Nancy Scola

Today’s Today’s op-ed from Sens. Orrin Hatch and Jim DeMint against net neutrality is strange all the way through, but one part in particular jumps out: If there is a perfect encapsulation of the success of Washington’s current hands-off approach to the Internet, it’s the popular “There’s an app for that” advertising campaign. Since the […]

Whether or not to raise the congressionally mandated cap on H1-B visas for specialized workers (including internationally known fashion models, but this isn’t the place to get into that that) is tricky question. It’s fairly inarguable that technologists from lands abroad have been a key component in the growth of the American technology sector; Microsoft, […]

In the comments, LuisB raises a good point. One argument you hear against the idea of public broadband is that it’s too risky from a financial perspective, particularly in places where the market has decided that demand doesn’t justify the capital investment. That’s something similar, suggests Luis, to what was said before FDR’s rural electrification […]

Why don’t we have a public option for broadband Internet? That’s what Why don’t we have a public option for broadband Internet? That’s what Matt Yglesias wants to know. Several reasons jump to mind. One is that letting government provide Internet service on the infrastructure that cable and telephone companies have built creates unfair competition […]

Last week, the Federal Communications Commission released its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on net neutrality rules that revolve around the idea of “reasonable network management.” Princeton’s Ed Felten points out that this framework would leave regulators with enormous discretion to determine what constitutes permissible manipulation of the Internet by network providers and what would be […]

There have, in the last few days, been two pilgrimages of high-ranking Washington officials to geek meccas that are worth noting, though only one of them made any real news. President Obama went to MIT to publicly state that denying climate change is now an extremist position. “The naysayers, the folks who would pretend that […]

We’ve reached the point in our American media evolution where it becomes sensible to ask, (a) where did Glenn Beck come from, and (b) how do we get him to go away? Passed out of the House and headed for a likely floor vote by winter break is community radio legislation that helps explicate the […]

Hey and hello there, TAPPED fans. I’m Nancy Scola, and it is my tremendous pleasure to be your guest blogger for the week. Before we can move on to the fun stuff, some background on me. Prior to coming to my senses and embracing the writing life, I spent time working on the hands-on side […]