The new Attention Economy is grabbing the attention of alpha geeks and businesses hoping reap the rewards of innovation in this emerging marketplace of clickstreams. In this talk, Seth Goldstein introduces us to Root Markets’ Root Vaults, one of the first applications to make use of the data provided by the AttentionTrust’s Attention Extension. These new applications and analytical tools help individuals take charge of their own attention data in order to understand patterns, share with others, and harness attention's growing economic value.

As more and more of our time is spent on-line, information about our public and personal behavior becomes worthy of attention. What we pay attention to reflects our lives as consumers and producers of goods, services and information. It can also act as a measure of reputation and influence. The question of 'who owns your attention' challenges individuals to understand and, where possible, control how and with whom their data are shared.

A growing number of web services are making it easier to record, aggregate, analyze and selectively share data on the activities and expressions of individuals and groups. This can help people monitor and understand their own behavior and manage their time more effectively. Moreover, Goldstein argues, your on-line activities and your 'promise to pay attention' have a value on which you can trade.

Root Vault represents a new type of application, a place to send and store attention data. Sophisticated analytical tools let users effortlessly visualize and explore patterns of activity over time. There are also opportunities for data exchanges which let users engage in 'clickstream dating' to get a view into what interests they do and don't share in common with others. Goldstein invites developers and businesses to explore ways they can connect and exchange openly with Root Vaults’ growing user base.