Paying attention ...

A couple of interesting things: a significant spike in visitors to aqualung yesterday, courtesy of a kind mention from Anne Z at Web Worker Daily on using del.icio.us, plus some more contemplation about my Guy Kawasaki post the other day (and what led to it) set me to thinking about the real currency of the Web.

It seems the most commonly held belief around this is that linking is the "currency" of the internet - the links we give to and get from others is the trade in relevance that marks our standing in this environment.

But considering further, it seems to me that the hyperlink is merely the method of transmission of value - the real "payment" is attention. Guy wants our attention, but doesn't want to give us his; Anne pays attention to something I say about del.icio.us; and what I think about the "via:" tagform - all adds up to who we pay attention to and how we do it. This is how reputation and trust are built, but like most things on the Web, it can be gamed (and that's how a few people see Guy's efforts now, and perhaps he has dented his own reputation ... although last time I looked he had RISEN one spot on the Technorati Top100 in spite of my disapproval!).






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