Revisiting the Western Frontier

Abstract

I appreciate very much the opportunity to look back on “old” scholarship. The work I have chosen to review is Western Frontier or Feudal Society? Metaphors and Perceptions of Cyberspace. I published this article in 2002 as a reaction to the then popular idea that the Internet was a libertarian utopia whose natural qualities made government regulation unnecessary or perhaps even harmful.

Hindsight is indeed 20/20, and there are things one could have done differently. Whether it would have been reasonably possible for me to do these things is an open question. Accordingly, I will divide my retrospective into three parts. In Part I, I will briefly summarize my work. Then, in Part II, I will discuss the things I wish I had included. Finally, in Part III, I will conclude with a few brief thoughts about what was reasonably possible at the time.