Twitter as Flashpoint for the Attention Economy is the title of an interesting blog post at Internet Evolution by Andrew Keen
"Attention Economy" was invented by the futurist Michael Goldhaber in December 1997 to describe a new arrangement in which the "flow of attention" replaced money as the currency of the Internet. Twitter Inc. – with its medieval-like armies of followers and followed – is a good example of how this new attention economy works. The value to us of Twitter is based on how many followers we have and thus how many people read our words. We all compete on Twitter for both attention and followers, of course, because time is finite, and there is only a certain number of people we can realistically follow and only a certain number of messages we have the bandwidth to read.
If you want to read more on the Attention Economy, then ReadWriteWeb has a good Overview.
As a pioneer of the Attention Economy, Twitter now is faced with the challenge of monetizing attention. For it to become a viable business, the VC-backed startup – which only just appointed a sales and business development team – needs to identify what it is, exactly, the company is selling.
Apparently Jason Calacanis with his 62,000+ fans is somewhat miffed that he does not appear on the Twitter suggested users list — a group of 20 A-list names given to all new Twitter users. So he has made a public offer of $250,000 to be included on the list for two years, thus suggesting a highly viable business model for the new attention economy.
Keen goes on to suggest that this is a radically more innovative business model for Twitter than trying to sell advertisements and sponsorships. I’m not so sure since I could not even find this A-list of 20 names. I could find some suggestions of others I might wish to follow in the Searching for People section. The following list of 115 such suggestions includes some of the A-list but again not Mr. Jason Calacanis.
- Defamer
- LA is the world’s cultural capital. Defamer is the gossip rag it deserves.
- Alison
- hi there, i’m ali. i’m in a band called a fine frenzy. life is funny. let’s have a laugh.
- Jodrell Bank
- Home of the world’s third-largest steerable radio telescope, and the MERLIN National Facility. Part of the University of Manchester.
- Justine
- New media chick & Apple fan girl — I make funny videos and blog about everything from technology to pop culture. Read my blog ijustine.com
- Dell Outlet
- Refurbished Dell™ computers & electronics.
- Always wondering what everyone’s doing.
- JetBlue Airways
- Have a question? Follow us and let us help! – Currently on duty: Morgan, Alex and Justin
- FragDolls
- Ubisoft’s all-girl professional gaming team. We’re passionate about video games and geek culture, and love to see more women playing and making games.
- Jason Goldman
- Flipped my wig at age 22 and it never grew back. Also: I work at Twitter.
- The New York Times
- Steven Johnson
- Writer. (Six books, most recently Invention of Air.) Web site creator (3 companies, most recently outside.in.) Dad (three boys.)
- Has Cheezburger?
- This is the official ICHC TwitFeed. Check out @icanhaschzbgr for moar conversation.
- John Dickerson
- Political correspondent, Slate
- NPR Politics
- Political coverage and conversation from NPR News
- Brandon J. Mendelson
- Twittering across North America to fight cancer. Project nformation provided at the link above.
- Agent M
- Marvel.com writer/editor/blogger. Comics! See also: @Marvel and tacosporvida.wordpress.com
- Pete Cashmore
- Follow Mashable for the latest news on Twitter, social networking and social media.
- someecards
- When you care enough to hit send.
- BBC Click
- The BBC’s flagship technology TV show. Click is on BBC1 Sat 06.45 & News Channel Sat 11.30 in the UK. International times are at bbcworldnews.com/click
- Michael Arrington
- Breaking Technology News And Opinions From TechCrunch
- Hammer
- http://mchammer.com
- Sockamillion
- I am Jason Scott’s Cat.
- THE_REAL_SHAQ
- Very Quotatious, I Perform Random Acts Of SHAQness
- Evan Williams
- CEO of Twitter
- Felicia Day
- Actress, Filmmaker, Gamer, Misanthrope
- CNN Breaking News
- CNN.com is among the world’s leaders in online news and information delivery.
- Al Gore
- Ana Marie Cox
- There is no such thing as adventure. There’s no such thing as romance. There’s only trouble and desire.
- Zappos.com CEO -Tony
- www.zappos.com blogs.zappos.com twitter.zappos.com
- Dooce
- Mommyblogger, tyrant, snugglebunny
- Whole Foods Market
- Fresh organic tweets from Whole Foods Market HQ in Austin, TX.
- woot.com
- Woot : One Day, One Deal. Also see our other feeds: twitter.com/wootoff twitter.com/wootshirt twitter.com/wootwine twitter.com/wootsellout
- Lance Armstrong
- 7-time Tour de France winner, full time cancer fighter – LIVESTRONG!
- Britney Spears
- Yes! This is the real Britney Spears! We’ve got updates from her team, her website and yes, even Britney herself!
- DaveJMatthews
- Sara Bareilles
- Veronica Belmont
- Host of Tekzilla on Revision3 and Qore on PSN. Also, a geek.
- Jimmy Fallon
- Snork.
- Tony Robbins
- The Official Tony Robbins Account
- Brooke Burke
- today’s modern mom
- World Economic Forum
- Official Twitter account of the World Economic Forum, best known for the Annual Meeting in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland (@luefkens tweeting)
- ashton kutcher
- Penn Jillette
- PennSays, P&T: Bullshit!, more than half (by weight) of Penn & Teller
- The Moment
- Where Style Meets Culture
- Coldplay
- The official Coldplay twitter page.
- John McCain
- U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ)
- Kevin Rose
- Founder of social media site digg.com. Random ideas, entrepreneur, climber of rocks, video blogger, & tea drinker.
