Unless government organizations understand that what really sets social media apart is the word “social” rather than “media”, and that they are people tool and not corporate tool, most attempts at developing effective strategies will be futile.

Andrea Di Maio, This Is Why Governments Struggle with the Use of Social Media.

But clearly today’s information technology has the effect of disintermediating. It breaks down hierarchies. It breaks down monopolies. That’s got to be good for the individual, and it must be bad for dictatorships.

In our last interview, [Former US Senator Evan] Bayh complained of the poor opinion the public had of him and his [Senate] colleagues. “They look at us like we’re worse than used-car salesmen.” Yes. They do. And this is why.

Ezra Klein of the Washington Post, from his post The sad, hypocritical retirement of Evan Bayh.

For every buck we spend we borrow forty cents and if that isn’t stupid. You’ve got a country that is stupid. A government that is stupid.

-Former US Senator Alan Simpson, co-chair of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, on our government.

Taking the lower figure, that means that New York Times, if it stopped printing a physical edition of the paper, could afford to give every subscriber a free Kindle. Not the bog-standard Kindle, but the one with free global data access. And not just one Kindle, but four Kindles. And not just once, but every year. And that’s using the low estimate for the costs of printing.