...in an information-rich world, the wealth of information means a dearth of something else: a scarcity of whatever it is that information consumes. What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention and a need to allocate that attention efficiently among the overabundance of information sources that might consume it" (Simon 1971, pp. 40–41).

Methods for controlling information pollution can be derived from attention economical (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attention_economy ) theorems. The key idea is to create property rights on the overload. One example is a cost to send spam. Another the cost to create a meeting in Meetup. The problem is the fair assignment of (initial) property rights.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attention_economy#Controlling_information_pollution