Attention in other words

Seth Goldstein, our fearless leader here at Root Markets, recently gave a talk about ‘attention’ at eTech. There’s been some good write-ups here, here, and here. However, the value proposition of an attention recorder isn’t always immediately clear to everyone. So when I see posts that address the same problems using different terminology, I like to pass them on.

JP Rangaswami has written such a post. Excerpts:

From a consumerisation perspective we have already taken step one of “giving the customer’s information back to the customer”. What consumer product/service providers have not yet done is step two, allowing the customer to share information about vendor A-related activity with vendor B. And this will happen.

[...] Is the customer ready for this?

I can only speak for myself. Would I like to share my eBay activity with Christies or Bonhams or Sothebys? Would I like to share my British Airways activity with Lufthansa and United and Virgin? My hotel and car activity? My books and music activity? Yes yes yes.

I get to control my core “static” information. Who else knows this as well as I do? I get it verified by an independent arbiter, much like I need a birth certificate to get a passport. I choose whom I share what with.

I choose. I look after. I am the beneficiary.

That’s the key.

Go read the whole thing. It’s a great description of the value of attention and some of the features we’re working on at Root Markets, without using the word ‘attention’ once.

An aside: JP Rangaswami is the second high-level employee at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein to have a kick-ass blog – Sean Park is the first. Pretty good for an investment bank.