News feeds illustrate the point well, since they ask for consumers attention in exchange for the opportunity to show them advertising. Search engines also show ads (asking for consumers attention) in exchange for helping users find answers online (a service provided for free in exchange for that attention).

Read/WriteWeb has published 4 in-depth articles about the Attention Economy, all of them written by Alex Iskold. We encourage you to read them if you want to learn about the Attention Economy:

• The Attention Economy: An Overview
• The Implicit Web: Last.fm, Amazon, Google, Attention Trust
• Continuous Partial Attention: Software & Solutions
• Towards the Attention Economy: Will Attention Silos Ever Open Up?

We've covered this topic extensively on Read/WriteWeb - and so we're pleased to bring you this overview of e-learning 2.0, including the leading web apps and sites in this niche, and predictions for its future.

In August Steve O'Hear (now last100 editor) wrote an introduction to e-learning 2.0. He noted that teachers and students are embracing web technologies such as blogging and podcasting. Although not designed specifically for use in education, these tools are helping to make e-learning far more personal, social, and flexible.

Examples of e-learning 2.0 apps and websites

edublogs.org and wikispaces.com are two examples of blog and wiki resources for e-learning. Steve's post includes many other examples of edu-blogging, podcasting, media sharing and social networks. There are some interesting web apps for students popping up, for example a collaborative note taking app called stu.dicio.us and the ReadWriteThink Printing Press - which enables users to create a newspaper, brochure, etc.

For an in-depth look at one of the leaders in this space, Steve profiled Elgg - a social network for education. This is an excellent example of how web 2.0 is shaping e-learning. Elgg is social networking software designed especially for education - built from the ground up to support learning.

Described by its founders as a 'learning landscape', Elgg provides each user with their own weblog, file repository (with podcasting capabilities), an online profile and an RSS reader. Additionally, all of a user's content can be tagged with keywords - so they can connect with other users with similar interests and create their own personal learning network. However, where Elgg differs from a regular weblog or a commercial social network (such as MySpace) is the degree of control each user is given over who can access their content. Each profile item, blog post, or uploaded file can be assigned its own access restrictions - from fully public, to only readable by a particular group or individual. Click here for an insightful interview with Elgg's founders.

Note that this type of e-learning social network is similar to "smart" social networks, in which you can put access controls around your personal details, so that only people you trust can see them. Facebook, imbee, Vox, and Multiply are all examples of smart social networks.

Another great example of an e-learning 2.0 app is ChinesePod, which we profiled in November. ChinesePod teaches Mandarin over the Web. It uses podcasting, RSS, blogging - and other Web 2 technologies - to teach Mandarin Chinese. The business model is surprisingly simple - subscriptions to language-learning materials. This complements the free offerings - basically, the Mandarin podcasts - very nicely. For example, if you want to dive into learning Mandarin straight away: select one of the episodes, plus you can participate in the discussions. The first level subscription is called 'Basic' and gets you a PDF transcript of the podcast. If you want get really serious about learning Mandarin, sign up to the premium subscription service and receive learning resources such as Review Materials and Lesson Plans.

The community aspect of ChinesePod shows what can be done with web 2.0 technologies in e-learning. Check out the Community page - which has a forum, wiki, blogs, photos, rss feeds. All the usual pieces, but each has a practical purpose. The wiki has extra links and information, the forum is well-used by users, the photos are lovely (of China), and there are a lot of great rss feeds to choose from.

Google, Microsoft, Apple, IBM - active in e-learning 2.0

What else is out there currently in Internet-based education software? Well for a start, the Internet BigCos all have products in the e-learning segment. Google offers the free Google Apps for Education (includes Gmail, Chat, Calendar, Page Creator, start page). Microsoft has a range of education products (including live.com hosting/email and potential groupware for education), and Apple offers free podcast hosting for education (iTunes U). IBM is also a player in the education sector.

Google seems to be particularly active in education, amongst the Internet companies. It has Google for Educators, described as "a platform of teaching resources". Also its Google Enterprise Professional program has at least one education provider - Blackboard become the first member of the program to focus primarily on educational institutions.

Not to mention that online office products can be used to enhance collaboration in an education setting. Google Docs & Spreadsheets for example. In effect, the BigCos are able to leverage their current product range and promote them to schools.

Collaborative E-learning Systems

As well as blogs and wikis, there is a class of e-learning 2.0 software that is more of a platform product. These are referred to as collaboration systems and examples are Elgg, Nuuvo and Digication. As Digication's Jeffrey Yan explained in January, e-learning 2.0 tools are often promoted by educators in a grassroots manner. Which when you consider the usual hierarchical academic setting, is an interesting trend. Jeff told R/WW there is a community of users who support these tools and "their approval/disapproval with features, functionality and direction can make or break a [e-learning] company."

As for the near future of collaborative systems, Jeff Yan says that blogs, wikis and podcasts will start to merge with more educationally focused systems in 2007.

