"If you want to inform yourself of the basic principles of attention profiling or need to explain the concept to others then please read on. Feel free to add your clarifications, your conclusions and your constructive criticism to this deliberately non-geek conversation." 

In recent months quite a few bloggers covered the growing adoption of APML, a proposed standard for attention profiling. Those about to give up reading here already, please don't. I personally found most of these posts delving in rather deep. If you want to inform yourself of the basic principles of attention profiling or need to explain the concept to others then please read on. With today's post I'd like to make an attempt at writing a layman's article answering exactly these three questions:

1. What is attention profiling and what are the benefits?
2. What tools and services already support or endorse attention profiling?
3. Where could you go next?

As usual, this post concludes with a news radar.

I encourage you to participate in this deliberately non-geek conversation about attention profiling, either by posting a comment or by writing a blog post of your own. Feel free to add your clarifications, your conclusions and your concerns.

Attention Profiling
I like introducing attention profiles as consolidated, structured descriptions of people's interests and dislikes. The information about your interests and how much each means to you (ranking) is stored in a way so that computers and web-based services can easily read it, interpret it, process it and pass it on should you request and permit them to do so.

In today's post I confine myself to describe services that are capable of handling attention profiles based on the proposed APML standard. To make it easier for humans to recognize that files containing an attention profile indeed are attention profiles, we label them with the file extension ".apml".

Technically attention profiles can be stored, accessed and updated from multiple devices and multiple operating systems.

In February 2007 Web 2.0 industry analyst Emily Chang sparked an avalanche of comments with her blog post My Data Stream. Looking back, Emily's post could be considered the tipping point that led to many online conversations about attention, spawning new technology start-ups promising to solve the problem Emily described. The first few sentences from her post:

"As the calendar rolled to 2007, I kept wishing I could look at all my social activity from 2006 in context: time, date, type of activity, location, memory, information interest, and so on.  What was I bookmarking, blogging about, listening to, going to, and thinking about?  I still had the urge to have an information and online activity mash-up that would allow me to discover my own patterns and to share my activity across the web in one chronological stream of data (to start with anyway)."

I strongly suggest you read Emily's post in full. The nice thing was that Emily kept updating her post with links to related items as they appeared. Don't skip the ensuing conversation in the comments, as it is still alive today.

Emily recently chose Engagd to store her attention profile. Click on the image to open the full profile:

Attention profile sources
Though not an exhaustive list, your attention profile could be based on:

• pages you bookmark and tags you assign
• your favorite videos, music and TV shows
• hyperlinks you follow and share with your friends
• things you write about and topics you keep track of
• items you click on in your feed reader
• things you buy from a web store
• places you visit and events you attend

Purpose of attention profiling
Attention profiling has multiple aspects. To me the most important aspect is that it allows me to reduce my information fatigue considerably. If I have enough time on my hands I'm still free to wander off on the web and jump from one page to the next. However, in the usual circumstance that my time is limited and my attention is scattered between tasks competing to top my to-do list, my attention profile helps me to focus on my core interests. Prerequisite of course is that the services and tools I spend most of my time with are aware of the existence of my attention profile.

The privacy aspect of attention profiling is brought up quite often when I talk to people. They consider their APML as their private property and are usually afraid their browsing behavior will be exposed to prying eyes. I look at the privacy aspect of attention profiling from a different angle: right now sites like Facebook and Google collect usage data from and about me. They know about my interests, they know what sites I open and they know who my friends are. At the moment all this is a one-way operation: they collect the data that I give to them and I get no insight as to how they filter the content they or their advertisers offer to me. I prefer to have that information distilled into an attention profile so that I can at least have control over whom I share this information with.

Of course there's a commercial aspect to attention profiling as well: most people know and appreciate Amazon's recommendation engine. Actually this mechanism is Amazon's proprietary attention profiling system based on the product pages you open and the items you put in your shopping cart. Imagine being able to take this profile with you onto other web sites that are capable of producing dynamic content based on your interests. So it's not just about niche targeting of advertisements, but also, for example, about removing sports pages from the home page of my favorite news headlines site once it becomes clear I'm not interested in soccer and baseball.

