Brewster Kahle

Founder of the Internet Archive and creator of WAIS and Alexa Internet, Kahle has been a pioneering force in digital access and preservation. He was a member of the Chi Phi Fraternity. The emphasis of his studies was artificial intelligence; he studied under Marvin Minsky and W. Daniel Hillis. He also studied Library Science at Simmons College.

He joined the Thinking Machines team (1983–1992), where he developed the WAIS system, a precursor to the World Wide Web. In 1992, Kahle started, with Bruce Gilliat, WAIS, Inc. (sold to AOL in 1995), and, in 1996, Alexa Internet (sold to Amazon.com in 1999). At the same time as Alexa, he founded the Internet Archive, which he has served as director of on an ongoing basis. He has served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and has been a key supporter of the Open Content Alliance.

In 2005, Kahle was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Kahle and his wife, Mary Austin, created the Kahle/Austin Foundation, a US$45 million trust that supports the Internet Archive and other non-profit organizations.

In his TED Talks on building a free digital library, Kahle describes his vision of a free digital library, which contains books, free music concerts, TV programs, a "snapshot" of the World Wide Web, and more.