Interview with Brewster Kahle (aged 33) conducted by Dave Marvit, in Cambridge Massachusetts, November 28, 1992. Interview held at the newly-created WAIS Incorporated, "three blocks from Harvard Square". Runtime is roughly 2 hours.

Topics covered include:

• History of WAIS
  
• Definition of Wide Area Information Server (WAIS) Technology
  
• Early experiments of WAIS-like services; what went right and wrong
  
• Working at Thinking Machines Corporation
  
• Devising Search Algorithms
  
• Early advancements in search (and the roots of search)
  
• Relevance feedback
  
• The excitement and personal aspects of search
  
• Deep overview of the functionality and system of WAIS
  
• The issues and technical considerations of transmitting video via network
  
• The model of providing services for free to attract users
  
• Effects and use of Internet in Politics and Privacy Issues
  
• The Markets that Thinking Machines tried to create and open
  
• Brewster's Goals with WAIS ("The Wise Man on the Hill")
  
• Concerns about proprietary protocols versus open
  
• Early interactions with Perot Systems and the Ross Perot Presidential Campaign
  
• WAIS, Inc. Corporate and Company Structure
  
• WAIS, Inc. Personnel and Positions
  
• WAIS, Inc. Philosophy
  
• Thoughts on the Electronic Publishing Revolution
  
• Effects of Electronic Publishing on Traditional Publishing
  
• Thoughts on business models and transfer mechanisms in publishing
  
• Thoughts on computers and computing technology in the home and home publishing
  
• The role of advertising in electronic publishing
  
• Concerns with working with government institutions
  
• Considering the issues of Privacy in an electronic age
  
• The future of WAIS, Inc. (Growing, Earning, Business Model)
  

Some numbers mentioned in the interview:

• A "large" government database that was 15 gigabytes, with estimates of searching this database from 24 hours down the Thinking Machines' 3 minutes.
  
• Dow Jones' Database is 77gb at this time.
  
• Dialog's Database is "close to a terabyte".
  
• The top-end network connection mentioned is a T3, 42 mbits/sec.
  
• 56kbits/sec (ISDN) is an "acceptable" connection for interacting with WAIS.
  
• WAIS, Inc. has 3 full-time employees at the time of the interview.
  

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