Open Access News

News from the open access movement


Friday, January 23, 2004

Interview with Brewster Kahle

Lisa Rein, Brewster Kahle on the Internet Archive and People's Technology, O'Reilly P2P, January 22, 2004. An interview with Brewster Kahle, founder of the Internet Archive. Excerpt:

LR: Let's talk a little bit about your philosophy [today]. Could you discuss what you mean when you talk about "Universal Access To All Human Knowledge?"

BK: "Universal Access To All Human Knowledge" is a motto of Raj Reddy from Carnegie Mellon. I found that if you really actually come to understand that statement, then that statement is possible; technologically possible to take, say, all published materials -- all books, music, video, software, web sites -- that it's actually possible to have universal access to all of that. Some for a fee, and some for free. I found that was a life-changing event for me. That is just an inspiring goal. It's the dream of the Greeks, which they embodied, with the Egyptians, in the Library of Alexandria. The idea of having all knowledge accessible.