Traditional Learning Management System (LMS)

Also known as Virtual Learning Environments (VLE), examples are Blackboard, Moodle and Sakai (the latter two are open source) As we hinted at above, the big commercial software like Blackboard is very 'old school' and doesn't have much focus on the community aspects of learning. They're expensive and are generally seen as clunky and difficult to use - not unlike traditional Content Management Systems in enterprises (Vignette, InterWoven, et al). They also have a lot of features that most teachers and students don't want or need.

However there are some newcomers that are interesting - call them LMS 2.0 perhaps ;-)  As well as Digication and Nuvvo, there is Chalksite and haiku LMS.

Conclusion

As this article shows, there is a lot of web 2.0 activity in the e-learning space - including from the big Internet companies like Google and Apple. The current era of the Web is all about two-way communication, collaboration and 'read/write'; and the classroom is an ideal place to utilize these technologies. In the comments, tell us some of the e-learning apps or experiences you've encountered.

Top 10 Firefox Web 2.0 Add-ons

Last August we gave you our top 10 Add-ons. Here were our picks then (minus Browster, which is no more), but we encourage you to leave a comment saying what your favorite add-ons are now.

The blueorganizer smart browsing extension for Firefox drives productivity by building smarts and semantics into the browser.

The del.icio.us extension for Firefox allows you to easily bookmark webpages in del.icio.us, from within the Firefox browser.

The StumbleUpon add-on is described as "collaborative surfing tool", because you can browse websites according to what other people recommend.

ClipMarks is an early pioneer in the clipping space. Users clip pieces out of web pages and share these bits with each other.

Google Notebook is very similar to Clipmarks, but has better Firefox integration.

FoxMarks Bookmark Synchronizer is an easy way to sync your Firefox bookmarks, if you use Firefox on more than one computer.

Sage is a basic and lightweight RSS Reader, although you need to be a techie to use it.

Wizz RSS is a fancier reader that works well. It supports OPML import and export, plus has advanced features like filtering news items on words and/or phrases.

Firefox Recommended Add-ons

In October Alex Iskold reviewed the Firefox Recommended Add-ons, in the week that Firefox launched its milestone 2.0 release. Among the many add-ons that Alex reviewed were:

• The FoxyTunes add-on integrates with your favorite music player and allows you to control the music you are listening to, right from within the Firefox status bar.
• Maps+ uses the Yahoo! Maps API to help the user look up addresses.
• The Foxmarks add-on is seemingly simple - it synchronizes your bookmarks between all your Firefox browsers.
• Yoono is a social recommendation engine for discovering interesting or related sites.
• GreaseMonkey is an add-on that lets technically savvy users customize the look and feel of web pages.
• Performancing add-on is a fully fledged blog editor built right into Firefox, which integrates with TypePad, Blogger, WordPress and LiveJournal (amongst others).
• FireFTP integrates FTP into Firefox
• ChatZilla integrates IRC into Firefox
• Download Statusbar helps you manage downloads right in the status bar
• FlashGot is another download productivity add-on
• Adblock Plus lets you do away with advertisements
• Pronto is comparison shopping add-on which alerts you to potential price savings
• Jaja wires telephony right into the browser
• LinkedIn integrates the popular professional social network into the browser
• Cooliris lets the user preview a page by hovering over links

Check Alex's post for the full list.

Interview with Mike Shaver, Mozilla Add-ons Guru

Read/WriteWeb interviewed Mike Shaver in February this year, on the eve of Mozilla launching an upgrade to its Add-Ons website. On the future of Add-ons, Mike said that add-ons are becoming more popular with non-technical users and that this is a key area of focus for Firefox add-ons. In February, Firefox had 80 Million users now; so it's important that add-ons can be easily used by all of that audience. At the time we spoke, more than 7 million Firefox users had add-ons installed on their browser.

Future of Add-ons: Firefox 3 as Information Broker

Mozilla designer Alex Faaborg has been writing and speaking about Firefox 3 using microformats and becoming an "information broker", by which he means associating semantically marked up data you encounter on the Web with specific applications. As we explained in January, this means that instead of using the entire product suite of a Google or an MSN or a Yahoo, you can instead use the particular apps you like most from not only big players - but small startups too. So say I use the 30Boxes online calendar - Firefox 3 would automagically transfer any (microformatted) events data I come across while browsing, into my 30Boxes account. And it could likewise put all my contacts into Gmail, locations into Yahoo Maps, phone numbers into Skype, etc.

This has implications for add-ons too. As Mike Shaver noted in our interview, as it evolves the browser's job will increasingly be to "represent the user on the Web and to bring the Web [to them] on the user's terms". Mike expects add-ons to utilize technologies such as web services and microformats; and also some add-ons will be brought into the core Firefox product. Overall he thinks that because Firefox is an extensible product, add-ons are a key part of its ongoing development.

What is your take on the world of Firefox add-ons? We'd love to know what add-ons you can't live without, and how you think add-ons will evolve.