"Infopreneurship": Roots, Evolution, And Revolution‪.‬

INTRODUCTION Harold F. Weitzen registered a trademark for "Infopreneur" (H. Weitzen, 1984), indicating its first use in commerce was as of January 31, 1984. According to the U.S. Patent and Trade Office (USPTO) Trademark Electronic Search System's (TESS) records, the business endeavor with which such usage was attributed was "newsletters dealing with computerized information processing." A definition given in Wikipedia defines an infopreneur as one who is "generally considered an entrepreneur who makes money selling information on the Internet" ("Infopreneur," 2010a). However, the authors of this paper propose a broader definition--not restricted to the use of the Internet--might better reflect the entirety of the construct, acknowledging fully its roots, evolution, and a more recent revolution in "infopreneurship" as it has been further enabled by technological developments. For instance, BusinessDictionary.com, with attribution to Weitzen (H. S. Weitzen & Genda, 1991), suggested a description as follows: