“The Business of America”

This presentation examines how the growth of electronic records, their increasing importance in daily business operations, and their routine destruction as a matter of policy will affect the business history of the future. In particular, I look at how historians might encounter the evidentiary record of the first important business events of the electronic era, the rise and fall of internet technology companies during the Dot Com Era. To help address the issues confronting would-be historians, I have created a dedicated digital archive to capture potentially historic business records. I will review the motivations for creating the Archive(s), outline its general goals, and review the essential challenges that have been encountered thus far.