Information and Attention
Searching for and evaluating information, while not especially ‘commercial’ in this sense, does involve questions of attention. The attention-capturing quality of Internet information is governed by a dialogue between the needs and desires of the reader and the readiness with which those needs and desires appear to be met in th first few seconds of evaluation. IN other words, there is a critical moment when an exchange takes place of metadata from the web (whether ‘explicit’ - as in the title, or even within the website’s own HTML, rendered via a search engine’s relevance ranking, or ‘implicit’ – the intuitive look and feel of a source) and the metadata of the reader’s purpose and goals. If there is a ‘match’ then the information is likely to be accessed more fully. (I would add that this ‘exchange’ is not limited to electronic sources – just watch people browsing videos in a rental store, or think about the expensive investment in covers and titles by book publishers and the systems of display in bookstores).
In the era of the ‘attention economy’, readers and users of Internet information must be carefully craft, in their own minds, the kind of metadata which will – almost instinctively – ‘fit’ with the metadata of the information sources they want, so that – in the few brief moments of initial exchange, when a seeker of information encounters information being sought, rapid, effective judgments are made that ‘pay off’ in terms of further reading, accessing and saving.” (Allen, n.d.).
As our lives are filled with an ever increasing amount of information, people are being flooded with choices that are not always relevant to them (Iksold, 2007). In order to cope with the extra competition for our attention, we need to take control of where our attention is directed to ensure we are receiving the information, services and products we are seeking (Iksold, 2007; Goldhaber, 1997).
All aspects of our lives demand our attention. Families, friends, work, study, community, health, media, news, political issues and our leisure time are all among the things we need to find a balance for in our lives. As we receive information from more and more places at an ever increasing speed, we need to learn to choose how much of our time and attention we will allocate to them by prioritising by their importance to us. We need to realise the value of our attention and how to “spend” it wisely (Goldhaber, 1997).
One way to do this, particularly online, is to become more skilled in seeking information. Learning how to search efficiently with strategies such as using advanced search features, wording searches specifically, being able to think laterally in our search terms (especially when there appears to be limited information applicable to our needs), using different search engines and methods, these are all skills that can help us find more exactly that which we are searching for. We can optimise our time by doing preliminary research online, where we have fast access to a wide range of information, for needs or activities offline.
Take, for example, buying a car. Days could be spent visiting dealers to compare and test drive vehicles. An hour or so online researching the features and reviews of cars could narrow a list of perhaps ten possible options to three or four. This preliminary research means that the time spent test driving and comparing cars physically has been condensed dramatically. Less time is spent overall, yet more attention can be given to each individual option.
On the other hand, as outlined by Iksold (2007), those who are competing for our attention need to become more efficient in their delivery in order to attract us and keep us once we are there. Providing information that is on topic and matches the search terms used to find it is a big factor. Usability needs to be considered; making the information easy to find on the page and easy to read and follow is very important, as is making sure all features function in the way they were designed. Keeping information updated is vital. Following a link to find old information, or an error message, is frustrating and puts people off of looking further into the site or revisiting. However, when people find a site that meets their needs well or exceeds their expectations, the reward to the host comes from the recommendations that person will pass on to others.
The information explosion has had enormous effect on the Web. No longer is it a place where users visit and accept what is on offer, it is now a market place where the attention of users has become the prime commodity (Iksold, 2007; Goldhaber 1997). Users need to become “smart users” in order to work this to their advantage.
Allen, M. n.d. Concepts Document. Retrieved August 20, 2008 from http://webct.curtin.edu.au/SCRIPT/305033_b/scripts/serve_home
Goldhaber, M. 1997. Attention Shoppers. Wired. 5.12. December 1997. Retrieved July 29, 2008 from http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/5.12/es_attention.html
Iksold, A. 2007. The Attention Economy: An overview. Retrieved July 29, 2008 from http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/attention_economy_overview.php
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/5.12/es_attention.html
Written by Michael Goldhaber , the angle of this piece is in examining attention as a currency. Using an economic model, Goldhaber (1997) looks at the two basic commodities the internet relies upon. Information and attention. Working on the premise that information is abundant and constantly increasing, Goldhaber concludes that attention is the scarce resource in this economy and therefore the resource being sought, the currency. How we “spend” our attention is examined in detail followed by an explanation of Goldhaber’s theory that attention, as a currency, could replace money.