- Chris Sacca
- SF based early stage tech investor and adventure sports addict
- Dave Morin
- 20-something Internet entrepreneur. Current, Facebook Connect. Past, Facebook Platform. Distant past, Apple.
- David Gregory
- Host of NBC’s Meet the Press
- Jack Dorsey
- Inventor, Founder, & Chairman of Twitter
- Biz Stone
- Follow the wacky adventures of a Twitter co-founder!
- Kevin Pollak
- Stooge. Not one of the original 3.
- GeorgeStephanopoulos
- ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent and Host of "This Week"
- Terry Moran
- Nightline co-anchor
- David Allen
- Originator of GTD, founder of David Allen Co.
- Zoe Keating
- cello, computers, pancakes
- LeVar Burton
- Actor, Director, Educator
- Dr. Drew
- Board Certified, MD
- Women’s Wear Daily
- The Official Women’s Wear Daily Twitter
- Chuck Palahniuk
- Official Chuck Palahniuk Twitter, as run by his webmaster, Dennis Widmyer.
- justjared
- JustJared.com is the trend-spotting, hot online source for pop culture gossip, fabulous celeb photo galleries and breaking entertainment news.
- Threadless
- We’re a tee company where artists worldwide submit tee designs to us for a chance at $2,500+! Anyone can submit, score, share and buy their favorite new tees!
- Nightline
- The Official Nightline
- John Donvan
- ABC News Correspondent
- Padmasree
- CTO of Cisco
- adventuregirl
- Hi Everyone! Travel Expert- Adventure Girl at your service!
- Tony Hawk
- professional skateboarder, dad, videogame character, husband, ceo, kid chauffeur
- Michael Ian Black
- The Official Michael Ian Black Twitter Page
- Martha Stewart
- 50cent
- The Real 50 Cent
- John Mayer
- UstreamTV
- Official Tweets about the best live streams, updates and news from Ustream. If you need help, message @ustreamsupport
- GavinNewsom
- MO-RiS / ????
- I’m MO-RIS. Freestyle,Freeride,Freelife. MountainBike and BMX rider. My favorite Music is Jazz, Funk and Hip-Hop. Sorry, I use Japanese only.
- SiliconAlleyInsider
- Digital Business, Live From New York
- Demi Moore
- iamdiddy
- King Combs
- Perez Hilton
- Perez Hilton is the creator and writer of one of the most famous websites in the world. And he also loves music – a lot!
- Tim O’Reilly
- Founder and CEO, O’Reilly Media. Watching the alpha geeks, sharing their stories, helping the future unfold.
- The Onion
- America’s Finest News Source
- Rachel Maddow MSNBC
- I see political people…
- RainnWilson
- I am an actor. I’m launching SoulPancake soon! My wife is Holiday and my son, Walter. Beets rule!
- Ryan Seacrest
- Get official tweets from Ryan and his producers about the radio shows, American Idol and breaking news from Hollywood!
- Good Morning America
- The Official Good Morning America Twitter Page
- TIME
- Breaking news and current events from around the globe.
- Scott Simon
- Host of NPR’s Weekend Edition Saturday
- Jimmy Eat World
- A rock band from Arizona
- Giuliana Rancic
- Amazon MP3
- Daily Deals and special sales on DRM-free, play-anywhere music downloads from Amazon. The official Amazon MP3 twitter feed.
- Fred Durst
- Member of Limp Bizkit
- Brent Spiner
- Trent Reznor
- Musician / noisemaker. Nine Inch Nails.
- Chelsea Lately Show
- Comedian, TV personality and Author Chelsea Handler hosts The Chelsea Lately Show on E!
- NBA
- News and notes directly from the NBA. Find out as soon as Amazing Happens!
- Ellen DeGeneres
- Find Ellen’s monologue, celebrity photos and videos, games, giveaways, how to get tickets and more on The Ellen Show website.
- Soren Macbeth
- Co-Founder & CEO of http://stocktwits.com, Interested in Currency Markets, Hedge Funds
- Gary Vaynerchuk
- Wine guy, host of Wine Library TV. Video blogger & Businessman that loves people and the hustle
- Soulja Boy Tell ‘Em
- 18 & Rich.
- Pitchfork
- The essential guide to independent music and beyond.
- Vote Woz
- VoteWoz on Dancing With The Stars. "Dancing is very analog."
- Kelly Ripa
- American Daytime Emmy Award-winning actress, television personality and talk show host.
- KevinSmith
- Fat, married, make movies, I do.
- Mark Hoppus
- The Official Mark Hoppus Twitter Page. For What It’s Worth..
- trazzler
- Explore the world with Trazzler.com. Get a new hand-picked dream trip every day.
- A. Jo. Martin
- Director of Digital Media & Research for the Phoenix Suns (Princess of Planet Orange)
- CBOE
- Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) is the largest U.S. options exchange and the creator of listed options.
- CMEGroup
- A CME/CBOT/NYMEX Company
- soleil moon frye
- twt.fm
- Share music on Twitter
- Joel McHale
- Host of "The Soup" on !E
- heidi montag
- I love Jesus!
- spencer pratt
- Villain
- Neil Gaiman
- will eventually grow up and get a real job. Until then, will keep making things up and writing them down.
- rob corddry
- I am a gentleman
There are other places where those who Twitter can try to be visible, for example Twitter Grader has its Twitter Elite Top Users list. It notes that these have earned respect and admiration for having the highest Twitter Grade. Their power and reach in the Twitter community is truly awesome. .. and that list does include Jason Calacanis. That is a free listing so perhaps this Attention Economy is not as monetizable as it might first appear.
