Forget the ‘attentional economy’ of Web 1.0. We’ve got some research that suggests Web 2.0 is shaping up as an attentional ecology.
We’ve been doing some quantitative research into the network structure of online influence. Preliminary results suggest that blogs aren’t superceding ‘traditional’ websites as authoritative references — instead the blogosphere seems to work as a super-responsive way for ‘online’ to grab attention, then direct it back into well-established websites — a emergent, self-organising and symbiotic relationship of benefit to both ‘old’ (Web 1.0) and ‘new’ (Web 2.0) digital media. If, in our brave new digitally-mediated world, Attention is Oxygen, then it seems that blogs are the gills that garner that attention from the world, then efficiently deliver it to nourish the Web.
Looks like we should start thinking of online in ecological as much as economic terms. And start watching to see structures and processes evolve next…
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