Brewster Kahle Interview

"Today’s episode features guest host Michael Upshall (guest editor, Charleston Briefings) who talks with Brewster Kahle, Founder & Director, Internet Archive.

Brewster says that back in the 1980’s he believed that everything would eventually become digital. He dreamed of building a Library of Alexandria where humanity’s knowledge would be freely accessible. In this conversation, he talks with Michael about his work building early search technologies at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. In 1983, he helped create Thinking Machine Corporation, a pioneering supercomputer manufacturer.   In 1996, he founded Alexa Internet, a web traffic analysis and ranking company that was eventually acquired by Amazon. He then launched The Internet Archive, which now contains over a trillion archived web pages and works with thousands of libraries around the world to preserve digital content.  

Brewster says he believes the internet should be a global, open library that supports learning and that compensates content creators fairly. He also talks about some lawsuits against publishers, controlled digital lending and the importance of open access for the future."