Researchers collecting data on dot-com boom, bust - tech briefs - University of Maryland's Smith School of Business and Webmergers.com - Brief Article

Black Issues in Higher Education, August 1, 2002 by Ronald Roach

COLLEGE PARK, MD.

The University of Maryland's Smith School of Business has partnered with Webmergers.com, a San Francisco-based business research firm, to document the stories of the Interact bubble.

The researchers expect to document the personal experiences of dot-com "refugees," the former employees of failed Internet firms. While many books and films have chronicled the high-tech excesses of the 1990s, this research project seeks primary material: business plans, venture presentations, e-mail, financial projections, marketing plans and other documents so that future entrepreneurs might learn from today's mistakes.

"We have a really bad track record of not learning from history, particularly with tech cycles. The Interact boom and bust was the biggest business event in the last half-century," says Tim Miller, president of Webmergers.com.

Dr. David Kirsch, head of the project and an assistant professor of entrepreneurship at the Smith school, told the San Jose Mercury News that he's "absolutely convinced we're nowhere near understanding the depth and full richness of the story of the dot-com economy, where it came from and what was fanning the flames."

Stories can be submitted through <www.businessplanarchive.org>.