might be just half the equation, as it will be sophisticated (and anonymous) utilization of attention data that will make examples such as these truly useful to consumers AND the businesses that will ultimately benefit. Charlene Li’s blog has several other consumer level ideas that are particularly conducive to the structured blog approach. John Batelle goes even further discussing the implications on search and tagging.

All of these ideas though are predominantly consumer-centric. While interesting and useful, we feel the real opportunity is most certainly in the enterprise including CRM and throughout the supply chain. Imagine structured blogs from everything from RFPs to Expense Management to Annual Reviews to Applications for Employment. Consumers and retailers will no doubt benefit from structured blogs but it will be miniscule compared to the potential in the enterprise. That’s my (Attensa’s) take anyway.