Your Attention Please
So attention is a zero sum game and if we are creating (at an exponential rate?) more uses of attention, then we are facing a looming attention crisis.A really good consideration of the nature of attention and the fact that there are only a limited number of channels that anyone can keep in their head at once.
a vc
My own belief is that the real opportunities in Web 2.0 are going to be for editors. People who have the time and the expertise to act as filters for all of the material out there.
At the same time, Web 2.0 adventures such as memeorandum are critical. These use code to sort and value blog posts and they will be a vital tool in an editor’s arsenal. Ultimately, though, I am inclined to think that there will be real value in editors who find and contextualize (awful word) material for particular, small (no more than 10000 subscriber audiences.
The question of how such editors will be paid is interesting. As a general rule, people who visit a website daily quickly become “ad blind”. They virtually never hit any of the ads on the page. They might read them; but they do not actually follow through.
However, if there was a seemless way of paying for the editor’s skills that might be worth something. Currently we have the kludgey and rarely used PayPal button. In fact it has to be easier than that to make a micro payment. I have a few ideas how that might work.
There is a great opportunity for people to add value by acting as intelligent aggregators or editors. If they have credibility and can establish a level of trust with their community it would be a valuable service.
Like you though, I’m not sure where the financial reward will come from. That’s the ‘bubble’ right now. I can’t see how, in practical terms, it will evolve—without a big foot print player stepping in —from the current tip jar to something that will attract and retain quality people to the task.