Building your own attention profile
The smartest way to get started having your own attention profile is to sign up with attention-profiling service Engagd. Engagd is a site where you can have your attention profile generated, updated and dynamically hosted.

The direct URL to my profile is https://apml.engagd.com/apml/cleverclogs.is.engagd.com (!).

After signing up with Engagd, you'll be taken to the Engagd Profiler, a page where you can specify from what kind of attention data Engagd should generate your attention profile. I'll be explaining each of these straight away. The Engagd Profiler can process these types of files:

• individual web pages
• RSS feeds and OPML files
• Life stream feeds (technically RSS feeds)
• APML files

A single web page that just happens to reflect your interests fairly well suffices to build an APML file. Just provide the URL of that page and Engagd will build an attention profile from it.

RSS feeds and OPML files
The Engagd Profiler can process individual RSS feeds. Just paste the URL of your RSS feed into the input box. I found out that the Engagd Profiler works even better if you provide it with the URL of a list of RSS feeds (OPML).

Life streams are a slightly more advanced, but also a considerably more accurate way to start your own attention profile. In most definitions of life streams they refer to a continually refreshed stream of the bits and pieces that constitute your personal interests. Life streams are usually generated by combining updates from multiple RSS feeds. Some people's life streams are simple, containing just the items they select in their feed reader and the bookmarks they create. Other people's life streams can turn out to be complex and voluminous, depending on their productivity. Mine is somewhere in between: you can see it in action in the black widget above the fold here on CleverClogs. I named my life stream CleverJots and its contents fluctuate while I sign up to try out new services.

Here's how I added my life stream to the Engagd Profiler. The URL that you see in the input box is generated by the service that I used to create my own life stream: FeedBite. FeedBite lets you combine multiple feeds into one. It also provides you with an OPML file that they host for you. It's the URL for this OPML file that I pasted into the input box:

The reason I submitted my OPML file and not the single CleverJots feed is because the Engagd Profiler turns out to be better capable of distilling my interests from the individual feeds constituting an OPML file (categories and tags still being intact), than from the combined feed.

Here are the feeds that the Engagd Profiler discovered in my OPML file:

As you can see from this screenshot, all of the feeds included in my profile are releated to my activities on the web: content I create, comments I write, links that I share. The more personal the feeds you offer to the Engagd Profiler, and of course the more items those feeds contain, the better it can distill your interests.

There are quite a few services that let you create a life stream. From rather simple, wizard-led websites to full-fledged newsmastering services, most of them create a custom feed or an OPML file for you that you can use as the basis of your attention profile.

To learn more about life streams and how to create them, check out John Tropea's in-depth coverage of all services in this market in his post about life streaming services over on his commendable blog Library Clips. What I like about John's reporting style is that he puts each service within its context: what other services are there, how could you benefit from each of them and what potential does each of these have.

I'd also like to point to the Google Blog Search feeds that I included in this post's news radar. You'll find the radar at the bottom of this post.

Mark Krynsky maintains a quite active blog that just deals with life streams. It's aptly called the Lifestream Blog.

APML files - it makes sense that a service that stores your APML file for you is also capable of importing one, so that's not too difficult to understand that the Engagd Profiler can import those directly, I presume.

So, where would you go to obtain or generate an APML file? Well, the number of tools and web services that actively support APML is growing steadily. APML awareness means that developers add functionality to their product so that it can import an APML, enrich it with personalized attention data generated by their own product and pass that information on to other products aware of APML.

Among the web services that have jumped on board the APML train are Dandelife and Cluztr. From recent insinuations on the Bloglines blog, it is expected that Bloglines will soon join the ranks too. If you're a Windows user, then you may want to check out Particls, a desktop program that turns keywords and feeds into a continuous display of relevant news items.

Exploring further
A growing collection of questions and answers about attention profiling in general and the Engagd service in particular can be found on the Engagd FAQ wiki page.

