This month's Net2ThinkTank question was:

"How Can Nonprofits and NGOs Succeed in the Online Attention Economy?"

Wikipedia defines attention economics as,

"an approach to the management of information that treats human attention as a scarce commodity, and applies economic theory to solve various information management problems."

As more nonprofits, businesses and individuals create blogs, podcasts, rss news feeds, wikis, social networks, YouTube accounts, Twitter feeds, fundraising widgets, mashups, etc. what do you think nonprofits need to do to attract and maintain people's attention online?

To learn more about attention economics, Rich Reader comments on the Net2 Blog that folks should check out AttentionTrust.org, and start or join an Attention Data Meetup, like the San Francisco Bay Area Attention Data Meetup.

Amy Sample Ward of Amy Sample Ward's Version of NPTech says that organizations need to be both the best resource for themselves AND for their community by 1. figuring out what kind of resource you need as an organization (i.e. the top research in your field), 2. figuring out what tool to use to share that resource with your community (i.e. an aggregated news feed), and 3. continually gauging the usefulness of this resource.

Allison Fine of A. Fine Blog points out that younger donors, "are more likely to support causes over a period of time, but less likely to be institutionally loyal." Consequently, nonprofits need to work on becoming part of an, "attention ecosystem that informs and activates constituents across organizations."

She envisions a "cause ecosystem" where,

"constituents are encouraged to participate throughout the entire network reading blogs, posting comments, joining meet-ups, reading government reports across organizational lines but still within the cause ecosystem."

In a post on the NetSquared Blog, Jonathan Crabtree also thinks that keeping the youth audience in mind is key:

"My 3 kids live through their mobile. The computer has become a school tool OR a cool tool. Gen y-less need immediate mobile engagement.

So the challenge for NGO's is to understand social engagement that has timely connected relevence for youth."

In a post on the Net2 Blog, Exactscience04 is working on a school project about how nonprofits can, "keep the attention of the illusive small business owner in a 10 town area, many of which are tech-resistant." She/he suggests that small businesses would be interested in an organization's social network where they could advertise, network with other local businesses, view media about how their donation had impact, and create a profile page with their company's info, logo and list of recent sponsorships.

Finally, Joitske Hulsebosch of Lasagna and Chips thinks that at the moment nonprofits can still draw attention by "being the first" to use these relatively new social web tools. But as more organizations use them, organizations' will keep people's attention by,

"being very transparent and accountable about your actions, and by becoming good in blending on- and offline strategies to engage people."

Joitske also suggests that the next Net2ThinkTank question could be what, "does a well blended on- and offline engagement strategy look like?"