Techies ponder how to cut through info overload | CNET News.com

Techies ponder how to cut through info overload | CNET News.com: "In today's gadget-jammed, sensory-overloaded culture, drawing and keeping a consumer's attention is more important than ever to businesses.

That's the premise here this week at O'Reilly's ETech Emerging Technology Conference, where the attention is on attention. Executives in the industry that made the gadgets that are shrinking America's attention span are here to discuss how to cut through all the info-clutter.

Focusing on what the confab has labeled 'The Attention Economy,' speakers on Tuesday repeatedly called on Internet executives and technologists to figure out what it now takes to draw consumers' focus. Sounding a bit like academics, tech executives offered deep thoughts on--and new business approaches to--overstimulated consumers. The conference itself seemed to respect the short attention span of attendees--a typical presentation lasted no more than 15 minutes, about seven minutes shorter than a TV sitcom.

There's even a name for the attention deficit disorder some fret the tech industry has created. 'Continuous partial attention,' as they're calling it, is an adaptive behavior pattern many consumers have adopted to cope with the need to multitask and boost productivity in the digital age. But it's creating an artificial sense of crisis, according to Linda Stone, a former Microsoft vice president who founded Microsoft Research's Virtual Worlds Group.

'It's a higher art developed over these last 20 years,' Stone said to a packed audience during a presentation called 'Attention: the Real Aphrodisiac.' 'It helps us and hurts us.'"