Announcing initial participants for the APML Workgroup
From the website:
APML will allow users to export and use their own personal Attention Profile in much the same way that OPML allows them to export their reading lists from Feed Readers.It is a fantastic group to start with and we are all very excited to get the ball rolling.
The idea is to boil down all forms of Attention Data – including Browser History, OPML, Attention.XML, Email etc – to a portable file format containing a description of ranked user interests.
They are:
- Mitch Ratcliffe (Co-Founder, Buzzlogic)
- Chris Messina (Citizen Agency)
- Daniela Barbosa (Solutions Architect, Dow Jones)
- Phil Morle (VP Attention, Yoick)
- Ben Metcalfe (Social Media Consultant)
- Chris Saad/Ashley Angell (Co-Founders, Faraday Media/Touchstone)
- Paul Jones (Senior Architect, Faraday Media/Touchstone)
The APML Workgroup is tasked with converting the current specification into an agreed standard. We invite all the players in or around the "Attention Economy" to join us in realizing APML. To join the Workgroup please contact us with your qualifications.
Members of the general public are invited to join the mailing list (via the APML.org website) forums or blog to provide feedback.
More about APML
In a world where our online footprints (Attention Data) are measured, dissected, analyzed and used to better target us with content and advertising APML represents a way for users to take back control of their own Attention Profile.
In order for the study of 'Attention' to evolve into the Attention Economy we must have a way to export, own, trade and assign value to our own Attention Profiles. APML promises to become an important part of the solution and we believe this announcement is a significant milestone in it's development.
Attention Profiles will become our digital fingerprints and will eventually have implications for all aspects of our lives including Media, Business and Lifestyle.
Stay tuned...
Labels: APML, attention data, attention profile, Media 2.0
2 Comments:
I'm a journalist and my readers are information professionals. They sit between information and its appropriate delivery. Attention is at the heart of their interest. Give the wrong information to the wrong people, or fail to deliver the correct information, and they have problems.
As a normal person (well, reasonably normal, anyway) my bookmarks and reading lists are full of junk. It happens as my interests change, so any attention profile built on this information is likely to be as wide of the mark as a scouring of the books on my bookshelves. Why I keep partially read books is sheer laziness. Until I move house, I have too little motivation to do anything about it.
So, attention information derived from existing feeds, links, whatever, is going to be distorted without significant discipline on the user's part. And attention information supplied as an XML is only going to be a snapshot of that user at that time.
Forgive me if you have already considered these issues, but rather than describing it as a "file format" - why not make it a "feed format". I'm sorry if this sounds like splitting hairs, I assure you it's not. Then each user has one link address to their profile at that instant. They can have tools to reprofile themselves at the drop of a hat.
This brings other issues in its wake. So much more convenient to just have a database of scooped-up files. But, as life moves on, they will get out of step with the users' current interests. And the excellent idea will seem less excellent.
Good luck folks. I sincerely hope you have answers to the points raised.
Hi David - You raise excellent points.
I think one way we solve the problem you describe is by thinking of APML as a living document that has many contributors.
You are a contributor - just like you are involved with adding to and pruning your OPML file - but the tools you use might also get involved in the process in an automated way.
For instance - if, let's say, in the last week (re-calculated each day/week) your tools of choice see you use the same 5 tags in Flickr, the same 10 tags on Del.icio.us and visit sites on the same 12 topics on the web a piece of software could reasonably assume that those topics are of varying degrees of interest to you 'this week'.
The result, then, should be to update your APML file accordingly.
APML is unlike OPML in this way. There are sections of the file/format for explicit data (data you add manually) and 'implicit' data (data that is implied by your other actions) that is calculated automatically and on an ongoing/always up-to-date basis for you to keep your APML file fresh and relevant.
Each time you export it - it should be a current snapshot of your interests. When you import it into another service it should start from there, but continue to refine your interests based on your interactions with it.
Hope this helps.
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