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/attention_economy_overview.php
Alex Iksold (2007) presents an overview of an attention economy, but rather than expound the theory he examines what it means to us as consumers. Iksold puts forward ways for us to be aware of where our attention goes and ways we can use it to our benefit while maintaining control of information about us as users. The role of suppliers to the marketplace is looked at and the challenges they face in being able to accurately target our interests in order to attract and maintain our attention. Iksold proposes it is possible, through user management, to create standards that enable both the user and the market to benefit.
Asynchronicity
In other words, asynchronous communication does not render time and schedules unimportant (as is sometimes claimed). Rather it requires us to think up new rules to assist us in managing communications that, from one perspective are 'instant' and, from another, are 'lagged' and that, standing back, are about the differences in temporal location of the people communicating.
Asynchronous electronic communication is not the opposite of real-time, synchronous communication: rather it describes forms of communication that appear differently 'located in time' depending on the perspective of the sender and receiver.
This concept applies equally, of course, to the other forms of asynchronous communication that are very similar to email, or use email (newsgroups and lists). What is perhaps less obvious is that FTP and the World Wide Web can also enable asynchronicity: indeed they depend on it, by allowing individuals to access material in many different personal ‘time zones’. For example, teaching online is predominantly effective where students cannot gather together in class to hear lectures but need to access them individually, at their own time.” (Allen, n.d.).
Asynchronous communication was first developed to enable more efficient communication between computers during experimentations for computer networking that eventually led to the forerunner of the internet as we know it today. Leiner et al outlines the development of packet switching as a viable communication method to enable remote access between computers, without needing someone available at each end to synchronise the computers to send or receive data transfers along the network. Only one operator was now needed. Further developing of this concept led to the protocols that became internet standards. Originally the networking was intended to link computers together to maximise computing power, however it soon became evident that this networking was also suitable for human to human communication as well (Leiner et al, 2003).
File Transfer Protocol gave people the power to access information from anywhere at any time (Allen, n.d.). Applications for accessing files held on servers elsewhere gave a freedom never before experienced. As long as the location of the information was known it could be accessed when required rather than arranging a transfer and waiting for it to happen. Having this available meant that people could deliberately leave files for others to access, they no longer had to be responsible for physically transferring them.
The development of the first email clients took this one step further. Direct communication between people using the computer network and storage system became one of the most popular applications. It was now possible to send, not just retrieve. Both the sender and the recipient now had the luxury of dealing with their communication at a time that suited them (Allen, n.d.; Goldberg, 2000). This benefit became more marked when there was a larger disparity of time zones. People now had time to consider their responses as they would with letters, yet the communication was virtually immediate once it was sent, ready for the recipient to “collect” when they logged in next. Email lists and Newsgroups emerged, using this new medium to connect like minded people in discussions of topical interests.
The development of the World Wide Web and of graphical browsers used asynchronous communication on a grand scale. People could create sites hosted on servers for anyone to access. Forums hosted discussions on message boards where members could add their thoughts to the threads when they chose. Participants could be from anywhere in the world, meeting at a set time was no longer a critical factor, only the location of the meeting “place”.
One area where asynchronous communication has been used very effectively is in education. Online courses provide educational options for many people that may not otherwise consider further study (Goldberg, 2000). For some it may be the format suits their learning style better, for others it maybe the removal of time and/or location constraints. No longer do you have to physically attend classes or campuses. Study can be undertaken at times that suit the individual student rather than the provider of the education (Goldberg, 2000).
