At IMC John Hagel has given a good 15 minute provocation on the topic of the attention economy. Renee Hopkins Callahan has done a good summary at Fast Company as does David Weinberger.

I liked his idea of moving from the three Is : intercept, isolate and inhibit...

towards the three As : attract, assist, affiliate.

Oh, and someone has just likened this to a move from a phallic model of penetration to something more feminine. Put that in your pipe and smoke it (or is that too masculine an image?)

PS John H is now talking about using relationship economics rather than transaction economics, properly reflecting the lifetime value of customer relationships. I agree, needless to say.

PPS He also says most companies are an awkward effort to do three things which might better be done separately - 1 infrastructure management (lots of routine processes) 2. product/service innovation 3. managing customer relationships