Attention Rights and Ownership

I browse ZDNet daily and so it was very hard to avoid Steve Gillmor and the whole AttentionTrust.org thing. I didn't grasp the fundamentals of it to begin with and so left it alone until it developed into a topic that people had been discussing long enough that the innovators will start describing the subject into terms for the common man.

It seems I concern myself with two (both) arms of attention data. Firstly, what I pay attention to and how the data that I make by distributing my attention can help me. The second arm is what data companies collect about me in order to market products to me (or people like me).

Seth Goldstein voiced views I share on the Gillmor Gang show. Using the example of Amazon.com and the purchase data they keep on your account. They have recorded your attention and keep hold of it for both parties to use on their site. That's great, but the problem is that you have generated that data but don't have any easy access to it unless you are on Amazon.com. You cannot transport this data to Ebay for example, for personalised searches. Also, you cannot keep it to yourself, selling it on to other parties that want you to buy their products.

Hell, I may even put it on my blog or website so that it gives spammers something legitimate to work with. Spamming is only evil because it is unsolicited and intrusive.
Imagine having your full attention data, centralised and searchable with one focused point for advertisers to contact you. Very few people have only one email address. I personally wouldn't mind having one email address or equivalent point of contact to have advertisers reach me. But then only when it is being used intelligently.

If you want to sell me stuff that I might actually buy (software, developer books, Warhammer) then this is great. I don't always want to be the one searching for the place to shop from, it is OK for advertisers to come to me provided I let them in by saying:
"Yes, look at the subjects I pay attention to, the products I have paid money for. If your products/services fit this bill then I may be interested in what you have to offer."

Eliminate these tickboxes and other nonsense that we have to read through the small print of everytime we purchase anything. Eliminate these black market mailing lists. Have everything out in the open (or not) as the individual chooses.

This is my first set of thoughts on the subject, which I find more intriguing the more I think about it. More to come in the future no doubt.

Technorati Tag = Attention Data