Human inventiveness and lateral thinking has seen a concept originally intended for computer to computer communication become a major communication format that allows for human to computer and human to human communication as well.
References
Allen, M. n.d. Concepts Document. Retrieved August 20, 2008 from http://webct.curtin.edu.au/SCRIPT/305033_b/scripts/serve_home
Goldberg, M. 2000. Synchronous vs Asynchronous: Some Thoughts. Retrieved July 23, 2008 from http://www.webct.com/service/ViewContent?contentID=2339346
This page provides an outline of the history and development of the internet, written by some of the people who were involved in the process. Beginning with an overview of the origins of the internet, it then refers to the main points of the development of the protocols and technologies that enabled the internet to function successfully and to become a flexible, expandable network. The original goals and uses for the internet are looked at briefly, along with a comparison with the uses that emerged as the internet grew and possibilities for uses in the future as it continues to evolve.
http://www.webct.com/service/ViewContent?contentID=2339346
This article looks at the uses of asynchronous communication, with specific reference to education. Synchronous and asynchronous communication methods are briefly outlined with examples of each style. Comparisons are then drawn, looking at the advantages and disadvantages of each method. The differences between the two forms of communication are drawn on to illustrate how asynchronous communication expands educational experiences and also offers a viable and rich educational option for people who may not consider a synchronous format for various reasons. Specific benefits of asynchronous communication are highlighted along with the advantages they afford to students.
Identity and Location
At a technical level, the identity and location system that enables data packets to be routed to and from computers (usually via servers, thence routers, to other servers, thence to personal machines) can assist users in understanding why the Internet seems ‘slow’ or ‘fast’ at certain times and in certain conditions. It could, in some cases, assist users to choose between one or other ISP, or web server. This kind of knowledge, allied to a reading of the ‘names’ in the system, can help users to understand the ownership and control of the Internet and the way it functions as a business system. But more profoundly, the ‘system’ of Internet identity and location suggests a growing change in people’s understandings of the themselves – marked, for example, by the difference between a ‘dynamic’ IP address that changes every time one is online and a ‘static’ address, available to people who run web servers or more expensive fixed, permanent Internet connections.
Advanced Internet users understand the technical system of the Internet, principally its numerical addressing and word-based naming overlay and the way data passes between points in this system. They also understand that this knowledge can assist them in managing their Internet use, and in recognising new cultural developments around the creation of identities that exist in part in physical life and in part in the virtual world.
Since communication via email or chat or ICQ can occasionally involve unwanted attentions, or misdirected messages, or outright harassment, advanced users learn how to recover key information about location and identity from their communications programs to assist in preventing these activities.” (Allen, n.d.).
The internet is an amazing place. We have access to mind boggling amounts of information via the internet and can send and receive data effortlessly. Almost instantaneous contact can be made from, and to, any point in the world thanks to this global network.
The vastness of cyberspace is limited only by the parameters we place upon it, so how do we find things and how do the messages sent to us know where we are? Every user on the internet and every server hosting pages available on the web, needs to be distinguishable in order for the flow of information to succeed. In establishing a protocol to set the standards for providing internet addresses, issues of location and identity had to be satisfied in a way that enabled flow of information without being so complex as to drain or slow down the network resources and had to be able to be added to each packet of information sent (Huston, 2004).
Huston explains how routers need to be able to forward packets on to the next router in the network, however if they have to interpret the whole address it would use too much memory and slow the flow a great deal. Segmented addresses enable the routers to work out where to send the packets next without needing to decode the whole address and ensure faster delivery by reducing the amount of time and memory it takes to decode the next segment of the address (Huston, 2004).
While designed primarily for efficient functioning of the network, addresses also enable an aware user to utilise this information to “track back”, especially in the case of emails. In knowing how to interpret the information held in the header, identity and location can be verified or negated. In the case of spam emails this can be a useful tool or for verifying mail as genuine, in some cases (Lucke, 1997-2004).
