The Web and the West: Comparing Two Frontiers

By Kurt Gutjahr

In partnership with Silicon Flatirons, the Center of the American West invited historians, web experts, lawyers, and public servants to address the parallels between the development of the Web and the settling of the American West. The conference, held on March 21 at CU's Wolf Law School, addressed the role of infrastructure in economic and social development, the definition of property rights, and the role of the rule of law in frontier environments and the impulse for grassroots democracy. The afternoon was spent in lively discussion, moderated by the head of Silicon Flatirons, Phil Weiser, and while the audience did not emerge with solutions for the Web, they did come away with a better understanding of the useful models that the past provides.