Lead Partner: University of Maryland, Robert H. Smith School of Business
Project Dates: 2004-2009
Additional Partners: A complete listing of the project partners can be found at the partners viewshare
Business records are primary resources for historians researching our past. They help future generations know the story of American innovation. "Birth of the Dot Com Era" preserved at-risk digital materials from the American business culture during the early years of the commercialization of the Internet, from 1994 to 2001. The Digital Archive of the Birth of the Dot Com Era collected content, including business, marketing and technical plans; venture presentations; and other business documents from more than 2,000 failed and successful Internet startups. These records were collected through personal donation to http://www.businessplanarchive.org, through special agreement with venture captial firms, and via an unprecedented court decisions to archive the records of a bankrupt silicon valley law firm. The private nature of many of these records allows the testing of secure and limited access archive systems.
More detailed project information can be found at the Project Web site (external link)
Highlights
- Dr. David Kirsch, the principal investigator on the Birth of the Dot Com Era project discussed "A Public Interest in Private Records," March 17, 2009 at the Library of Congress. The webcast from this presentation is now available. Slides from the presentation are also available (PDF, 1.67MB).
- Interview with David Kirsch
- Brobeck Closed Archive (external link)
- Brobeck Hearing Transcript - Excerpt (external link) (PDF, 44KB)
- Closed Archive Methodology (external link) (PDF, 48KB)
- Resource:(external site) Archived project web site