The address protocol developed when the internet was first being created was designed to work well with packet switching and combined location and identity in the one string. By using a four part numeric address, a standard was developed that met the requirements identified and functioned well. The scope allowed for growth in the internet seemed generous at the time of protocol development, however the progress in personal computer technology and the introduction of the World Wide Web meant there was growth, in both traffic and users, far beyond that envisaged (Huston, 2004). With this growth comes the need to reassess addressing and look at options that meet the original requirements, but that also allow for new requirements and further growth. The option of taking identity out of the address is one that holds merit. It would then be possible for a portable identity to be allocated to users with the address providing location details only (Huston, 2004).
Huston shows this will be one of the issues needing resolving in the near future. The internet has, I believe, reached a point where much restructuring is needed to allow for uses never imagined when networking was first explored.
References
Allen, M. n.d. Concepts Document. Retrieved August 20, 2008 from http://webct.curtin.edu.au/SCRIPT/305033_b/scripts/serve_home
Huston, G. 2004. IP Addressing Schemes - A Comparison of Geographic and Provider-based IP Address Schemes. Retrieved July 18, 2008 from http://ispcolumn.isoc.org/2004-12/addressing.html
Lucke, K. 1997-2004. Reading Email Headers: All about email headers. Retrieved August 2, 2008 from http://www.stopspam.org/email/headers.html
http://ispcolumn.isoc.org/2004-12/addressing.html
In this column, Huston (2004) examines the use and structure of IP addresses and the roles they fulfil. The rationale behind the structure of addresses is looked at along with how they contribute to efficiency in the network by streamlining delivery of information packets by complying to standard enabling routers to pass packets downstream by using the best match according to these address standards. Various address schemes are examined with diagrammatic figures showing how they function. The need to review addressing protocols is looked at in the context of decoupling identity and location.
http://www.stopspam.org/email/headers.html
Intended as a measure to help users discover the true origins of spam email, this site provides an interesting walk through of using email headers to check location and identity information of the sender. Each part of the header is explained, showing how the headers are generated and how to interpret the information found within them. Also included are outlines of Mail Protocols and how they can affect or expose information from the original headers. Common practices used by spammers are explained showing how to detect these in headers. While aimed at spam, these details apply to any email and are accessible to any recipient of an email.
Netiquette
“An overwhelming and many-facted aspect of using email and similar asynchronous communication systems over the Internet is 'Netiquette'. Netiquette describes 'good' and 'bad' conduct in online communication (amongst other forms of Internet use). But what is important about Netiquette is the concept that there are these 'agreed' rules of what is good and bad.
Understanding why and now netiquette operates is more than just learning those rules (for, indeed, there are numerous differences and disagreements about the 'rules'). Rather, one must gain from a reading of 'netiquette' a sense that users must themselves contribute to the proper functioning of the Internet as a communication system: that no-one is in 'charge' of the net and we all must exercise an ethic of maintenance, taking responsibility for doing it 'right'. Moreover, what defines 'right' most of all is : 'how would I feel if this action I am about to take was done to me, instead of by me?' and, as a test of whether you are implementing 'right' properly, ask yourself "if I assume the recipient of my messages is less experienced than me, will they learn something 'good' or 'bad' from what I am doing?'
Good communication practice on the Internet is not something one 'learns', but something one 'practices' so as to teach others, less familiar than yourself, how it is done.
Good communication practice on the Internet is not something one 'learns', but something one 'practices' so as to teach others, less familiar than yourself, how it is done.
Netiquette seems to apply almost entirely to communication: email, online chat, and so on. Perhaps this fact suggests a difference between the kind of info-communication practice involved in website creation and use and that involving direct communication lines. The difference is that, in the latter case, the immediacy of the communication, the sense of ‘back and forth’ means that damaging practices cannot be as easily ignored. We feel, in personal communication (as opposed to the more indirect ‘reading and website’ form of communication), that bad netiquette really does waste our time and affect us. A poorly designed website doesn’t do more than prompt us to move on to the next one.” (Allen, n.d.).
