Telepocalypse

Stand to attention

I’ve an infinitude of unread articles in my RSS reader, but this first one I read has stimulated my cranium a bit. Tim Oren, a well-hyperlinked venture capitalist, writes on bundling, a pet interest of mine.

Two things strike me. He mentions playlists as replacing the CD, and allieviating the constant decision of what track to play next. To me playlists are interesting because they are what directs your attention. I believe there is money in attention. Lots of money. I’ve written before that the only money in traditional telephony (without the addition of new presence etc. features) is in managing the ring and interrupting the user’s attention. To me, the playlist is the thing for sale in a music store — the music comes for free. Indeed, if you’re a really cool person, you can sell your playlist. This is, in effect, what a DJ does.

All are more points on the graph confirming the hypothesis.

Also in the article, Tim ponders the balance of power between aggregating the attention of many users for the benefit of advertisers, versus the aggregation of many intersting stories for the attention of users. As someone who pays out of his own pocket to get this site hosted and grab your interest, I wonder if the future looks a bit like this: instead of you even being able to read this is a website, you will have to read it as an RSS stream, and potentially only via certain intermediary RSS readers where I can be guaranteed you’ll have to see adverts, from which I’ll get a cut by monetising your attention.

But if you want to bypass that future, I do invite you to send cheques (dollars or pounds sterling accepted) directly to me instead.