Partners: Center for History and New Media at George Mason University; Gallivan, Gallivan and O’Melia LLC; Snyder, Miller, Orton Lawyers LLP; and the Internet Archive.

Subject:This project will preserve at-risk digital materials from the American business culture during the early years of the commercialization of the Internet -the “Birth of the Dot Com Era,” specifically 1994-2001. The materials, collected through Web portals at www.businessplanarchive.org and www.dotcomarchive.org and through direct contact with former participants in the Dot Com Era, will be of incalculable historical value to Americans eager to make sense of this remarkable period of venture creation. Content associated with this project includes business plans, marketing plans, technical plans, venture presentations, and other business documents from more than 2,000 failed and successful Internet start-ups. (See: www.rhsmith.umd.edu/news/releases/2004/093004.html)