ABSTRACT
Evidently, John Perry Barlow was wrong to think that governments would become obsolete and be replaced by a society of the mind in the virtual realm. However, to many observers at the time, ‘cyberspace’ was a highly fascinating place where almost anything could happen, and the expectations of many people concerning both the role of the internet and the speed of its evolution became detached from reality. Among other things, these inflated expectations caused a speculative bubble between 1997 and approximately 2001: the infamous ‘dot.com bubble’. This period was marked by the rapidly increasing number of new internet-based companies, a subsequent rapid increase in the value of global stock markets, and finally, the spectacular and painful failure of the markets when the bubble burst.
