John Perry Barlow, of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, appears at the PC Forum in Tucson, Ariz., in 1991
BEST KNOWN AS: a lyricist for the Grateful Dead, penning, with guitarist and founding member Bob Weir, such Dead staples as “Looks like Rain,” “Mexicali Blues” and “Cassidy”
THE INTEL: A comparative-religions major at Wesleyan, Barlow was at the forefront of the digital revolution, playing a big role in the growth of the WELL, one of the very first online communities. (It also served as something of a virtual meeting space for many Deadheads.) In 1990, he, along with John Gilmore and Mitch Kapor, founded the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit organization that seeks to preserve and protect freedoms in computing and telecommunications. Since 1998, Barlow has been a fellow at Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society.
BRAINIAC RATING, ON A SCALE OF 1 TO 11: 9
EXTRA CREDIT: Barlow is a managing partner at Algae Systems, a company that is researching ways to convert sewage into fuel and fertilizer.
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