Founder of the Internet Archive, Kahle is an ebullient technology visionary of the type Northern California cultivates. He has been widely recognized as a digital guru and a catalyst for change.
Now, his vision is helping shape the debate over how a book library should reside on the Internet. His idealistic yet pragmatic approach -- providing free digital access to works in the public domain -- could be a bridge to detente in the war between publishers and Google Inc.
While Google has alienated authors and publishers with its plan to digitize books still in copyright, Kahle has moved gingerly, forging collaborations with Google's fiercest archrivals -- Microsoft and Yahoo -- to create a kinder, gentler digital library effort called the Open Content Alliance.
The alliance, focused on books no longer under copyright -- that is, books published before 1923 -- echoes the computer industry's open source movement, which has sought to spur innovation by enabling software engineers to freely share their code...."Folks are using the Internet as a library, and they're using it many times every day," Kahle continued. "We're seeing much more traffic on the Internet then we ever did in our public library system, but what's available on the Internet isn't the best we have to offer. Almost everything on the Internet has been written since 1996 -- and most of it has been written for the Internet." Kahle's dream is to collect online the great books on which modern civilization is based.
"Do you know what's carved above the Carnegie Library in Pittsburgh? -- 'FREE TO THE PEOPLE' -- what a goal!" Kahle said. "I can believe in this! At the Internet Archive, we think of our mission as 'universal access to all knowledge.'
"That should be carved over our door."..."Brewster Kahle is an activist, not an empire-builder," said Paul Saffo of the Palo Alto-based Institute of the Future.
"What I've always admired about Brewster Kahle is his attitude -- 'let's get the job done and find out what the wrinkles are,' " said UC's [Paul] Duguid.
"If they would team up -- with Google's strength and Kahle's philosophy," Duguid mused, "that would be great."...Before taking the podium at the Presidio, Kahle told a visitor, "I applaud Google's efforts. They've got a bold vision. But their approach seems to have caused lawsuits.
"C'mon, guys! Let's get the businesspeople back at the table, and send the lawyers back to their cubicles!"
Posted by
Peter Suber at 11/22/2005 11:27:00 AM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