If you would like to know more about the APML specifications and track their development, I suggest you start out by signing up for the fast-growning public APML discussion group on Google Groups. Just click on the link and choose the Join option. You can actively participate or just lurk for a bit and see what kind of topics other members come up with. A thread I find particularly helpful is the "introduction" topic, where members are encouraged to introduce themselves and explain from what angle they have joined the group.

APML on facebook
Another option is to sign up for the APML group on Facebook. As of this post's most recent update (2007-10-28) it has 268 members.

An open standard, APML is the subject of lively debate among the members of the APML Workgroup (click to see a current member list). Starting point are the APML specs. If you believe that you qualify for Workgroup membership (vendors-with-plans, XML-specialists-with-constructive-contributions), then write to Chris Saad directly or start out with the public forums on Google Groups and facebook mentioned in the previous paragraphs.

Attention Profiling - Roadmap for the nearest future
It's quite safe to assume that Web 2.0 service vendors are closely watching this space. Some are waiting for the big players to adopt the technology, others prefer to lead the way themselves. I personally would not be surprised at all if notable players such as del.icio.us, Clipmarks, StumbleUpon, Digg and web page annotation services such as Diigo and Fleck would become APML aware.

Then of course there's the group of RSS tool vendors and feed aggregators. I have quite high expectations from vendors of top-notch products such as FeedDemon, NewsGator Online and BlogBridge. The Google Reader developers may find that implementing support for APML fits their strategy of streaming additional personalized content and advertisements to their enormous user base.

Further reading (updated 2007-12-30)
Quite a few solid posts have been written since I wrote mine. The announcement by NewsGator Technologies, Inc that they'll implement APML throughout their product range (and likely their API) is definitely a highlight. Here's a selection of the ones you might be interested to read:

Explaining APML: what it is & why you want it (by Elias Bizannes, 2007-10-10)

FeedDemon, NetNewsWire and NewsGator Inbox to Support APML (by Nick Bradbury, 2007-10-15)

Attention - NewsGator and Bloglines Join APML Workgroup (Digg buster by Marshall Kirkpatrick, 2007-10-15)

More support for APML this time from NewsGator one step closer to the Enterprise (by Daniela Barbosa, 2007-10-15)

Now with APML support (announcement by Adam Kalsey, developer of Feed Crier and IMified, 2007-10-15)

Newsgator implements APML: the value of standards in an open world (by Ross Dawson, 2007-10-15)

Considerations on Google Reader and APML: How Google Reader can finally start making money (by Elias Bizannes; 2007-10-16)

Do I have your attention? (by Brad Feld, 2007-10-16)

FlexiScale, APML and MiniBar (busy week) (by Nick Halstead, 2007-10-21)

Lifestream to APML (by Emily Chang, 2007-10-21)

APML: The Next Big Thing or the Next FOAF? (by Mark "rizzn" Hopkins, 2007-10-22)

Adventures is lifestreaming and attention - part one (by Piers Jones, 2007-10-24)

Attention Profiling & APML (by Elliot Turner on Aqua Regia, 2007-11-02)

Attention Profiling: APML Beginner's Guide (by Michael Pick on Master New Media, 2007-11-14)

lifestrea.ms goes into private beta (by Aaron Tan on Confessions of a Technophile, 2007-11-14)

Should BlogBridge support APML ? (by Pito Salas, CEO of BlogBridge, 2007-11-15)

Explaining APML to Suda (by Ian Forrester on Cubicgarden.com, 2007-11-18)

An APML Experiment (by Paul Lamere, Sun Labs researcher, 2007-11-21)

APML Support for WordPress (by Matthias Pfefferle, 2007-11-28)

APML for Del.icio.us (by Paul Lamere, Sun Labs researcher, 2007-11-30)

User Centric design and identity with Beacon (by Uno de Waal - South-African blogger - 2007-11-30)

Coverage in other languages

In Dutch: Attention profiling: ja graag! (by Tibor Paulsch, 2007-10-12)

