Last weekend, an anonymously-attributed presentation entitled “FOIA Strategies and Tactics” started making the rounds in the #OpenGov community, offering something for beginners, veterans, and fans of vintage Tex Avery alike. While the whole thing’s worth a read, today we wanted to focus on the five points brought up in the presentation’s conclusion, as they address some often-overlooked elements of the whole FOIA process.

In the D.C. area and want to learn how to peek inside federal agencies using FOIA? Join us on November 1st for a unique look at the latest strategies and new advice for more targeted requests presented by MuckRock founder Michael Morisy, followed by a few rounds of “FOIA Karaoke.”

Included in the release of the NSA’s psychic research program is a document labeled “Chart Depicting Interaction/Dependencies Acting on Parapsychology.” The hand-drawn chart is the only thing in the document, and it looks awfully familiar …

FOIA and public records are vital to holding our government accountable - but that doesn’t mean you can’t have some fun with the results, too. Here’s how you can host your own FOIA Karaoke - and if you do, let us know how it goes!

In the D.C. area and want to learn how to peek inside federal agencies using FOIA? Join the Society of Professional Journalists D.C. chapter and MuckRock for a fun, informative talk by FOIA expert Michael Ravnitzky, followed by a few rounds of FOIA Karaoke.

If there’s one thing we love here at MuckRock, it’s a good bad PowerPoint. So imagine our excitement when the Army Audit Agency hands over one of the best examples of “more is more” mentality we’ve seen - and even better, we have our Official Jargon Translator to explain what any of this means.

The Government makes some pretty terrible powerpoints. We know because we’ve gotten them with FOIA. Now, we’re going to hand over these presentations to people who have never ever seen them before and ask them to present it like their career depended on it. It should be pretty funny.