Eye on the Carriers By Johna Till Johnson, Network World, 07/10/06

Ever heard of "continuous partial attention"? Maybe not. But you've probably engaged in it. And it's a critical component underlying a techno-cultural seismic shift that's happening as we speak.

Let me back up a bit. Continuous partial attention is the brainchild of Linda Stone, former Microsoft and Apple researcher and world-renowned specialist in understanding and quantifying human productivity. (A short bio is on Microsoft's site.) She recently spoke at the Collaborative Technologies Conference in Boston, a standing-room-only session covering technology and the business issues related to next-generation collaboration.

Stone's thesis - amply backed by research - is that continuous partial attention characterizes the way most of us react to the world most of the time. It involves constantly scanning multiple sources of information (e-mail, instant messages, RSS feeds, TV, podcasts) paying partial attention to each. (Hint: If you've ever checked your e-mail during an audioconference, you've done it.) That's different from old-school multitasking - talking on the phone while stirring a pot of soup, for example - which involves doing multiple nonintellectual tasks at the same time.

Anyone with kids engages in continuous partial attention (working at the computer while listening to the sounds of a sick baby breathing, for example). And folks in the military who stand watches do the same. A little bit of continuous partial attention is a good thing - but it's possible to take it too far. Most highly productive people limit the amount of continuous partial attention they engage in by regularly "disconnecting" from all information sources to focus on creative thinking.

So far, so good. But Stone goes further. Her thesis is that technology and culture interact, and moreover, that cultural (and related technical) shifts happen in approximately 20-year cycles. For example, the period 1965 to 1985, which was typified by a focus on personal expression, saw the growth of the stand-alone PC. The period 1985 to 2005 was typified by a focus on connectivity, and saw the growth of the Internet and myriad social networks (Friendster, MySpace). With the explosion in connectedness came a huge uptick in "information feeds," leading to a concomitant explosion in continual partial attention.

The intriguing bit is we're again on the cusp of a major transition, according to Stone. The focus for the next technocultural wave (from 2005 to 2025) will be on simplified, trusted communications. We'll be looking for tools that help us sort through the chaos of overconnectedness and replace it with "meaningful" connectedness: Instead of tracking 3,000 online friends, we'll deepen our connection with the three or 30 friends who really matter.

If the metaphor for the first generation was the PC and for the second generation was the Internet, the metaphor for this generation is the "dashboard" - a tool that simplifies multiple sources of information and allows us to focus on what really matters. Now, I've written before about the "real-time communications dashboards" that are combining presence, voice, video and contextual awareness. But it's intriguing to consider they might be more than just nifty productivity tools - they may be, in fact, metaphors for the next wave.