The CyberFrontier and America at the turn of the 21st century: Reopening Frederick Jackson Turner's frontier

Abstract

It's like the 'Wild West,'one investment banker remarked offhandedly during an interview for ABC Network News about the Microsoft versus AOL battle over Instant Messaging. He probably didn't realize how right he was. "Go West, young man!" [1] Sage advice for the 19th Century Americans who wished to make their fortunes. The American frontier offered storied riches: gold, furs, new fertile land, as well as excitement, danger and hardship. Perhaps most of all, it promised boundless opportunity. And today, appropriately the new cry should be not, "Go West," but, "Go cyber!" What are the connections between that frontier experience, the "Information Revolution," our present circumstances, and America's future?