Brewster Kahle

Who is Brewster Kahle?

Brewster has built technologies, companies, and institutions to advance

the goal of universal access to all knowledge. He currently oversees

the non-profit Internet Archive as founder and Digital Librarian, which

is now one of the largest digital archives in the world.

As a digital archivist, Brewster has been active in technology, business, and law.

Keywords: MIT'82, helped start Thinking Machines, founder WAIS

Wide Area Information Servers, Internet strategist AOL, co-founded

Alexa Internet, sold to Amazon.com, directs Internet Archive.

Details:

After graduating from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

(MIT) in 1982, he helped start a supercomputer company, Thinking

Machines, that built systems for searching large text collections. In

1989, he invented the Internet�s first publishing and distributed

search system, WAIS (Wide Area Information Server). WAIS Inc. created

the online presence for many of the world's largest publishers, and was

purchased by America Online in 1995. In 1996, Brewster co-founded Alexa

Internet, which provides search and discovery services included in more

than 90 percent of web browsers, and was purchased by Amazon in 1999.

Brewster has also worked to revise law and policy in light

technical advances. He is a board member of the Electronic Frontier

Foundation, and a plaintiff in Kahle v. Gonzales (formerly Kahle v.

Ashcroft), which challenges recent copyright term extensions.

Brewster is profiled in Digerati: Encounters with the Cyber

Elite (HardWired, 1996). He was selected as a member of the American

Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2005, the AlwaysOn/Technorati Open

Media 100 in 2005, the Upside 100 in 1997, the Micro Times 100 in 1996

and 1997, and the Computer Week 100 in 1995.

APPOINTMENTS:

Univeristy of North Carolina, School of Library and Information Science, Visiting Scholar 2006-Present

Internet Archive, Digital Librarian, Director, Co-Founder 1996-presentAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences, elected as a member in 2005Electronic Frontier Foundation, Board Member

Alexa Internet, President, CEO, Co-Founder (sold to Amazon.com) 1996-2002

The Library of Congress, National Digital Strategy Advisory Board April 2001America Online, Internet Strategist 1995-1996Wide Area Information Servers, Inc (WAIS), Founder, President (sold to AOL) 1992-1995Thinking Machines with Apple, Dow Jones, KPMG, WAIS Inventor and Project Leader 1989-1992Thinking Machines, Scientist 1983-1992. Helped start company, chips, boards, architected CPU of CM2