xposted.com - The Intention Economy Incarnate
Doc Searls has a really interesting piece up regarding, as he calls it, the Intention Economy. What does it mean? How's this:
The Intention Economy grows around buyers, not sellers. It leverages the simple fact that buyers are the first source of money, and that they come ready-made. You don't need advertising to make them.
The Intention Economy is about markets, not marketing. You don't need marketing to make Intention Markets.
The Intention Economy is built around truly open markets, not a collection of silos. In The Intention Economy, customers don't have to fly from silo to silo, like a bees from flower to flower, collecting deal info (and unavoidable hype) like so much pollen. In The Intention Economy, the buyer notifies the market of the intent to buy, and sellers compete for the buyer's purchase. Simple as that.
It's that last paragraph that really grabbed me however (I think the whole idea makes sense and have had my own share of issues fully grokking the Attention Economy). x:posted is developing exactly the type of market that Doc is describing - in our case we're connecting buyers to the intellectual property they are seeking via a centralized repository.
As Doc puts it, "The Intention Economy is about buyers finding sellers, not sellers finding (or "capturing") buyers." That's exactly how our system works. We simply ask who is willing to sell up front, but have no further expectation UNTIL a buyer has selected that seller.
Thanks to Stowe for the pointer - now go finish verifying your blog for us!