From Attention to Contribution: Replacing Engagement Extraction with Regenerative Value

This white paper states the transition from the attention economy to the contribution economy, originated as a programme claim by Jude Onemolease. The attention economy commodifies focus and residualises engagement. By design it treats regenerativity as a variable and persons as audiences. That violates Onemolease's Law of the Regenerative Constant (TRC) and the Living Node Principle. The successor operating system measures and rewards net regenerative contribution ci, not time-on-device. The paper supplies canonical definitions of both operating systems; a standard modal representation of the transition; comparative anatomy; a TRC diagnosis; the metric shift from engagement to signed contribution; six transition mechanisms (identity, metrics, incentives, protocols, markets, governance interfaces); UMEI as a high-level bridge; risks of greenwashed contribution and new extraction loops; industry cases; and diagnostics. Full platform design and governance constitutions remain companion objects. The argument is universal and non-sectarian.