Author Archives: brewster

Decentralized Web Server: Possible Approach with Cost and Performance Estimates

Posted on June 23, 2016 by brewster

At the first Decentralized Web Summit Tim Berners-Lee asked if a content-addressable peer-to-peer server system scales to the demands of the World Wide Web. This is meant to be a partial answer to a piece of the puzzle.  For background, … Continue reading →

Posted in Announcements, News | 3 Comments

Geez, Now Internet Insurance?

Posted on June 16, 2016 by brewster

We seem to make some people mad. The Internet Archive, a non-profit library, hosts many things. Many, many things. Billions of old webpages, lots of concerts, nostalgia computer games, TV, books, old movies, contributed books, music, and video, and much … Continue reading →

Posted in Announcements, News | 6 Comments

Decentralized Web Summit: Towards Reliable, Private, and Fun

Posted on June 16, 2016 by brewster

[See coverage by the NYtimes, Fortune, Boing Boing, other press] More than 300 web architects, activists, archivists and policy makers gathered at the Internet Archive for the  first Decentralized Web Summit, where I was honored to share a stage with internet pioneers, Vint Cerf, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Announcements | 2 Comments

Discover Books Donates Large Numbers of Books

Posted on May 11, 2016 by brewster

Internet Archive is proud to partner with Discover Books, a major used book seller, to help let the stories in books live on.   Discover books is donating books that the Internet Archive does not yet own and would have gone … Continue reading →

Posted in Announcements, Books Archive, News | 3 Comments

Upcoming changes in epub generation

Posted on April 14, 2016 by brewster

Epub is a format for ebooks that is used on book reader devices.   It is often mostly text, but can incorporate images. The Internet Archive offers these in two cases:  when a user uploads them, and when they are created … Continue reading →

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Getting back to “View Source” on the Web: the Movable Web / Decentralized Web

Posted on April 5, 2016 by brewster

The Web 1.0 moved so fast partly because you could “View Source” on a webpage you liked and then modify and re-use it to make your own webpages. This even worked with pages with JavaScript programs—you could see how it … Continue reading →

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Save our Safe Harbor: Submission to Copyright Office on the DMCA Safe Harbor for User Contributions

Posted on March 22, 2016 by brewster

The United States Copyright Office is seeking feedback on how the “notice and takedown” system created by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, also known as the “DMCA Safe Harbors,” is working. Congress decided that in this country, users of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Announcements, News | 2 Comments

Next Librarian of Congress: Carla Hayden

Posted on February 24, 2016 by brewster

The President has nominated Carla Hayden to be the next Librarian of Congress.    I have met her through IMLS and support her for this position. As a public librarian, she can bring an access and public service orientation to a … Continue reading →

Posted in Announcements | 1 Comment

Gingerbread Internet Archive

Posted on December 25, 2015 by brewster

Anne Regenstein made a gingerbread Internet Archive! Happy Holidays!

Posted in Announcements | 2 Comments

Internet Credit Union 2011-2015: RIP

Posted on December 14, 2015 by brewster

[background, NYTimes] [previous, NYtimes] Dear National Credit Union Administration, You win, we lose. This is our notice of Voluntary Liquidation of the Internet Credit Union. We write this hoping many of you will read it. You did not need to … Continue reading →

Posted in Announcements, News | 11 Comments

How You Can Put Knowledge into the Hands of Millions

Posted on December 1, 2015 by brewster

Dear Friends, Today is #GivingTuesday, the one day you are encouraged to give to your favorite charities. This GivingTuesday, I hope the Internet Archive will be at the top of your list. By giving a small amount, you can put … Continue reading →

Posted in Announcements, News | 2 Comments

Difficult Times at our Credit Union

Posted on November 24, 2015 by brewster

Brewster Kahle, Chairman of the Internet Archive Federal Credit Union, November 2015 [NYtimes story, Motherboard, BoingBoing. Liquidation.] All deposits are safe, all loans performing, great and dedicated staff, wonderful members. So why difficult? Despite five years of effort, $1 million … Continue reading →

Posted in Announcements, News | 18 Comments

Experimenting with One Million Album Covers

Posted on July 1, 2015 by brewster

Rising to the challenge to create an image search engine using a corpus of one million album covers,  Professor Trenary of Western Michigan University lead a class project that found many exact matches (same file) and many near matches. Their … Continue reading →

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Thank you, Robert Miller, for 2.5 million Books for Free Public Access

Posted on May 8, 2015 by brewster

I am both sad and happy that Robert Miller has accepted another position so will be leaving the Internet Archive after 10 years of fantastic achievements. He joined to help create a mass movement of libraries bringing themselves digital by … Continue reading →

Posted in Books Archive, News | 5 Comments

Open Source Housing for Good

Posted on March 17, 2015 by brewster

This is from a talk given by Brewster Kahle,  Founder and Digital Librarian of the Internet Archive, at Commonwealth Club panel titled Open Source Housing for Good on March 9th.  [covered by KQED public radio] Our employees are being driven … Continue reading →

Posted in News | 2 Comments

Burning Brewster’s Bitcoin

Posted on December 25, 2014 by brewster

[Guest post, hope you enjoy. -brewster] Burning Brewster’s Bitcoin First Installment – Coinbase offers a service that is contrary to everything the company professes to hold dear Internet Archive Morgen E. Peck This fall, Brewster reached out to me with … Continue reading →

Posted in Announcements, News | 3 Comments

Crusading librarian for openness passes: Cathy Norton

Posted on December 23, 2014 by brewster

A live wire in the library field, and a firebrand for openness, Cathy Norton helped keep libraries free and open during this current digitization wave. Fun and opinionated, we learned that she had the background and evidence to make the … Continue reading →

Posted in Announcements, Books Archive, News | 6 Comments

Declaration to be ‘Defensive’ for the Defensive Patent License

Posted on December 9, 2014 by brewster

The Internet Archive hereby declares itself ‘Defensive’ by committing to offer a Defensive Patent License, version 1.1 or any later version, for any of its patents, to any DPL User.   The Internet Archive does not have any patents at this … Continue reading →

Posted in News | 1 Comment

Defensive Patent License: Troll Proofed. Innovation Protected.

Posted on December 9, 2014 by brewster

Today the Defensive Patent License is officially released.   It is designed to bring free software ideas to the patent arena by encouraging patent owners to declare themselves “defensive,” and share their patents with others that have declared themselves defensive. … Continue reading →

Posted in Announcements, News | 3 Comments

430 Billion Web Pages Saved….Help Us Do More!

Posted on December 3, 2014 by brewster

Dear Friends, Today we launch our End-of-Year Campaign.  Once a year, I ask all of you to keep the Internet Archive going and growing stronger.   Please help us reach our goal of raising $1.5 million by the end of the year.  Your support will … Continue reading →

Posted in Announcements, News | 14 Comments