In 2010, we spent nearly a half billion taxpayer dollars* spent on processing FOIA requests. Since 2008, we’ve added an extra 50 million dollars to our FOIA costs. For scope sake, that’s the roughly the same number we’re spending on the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. It’s nearly double the FTC’s 2010 Budget Request, and way more than what we spend on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. FOIA costs you and I more than six times the budget of the Federal Election Commission — the agency that’s supposed to keep our elections on the up and up.

via The Costs of FOIA – A Healthy Information Diet – InfoVegan.com.

Interesting presentation comparing online networks with those in real life.

Disclaimer: I’m annoyed. This post is probably crabby. Not my usual fare. Skip it if you like.If you’re still here, can we, pretty please, talk to the people around us and do something to prevent these tragic conversations? Consider this a public service announcement or a rant, however you choose. But enough is enough.

1. Getting More Followers and FansUnless you can tell me what the hell they’re going to do for you, how you’re going to mobilize them, and what you’re going to give back to them that makes it worth their while to grant you their attention and continue to give it, who cares? People aren’t marbles, and you don’t get any points for collecting a bunch of staring eyeballs that are waiting for you to do something significant. Attention only matters if can move people beyond noticing, and into investing their time and energy.

via 9 Social Media Topics that Need To Die | Brand Elevation Through Social Media and Social Business | Altitude Branding.

Better.

Politics, celebrity gossip, business headlines, tech punditry, odd news, and user-generated content.

These are the chew toys that have made me sad and tired and cynical.

Each, in its own way, contributes to the imperative that we constantly expand our portfolio of shallow but strongly-held opinions about nearly everything. Then we’re supposed to post something about it. Somewhere.

From businesses we’ve never heard of, to countries we’ve never visited, to infants who’ve had the random misfortune to be born into a family that’s on TV – it’s all grist for obvious jokes and shortsighted commentary that, for at least a few minutes, helps both the maker and the consumer feel a little less bored, a little less vulnerable, and a little less disconnected. For a minute, anyway, it makes us feel more alive. Does me, anyway.

But, in my observation, the long-term effect of each of these can be surprisingly different.

via Better – Merlin Mann.

via JESS3 / The State of The Internet on Vimeo.