With the current ease of internet access and the popularity of the World Wide Web, the number of people who interact via this medium is ever increasing. Initially, internet users were also the developers. They held a common understanding of the space they were creating and what was acceptable in this space. The experience of users in the current environment ranges from advanced users through to novice users who understand very little beyond using email at a surface level and navigating from site to site on the web (Hambridge, 1995).
Netiquette is a term coined to describe network etiquette (Albion, Ross, 1990-2005). In the community of cyberspace, there is not only a blending of levels of exposure and experience among users, but also a blending of people from vastly separated global locations. Every one of them holds their own personal view on acceptable behaviour, formed by their personal experiences and the culture of the society they live in. With no uniform behavioural standard to follow, the behaviour of one user could unintentionally be offensive to another (Albion, Ross, 1990-2005).
In acknowledging these differences between users, problematic issues that commonly arose could be considered in an effort to produce guidelines of acceptable usage and behaviour online, to become available as a standard (Hambridge, 1995). While certainly not enforceable in a general sense, sites that hosted forms of interaction could post their own requirements of what was acceptable for that site, the basis of netiquette. Infringement could lead to removal from the site, either temporary or permanent.
Both Albion and Ross, as well as Hambridge show how following good netiquette has two distinct benefits. Firstly, it provides common understanding for interaction between people, thereby reducing the risk of inadvertently offending others in the shared realm of cyberspace. Secondly, perhaps a more salient point to new and inexperienced users on a personal level, it assists self-protection on the part of the user. Benefit to the self may provide the incentive to some users to adopt the behaviours of good netiquette, particularly when dealing with others who are removed from their daily lives. If they are not people the user deals with on a regular basis, the need to follow behaviour codes may not seem so important if the behaviour is seen to be more about the other person than the self. Mutually beneficial behaviour has a much stronger appeal.
With the current popularity of virtual worlds and social networking sites, it is arguable that netiquette plays a more vital role in our online interaction than ever before. More people are interacting directly with others on a daily basis, at varying levels. Virtual worlds, especially, can reduce the commonality of purpose people may have interacted under previously, such as in interest groups. This, added to the broad range of variables that include age, gender, location, temperament, interests, experience and personal beliefs, can lead to a potentially volatile mix of virtual inhabitants. Codes of practice, based on good netiquette, are vital for maintaining a balanced online environment that users will enjoy participating in and be willing to return to.
References
Albion.com, Ross, S.T. 1990-2005. The Core Rules of Netiquette. Retrieved July 30 2008 from http://www.albion.com/netiquette/corerules.html
Allen, M. n.d. Concepts Document. Retrieved August 20, 2008 from http://webct.curtin.edu.au/SCRIPT/305033_b/scripts/serve_home
Hambridge, S. 1995 (last update). Netiquette Guidelines. Retrieved July 30 2008 from http://www.dtcc.edu/cs/rfc1855.html
http://www.dtcc.edu/cs/rfc1855.html
This document was intended as a reference point for organisations to use in developing internet guidelines, yet is also just as relevant to individuals. The content is comprehensive and is separated into the categories of one to one communication, one to many communication and, finally, information and interactive services. The guidelines offered cover usage of both personal accounts and accounts provided through employers or educational institutions, including some for system administrators. Lists are presented in a bullet point style with one idea per point. This makes the list look long, however it allows for very specific points which are followed easily.
http://www.albion.com/netiquette/corerules.html
This introduces the rationale behind netiquette, looking at cyberspace as a cultural sphere separate to the cultural sphere of our real life world. In acknowledging a separate culture, a set of ground rules for interaction within that culture can be established. Ten rules of netiquette, excerpts from the book Netiquette by Virginia Shea, are outlined giving reasoning for each rule and examples of situations they apply to. Following the rules of netiquette is demonstrated to serve the dual purpose of being a guide to online behaviour towards others while enabling self-protective behaviour for the user.
