Yesterday, SIIA unveiled the first-ever Peter Jackson Innovation Award and presented it to Brewster Kahle, digital librarian and founder of the Internet Archive. The award honors the late Thomson Reuters vice president and chief scientist, and his profound impact on the B2B publishing industry. Dr. Jackson was an active board member of the SIIA Content Division.
SIIA created the Peter Jackson Innovation Award to recognize individuals who are an inspiration to the entire digital content industry. Brewster Kahle is an industry pioneer who has dedicated his career to philanthropy and efforts to improve and preserve digital content.
Because of Brewster’s work, the Internet Archive now offers a staggering 85 billion pieces of web geology. His unyielding vision and creativity has made it possible for our society to chronicle the growth of the Internet and continually celebrate the lasting impact of digital content. In the same spirit as Dr. Jackson, Brewster has demonstrated tremendous commitment to advancing digital media, and in doing so, has been an inspiration to so many of us.
The Peter Jackson Innovation Award was given to Kahle during the SIIA’s annual CODiE Awards dinner, held in conjunction with the Information Industry Summit. In addition to the award, a donation of $1,000 will be made in Kahle’s name to the Peter Jackson Fund for Keyboard and Guitar at the MacPhail Center for Music. The Peter Jackson Fund for Keyboard and Guitar recognizes the profound impact of music on Dr. Jackson’s life by providing music lessons for disadvantaged children.
Beyond his achievements with the Internet Archive, Kahle has worked in other areas of digital content and technology, including the Open Content Alliance, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and the GNU Project. His academic studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) were in the area of artificial intelligence—an area of interest also shared by Dr. Jackson.
View the memorial video for Peter, which was shown during the reception:
Laura Greenback is Communications Director at SIIA.