In Italian: Attention Economy: Bloglines e NewsGator adottano l’APML (by Enrico Bertini, 2007-10-16)

In Portuguese: APML: uma forma de dizer ao mundo o que merece sua atenção (by Bruno Torres, 2007-10-17)

In Spanish: APML, crea y controla tu propio perfil de atención (by Alvaro Castaño, 2007-10-17)

In French: Qu’est ce que l’APML: Attention Profiling Markup language (by Julien Grière, 2007-10-19)

In Japanese: 次の大きな波は興味を取得する言語「 APML 」？ (2007-10-22 on Social Networking.jp)

In Greek: APML - Attention Profiling Mark-up Language (by Stelabouras on Wigger.gr, 2007-10-23)

In French: APML - Attention Profiling Markup Language (by Mathieu Favez, 2007-10-27)

In German: APML - Sag mir wer du bist und ich sag dir was dich interssiert (by Cornelius Scholz, 2007-10-28)

In Italian: Le Metriche attenzionali e l’APML: uno strumento per misurare l’autorevolezza sul web? (by Sacha Monotti on MediaMeter, 2007-10-30)

In Swedish: Är framtidens sociala sajter asfalterade med OpenSocial och APML? (by Fredrik Wass on bisonblog, 2007-11-07)

In Lithuanian: APML - prekyba interneto sielomis (by vienastoks on nežinau.lt, 2007-11-13)

In Russian: APML - язык разметки профиля внимания (translation of Michael Pick's post by Daniil Bratchenko, 2007-11-21)

In Spanish: APML y el perfil de interés del usuario(by Antonio Cordiz, 2007-11-21

In German: APML - Attention Profiling Mark-up Language (by Matthias Pfefferle, 2007-11-23)

In Russian: APML – нужен ли стандарт будущего в рунете? (by Svetlana Gladkova, 2007-11-30)

In Swedish: Låt APML bli en genväg till användarna (by Björn Fant, 2007-12-28) - This article was also published on the online edition of the Swedish MacWorld (also by IDG).

In French: APML, un profil dont vous êtes le héros (by David Larlet, 2007-12-30)

Attention Profiling Grazr
I've put together a quick reading list that you can copy if you like. The top feed aggregates items from the other feeds with the most recent item appearing at the top of the list:

And by request:

"Twype allows you to grab tweets from *any* Twitter account (there's no authentication) and lets you publish that stream as Skype mood messages. Twype only works from Skype for Windows PCs."

A new Skype add-on named Twype was just released by its developer Julian Bond. I'm very excited about it because it offers tremendous opportunities and because it fulfills a desire I've felt for years ever since I started using Skype. Let me explain what Twype does with a mix of screenshots and text:

Nothing special so far. To have this tweet and all my subsequent ones appear on my Skype mood message, I installed Twype using the direct download URL. Note that Twype will only run from Windows PCs and that you'll need to put it in your start-up folder to make it run every time you use Skype.

After installing Twype, Skype will prompt you to confirm that you approve the Twype add-on:

After you approve Skype's request, you'll see this screen:

Type in your Twitter user ID and press "Get Tweet Now". With my own ID I get this:

In this screenshot you can clearly see that Twype also appends the time stamp of the most recent tweet to your mood message. Now, feel free to minimize this panel, because during this Skype session, Twype will grab your tweets every five minutes.

You can find Julian's original announcement from today on his blog Voidstar in the post Announcing Twype.exe.

Posting your life stream on Skype
If you do some quick thinking about the other Twitter tools that are already available, then Twype finally lets you post your life stream to your Skype mood message. What you're doing, where your attention goes, where you are travelling, can now all be posted to your Skype mood message. The steps you need to take are:

1. Create a life stream feed (tons of tools for that, Ziki comes to my mind first)
2. Create a new Twitter account
3. Authenticate with the credentials of your new Twitter account on Twitterfeed
4. Provide Twype with your Twitter account name

Robert Sanzalone from the pacificIT Skype chat room created a digg for Julian's post, which I kindly welcome you to support: