Every day Trillions of bips are traded on the currency exchanges, but the one currency that is not listed, but is the surest bet a long term value investor can place is the currency of ATTENTION!  In the networked economy where signal to noise ratios exponentially increase each day the largest growth and most stable currency for the next 5 to 10 years is ATTENTION. Doubt this and simply look at the skyrocketing value of Live Sports Events (Comcast sets a record bid for the Olympic Games rights, NFL team valuations are in the billions), or the fact that Kim Kardashian is a Billion Dollar Global brand in 5 short years, and you will quickly realize that our Attention Deficit Disorder and snack bite media habit, has made the brands who capture and retain our individual and collective attention are now the equivalent of striking an ocean-sized oil well or 10 mile Gold Vein!

The rules are simple for those wishing to benefit from this ever-growing reality.

1) Realize that people pay today and in the future with their attention

2) Data (refined) is the commodity of unprecedented value for those who can curate and create meaningful and engaging content

3) Curators are more valuable and needed than ever before, and publishers must redefine their role to service vs control

4) Content must be relevant, curated, well packaged, unbound, and mobile centric

5) Distribution is not uniquely valuable without trusted and relevant curation

6) IDEAS are free-EVERYONE is a Publisher-ONLY A SELECT WHO MASTER THE ACCUMULATION OF ATTENTION WILL MATTER AND MAKE A DIFFERENCE!

7) Disrupt and Adapt or remain or fastly become irrelevant

8) Humanity’s best days and solutions are ahead of us if we support open API’s, open insights, and cultivate collaborative working groups that allow for simultaneously profitable execution and sharing of our specified knowledge.

9) Compete with yourself every day to find more ways to become relevant, capture, and retain your target audience or those who are will put you out of business (or worse yet, you will still be in business, but nobody will care!)

Exciting times for those who love an equal playing field, filled with challenges, adversity, and unprecedented opportunity!

~CJS

By the way if you want really great insight on the attention/currency issue and other media trends, follow my friend and virtual mentor Gerd Leonhard (@gleonhard on twitter) and at www.mediafuturist.com