Re: More on "information wants to be free"

["Carol A. Hughes" <hughes@uci.edu>]

Joe and All,

Another related statement about information "wanting" to be free, about
the time of Stewart Brand, was Harlan Cleveland (c1985) in a book chapter
entitled::  "Twilight of Hierarchy;  Speculations on the Global
Information Society."  In this chapter he stated a version of "information
wants to be free" and didn't footnote Brand.  He stated "Information is
diffusive.  It tends to leak--and the more it leaks the more we have."  
Maybe information leaked between them.

I unfortunately don't have the citation for this chapter - just a
photocopy, but I remember it being widely referred to in the later 1980's.

Carol Ann Hughes
Associate University Librarian
Public Services
UCI Libraries
Irvine, CA  92697
voice:  949.824.9753
fax:    949.824.2472


On 10/6/2004 8:32 PM, Joseph Esposito wrote:

> In an earlier post I referred to the origin of the phrase "information
> wants to be free," which I believed was coined by Stewart Brand.  Someone
> sent me a link to a survey of the history of the phrase.  It can be found
> here for anyone who is interested:
>
> http://www.anu.edu.au/people/Roger.Clarke/II/IWtbF.html