Session Number
P232
Description
In their book Attention Economy: Understanding the New Currency of Business (Davenport and Beck, 2001) published in 2001, Professors Davenport and Beck focus on what they see as one of the most pressing concerns for the business world, the increasing difficulty in getting the attention of the consumer. At the beginning of the twenty-first century ‘capital, labor, information and knowledge are in plentiful supply…what’s in short supply is human attention’ (p.2). The reason for this ‘attention deficit’ (p.2) is a surfeit of information, such that humans, who have limitations in their ability to process information, have developed the skill of filtering out less relevant information and devoting attention to things most important to their survival. The key to business success therefore, for Davenport and Beck, is attention. Attention has become like a monetary instrument, ‘those who don’t have it want it. Even those that have it want more’ (p.2). This is what Davenport and Beck call the ‘Attention Economy’.
To compete in the Attention Economy, a company must be good at getting and retaining attention. This ability to gain and retain attention is what Davenport and Beck call the ‘molasses principle’ of ‘stickiness’. Using as an example, the effectiveness of websites for electronic commerce (e-commerce), they assert that the success of a ‘sticky’ site is that it ‘lures web surfers, holds them and keeps them coming back for more’. To obtain stickiness, Davenport and Beck identify four essential factors; Relevance, Engagement, Community and Convenience, these four form what Davenport and Beck call the ‘Sticky Qua Non’ (Davenport & Beck 2001, p.115). It is the application of these four factors that is the key to success in the Attention Economy.
Since the publication of Attention Economy there has been exponential growth in the amount of information produced and available especially online. If as Davenport and Beck cite, ‘a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention’ (Davenport & Beck 2001, p.9), this is even more so in 2012 than in 2001.
Although they are not businesses, academic libraries face the same need as companies to gain and retain the attention of the community they exist to serve. The online revolution has made a plethora of information so available and accessible that students and faculty do not always see the benefits of using the library’s resources and services vis-à-vis those of other information providers. Thus, the central role of the library to learning and research in universities is sometimes challenged such that the library has to learn to compete to gain the attention of its intended users.
P232 Presentation
Fostering a Sticky Relationship: A Case Study from Nanyang Technological University
In their book Attention Economy: Understanding the New Currency of Business (Davenport and Beck, 2001) published in 2001, Professors Davenport and Beck focus on what they see as one of the most pressing concerns for the business world, the increasing difficulty in getting the attention of the consumer. At the beginning of the twenty-first century ‘capital, labor, information and knowledge are in plentiful supply…what’s in short supply is human attention’ (p.2). The reason for this ‘attention deficit’ (p.2) is a surfeit of information, such that humans, who have limitations in their ability to process information, have developed the skill of filtering out less relevant information and devoting attention to things most important to their survival. The key to business success therefore, for Davenport and Beck, is attention. Attention has become like a monetary instrument, ‘those who don’t have it want it. Even those that have it want more’ (p.2). This is what Davenport and Beck call the ‘Attention Economy’.
To compete in the Attention Economy, a company must be good at getting and retaining attention. This ability to gain and retain attention is what Davenport and Beck call the ‘molasses principle’ of ‘stickiness’. Using as an example, the effectiveness of websites for electronic commerce (e-commerce), they assert that the success of a ‘sticky’ site is that it ‘lures web surfers, holds them and keeps them coming back for more’. To obtain stickiness, Davenport and Beck identify four essential factors; Relevance, Engagement, Community and Convenience, these four form what Davenport and Beck call the ‘Sticky Qua Non’ (Davenport & Beck 2001, p.115). It is the application of these four factors that is the key to success in the Attention Economy.
Since the publication of Attention Economy there has been exponential growth in the amount of information produced and available especially online. If as Davenport and Beck cite, ‘a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention’ (Davenport & Beck 2001, p.9), this is even more so in 2012 than in 2001.
Although they are not businesses, academic libraries face the same need as companies to gain and retain the attention of the community they exist to serve. The online revolution has made a plethora of information so available and accessible that students and faculty do not always see the benefits of using the library’s resources and services vis-à-vis those of other information providers. Thus, the central role of the library to learning and research in universities is sometimes challenged such that the library has to learn to compete to gain the attention of its intended users.