We need to stop designing tools and platforms which are simply meant to allow people to connect, share and collaborate more. In doing this we are being incredibly irresponsible with the resource we value most. Instead we need to design for business intent and utilize our efficiencies as tools to help solve real business problems.

Jevon is talking about the risk of new social computing technologies absorbing more of people's attention, rather than helping them to work more effectively. I think people - particularly in a business setting - intuitively recognise this issue. For example, if you are already working 60 hours week and addicted to your Blackberry, do you really want to add Yammer (a corporate Twitter-style platform) to that mix?

Of course, the point is that we don't actually want to add to (or overload) people's attention quota - instead we want to substitute. Here I think there is a misunderstanding about the 'emergent' aspects of social computing tools. Its not about chaos (and therefore more noise, more distractions, etc), but rather a different approach to designing solutions to actual business problems that is enabled by the characteristics of social computing tools. For example, we know from our experiences with enterprise wikis that it is easier for users to work within a loosely pre-defined structure, but we don't need to design every aspect of the information or business process architecture at the beginning.

Similarly, intent in Social Business Design provides that strategic framework. Rather than throwing resources and tools randomly into an organisation, we actually do it with an objective in mind.