In 2016, Kahle founded the Decentralized Web Summit movement, bringing together technologists to build alternatives to corporate-controlled platforms. He has consistently advocated for baking values like privacy and freedom of expression into the code itself.
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Brewster Kahle
Founder & Digital Librarian Internet Archive
Founder of the Internet Archive with mission of 'universal access to all knowledge.' Previously co-founded WAIS and Alexa Internet. Serves on EFF board. Internet Hall of Fame inductee. Leading advocate for digital preservation and library rights.
Career History
Track Record
After Aaron Swartz's death in January 2013, Kahle organized a memorial at Internet Archive headquarters and delivered a tribute speech defending Swartz's vision of open access. He characterized the federal prosecution as persecution for 'reading too quickly in a library.'
Sources: Aaron Swartz Day(opens in new tab)
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Challenged FBI National Security Letter as unconstitutional - worked with ACLU and EFF to protect user privacy
Jan 1, 2007In 2007, when the FBI issued a National Security Letter demanding personal information about an Internet Archive user, Kahle refused to comply silently. He worked with the ACLU and EFF to challenge the NSL as unconstitutional, helping establish legal precedent for challenging these secretive government demands for user data.
Sources: Wikipedia(opens in new tab)
In 1996, Brewster Kahle founded the Internet Archive as a nonprofit digital library with the explicit mission of providing 'universal access to all knowledge.' He funded it with proceeds from selling his previous companies (WAIS to AOL for $15M, later Alexa to Amazon for $250M). The Archive was designated as an official library by California in 2007.