understanding the economics of time and attention, which are the ultimate scarce goods
Sarah Ann Long, a former president of the American Library Association and currently director of NSLS, a library consortium in the northern suburban region of Illinois, recently noted public library users’ interest in audiovisual materials: In 2001, the NSLS conducted an informal survey of member public libraries and found that in a few libraries, loans … Continue reading library users like audiovisuals
Persons like to look at photographs of pretty girls and pretty boys. Taking objectification to a higher level, rigorous experimental testing (using photographs from Hot or Not, re-rated in a controlled laboratory procedure) has established that subjects discount the value of looking across time and trade money and work for viewing opportunities. These behavioral patterns … Continue reading economics of social attention
Steve Outing observes: For years, sports enthusiasts have read about their sports in magazines, mostly — with advice and celebrity profiles written by professional journalists and freelancers, and the occasional athlete. But what we’re seeing with the EG sites [here] (which are primarily about climbers/bikers/runners/et al sharing their own stories and images) is that people … Continue reading new sports stars
In the nineteenth century, continuous partial attention was a burning problem: Until the 1820s (when candle technology started to improve markedly), both wax and tallow candles needed frequent “snuffing.” We commonly misunderstand the term snuffing today — it did not mean to put a candle flame out; instead, it meant to trim the candle’s wick. … Continue reading information overload and burnout
Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer, recently honored as Bureaucrat of the Month, has identified advertising-funded business models as Microsoft’s top concern: Today, the big phenomenon that we can embrace – the big fat thing for us to think about, embrace, endorse, compete with – is what does ad-funding mean? Whether it is for search, or whether it … Continue reading new frontiers in advertising business models