11-12 minutes.

That's how long we go without interruption at work.

And it's getting worse.

Intel Research anthropologist Dawn Nafus spoke today at the Emerging Communications Conference about the increasing interruption and disruption caused by sensor-driven applications. For example, geo-presence apps that alert you when your contacts are near, even when you're trying to concentrate on work.

Dawn blames the problem on designing from a sensor-net view, not from a human view.

How interruptible is a person? Ask or have them signal: you'll infer badly since software rarely understands our fluid human condition. 

You probably need a social secretary. Someone to wave people off, to defend your attention from threats of interruption. And to break in when it needed. A gatekeeper, a bouncer, a bodyguard.

Dawn's right of course. Our sensor networks are becoming richer, diverse, and more mobile. Phone and software makers will create value with models of how we think, work, play, socialize, shop, flirt, [insert 93,746 other behaviors here]. They'll inform those models with sensor data (location, temperature, blood pressure, air pressure, etc.) and volunteered human behavior like Skype's availability signals (presence and mood messages) or the famous Do Not Disturb Button.

The presence system is a vital service in the Social Stack's Real Time Layer ("Now"). It helps negotiate and schedule live interaction, even when we face social network overload.

But I'll write more about that soon. Someone's tapping my arm, trying to ask me a question.

See also:

• Presence on Skype Journal