Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg in 1971, and the inventor of
ebooks (electronic books), has dedicated his whole life to put as many
literary works online for free for everyone, for them to be
disseminated worldwide. He wrote in August 1998: "We consider etext to
be a new medium, with no real relationship to paper, other than
presenting the same material, but I don't see how paper can possibly
compete once people each find their own comfortable way to etexts,
especially in schools." (NEF Interview)
September 1998 > A quote by John Mark Ockerbloom, founder of the Online
Books Page
John Mark Ockerbloom created the Online Books Page in 1993, as a
catalog of ebooks available for free on the web. He wrote in 1998:
"I've gotten very interested in the great potential the net has for
making literature available to a wide audience. (...) I am very excited
about the potential of the internet as a mass communication medium in
the coming years. I'd also like to stay involved, one way or another,
in making books available to a wide audience for free via the net,
whether I make this explicitly part of my professional career, or
whether I just do it as a spare-time volunteer." (NEF Interview)
September 1998 > A quote by Robert Beard, founder of A Web of Online
Dictionaries
Robert Beard, founder of A Web of Online Dictionaries in 1995, wrote in
September 1998: "The web will be an encyclopedia of the world by the
world for the world. There will be no information or knowledge that
anyone needs that will not be available. The major hindrance to
international and interpersonal understanding, personal and
institutional enhancement, will be removed. It would take a wilder
imagination than mine to predict the effect of this development on the
nature of humankind." (NEF Interview) In January 2000, Robert Beard co-
founded yourDictionary, a major portal for dictionaries and other tools
in all languages.