John Perry Barlow (born October 3, 1947) is an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
poetA poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
, essayist, retired
WyomingWyoming is a state in the Western United States. The majority of the state is dominated by the mountain ranges and rangelands of the Rocky Mountain West, while the easternmost section of the state includes part of a high elevation prairie region known as the High Plains. While the tenth largest...
cattle rancher, Republican political activist and former
lyricistA lyricist is a writer who specializes in song lyrics, usually paid for by a band to write a custom song. A singer who writes the lyrics to songs is a singer-lyricist. This differentiates from a singer-songwriter, who also composes the song's melody in addition to the lyrics.- Collaboration...
for the
Grateful DeadThe Grateful Dead were an American rock band formed in 1965 in the San Francisco Bay Area. The band was known for its unique and eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, folk, bluegrass, blues, reggae, country, jazz, psychedelia, and space rock—and for live performances of long musical...
. He is also known to be a cyberlibertarian and was one of the founding members of the
Electronic Frontier FoundationThe Electronic Frontier Foundation is an international non-profit advocacy and legal organization based in the United States with the stated purpose of being dedicated to preserving the right to freedom of speech, such as protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, in the...
.
Born in Sublette County,
WyomingWyoming is a state in the Western United States. The majority of the state is dominated by the mountain ranges and rangelands of the Rocky Mountain West, while the easternmost section of the state includes part of a high elevation prairie region known as the High Plains. While the tenth largest...
, Barlow attended elementary school in a one-room schoolhouse. He was a student at the
Fountain Valley SchoolFountain Valley School of Colorado is located on of rolling prairie at the base of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado Springs, Colorado.FVS is a co-ed, four-year college preparatory school school founded in 1930 by Elizabeth Sage Hare...
in Colorado. There Barlow met
Bob WeirBob Weir is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist, most recognized as a founding member of the Grateful Dead. After the Grateful Dead disbanded, Weir performed with The Other Ones, later known as The Dead, together with other former members of the Grateful Dead...
, who would later join the music group the
Grateful DeadThe Grateful Dead were an American rock band formed in 1965 in the San Francisco Bay Area. The band was known for its unique and eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, folk, bluegrass, blues, reggae, country, jazz, psychedelia, and space rock—and for live performances of long musical...
.
John Perry Barlow (born October 3, 1947) is an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
poetA poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
, essayist, retired
WyomingWyoming is a state in the Western United States. The majority of the state is dominated by the mountain ranges and rangelands of the Rocky Mountain West, while the easternmost section of the state includes part of a high elevation prairie region known as the High Plains. While the tenth largest...
cattle rancher, Republican political activist and former
lyricistA lyricist is a writer who specializes in song lyrics, usually paid for by a band to write a custom song. A singer who writes the lyrics to songs is a singer-lyricist. This differentiates from a singer-songwriter, who also composes the song's melody in addition to the lyrics.- Collaboration...
for the
Grateful DeadThe Grateful Dead were an American rock band formed in 1965 in the San Francisco Bay Area. The band was known for its unique and eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, folk, bluegrass, blues, reggae, country, jazz, psychedelia, and space rock—and for live performances of long musical...
. He is also known to be a cyberlibertarian and was one of the founding members of the
Electronic Frontier FoundationThe Electronic Frontier Foundation is an international non-profit advocacy and legal organization based in the United States with the stated purpose of being dedicated to preserving the right to freedom of speech, such as protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, in the...
.
Biography
Born in Sublette County,
WyomingWyoming is a state in the Western United States. The majority of the state is dominated by the mountain ranges and rangelands of the Rocky Mountain West, while the easternmost section of the state includes part of a high elevation prairie region known as the High Plains. While the tenth largest...
, Barlow attended elementary school in a one-room schoolhouse. He was a student at the
Fountain Valley SchoolFountain Valley School of Colorado is located on of rolling prairie at the base of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado Springs, Colorado.FVS is a co-ed, four-year college preparatory school school founded in 1930 by Elizabeth Sage Hare...
in Colorado. There Barlow met
Bob WeirBob Weir is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist, most recognized as a founding member of the Grateful Dead. After the Grateful Dead disbanded, Weir performed with The Other Ones, later known as The Dead, together with other former members of the Grateful Dead...
, who would later join the music group the
Grateful DeadThe Grateful Dead were an American rock band formed in 1965 in the San Francisco Bay Area. The band was known for its unique and eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, folk, bluegrass, blues, reggae, country, jazz, psychedelia, and space rock—and for live performances of long musical...
. Weir and Barlow maintained contact throughout the years; a frequent visitor to
Timothy LearyDr. Timothy Francis Leary was an American writer, psychologist, futurist, advocate of psychedelic drug research, and one of the first people whose remains have been sent into space. An icon of 1960s counterculture, Leary is most famous as a proponent of the therapeutic, spiritual and emotional...
's facility in Millbrook, New York, Barlow introduced the musical group to Leary in 1967. In 1969, Barlow graduated with high honors in comparative religion from
Wesleyan UniversityWesleyan University is a private liberal arts college founded in 1831 and located in Middletown, Connecticut. Founded under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Church and with the support of prominent residents of Middletown, the now secular university was the first institution of higher...
in
MiddletownMiddletown is a city located in Middlesex County, Connecticut, along the Connecticut River, in the central part of the state, 16 miles south of Hartford. In 1650, it was incorporated as a town under its original Indian name, Mattabeseck. It received its present name in 1653. In 1784, the central...
,
ConnecticutConnecticut is a state in the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and New York to the west and south ....
and spent two years traveling. In 1971, he began practicing
animal husbandryAnimal husbandry, also called animal science, stockbreeding or simple husbandry, is the agricultural practice of breeding and raising livestock. It has been practiced for thousands of years, since the first domestication of animals....
in
Cora, WyomingCora is a census-designated place in Sublette County, Wyoming, United States. The population was 76 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Cora is located at ....
, at his family's Bar Cross Land and Livestock Company. He sold that business in 1988.
The seeds of the Barlow-Weir collaboration were sown at a Grateful Dead show at the Capitol Theater in Port Chester, New York in February 1971. Until this point, Weir had mostly worked with resident Dead lyricist
Robert HunterRobert C. Hunter is an American lyricist, singer-songwriter, translator, and poet, best known for his association with Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead.-Biography:He was born Robert Burns in San Luis Obispo, California...
. Hunter preferred that those who sang his songs stuck to his "canonical" lyrics rather than improvising additions or rearranging words. A feud erupted backstage over a couplet in "Sugar Magnolia" from the band's most recent release (most likely "She can dance a Cajun rhythm/Jump like a Willys in four wheel drive"), culminating in a disgruntled Hunter summoning Barlow and telling him "take him (Weir) -- he's yours." In the fall of 1971, with a deal for a solo album in hand and only two songs completed, Weir and Barlow began to write together for the first time.
Fueled by massive amounts of
Wild TurkeyWild Turkey is a brand of Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey distilled and bottled by the Austin, Nichols division of Campari Group. Its nicknames include "The Dirty Bird," "Gobble Gobble," "Thunder Chicken," "Boat Gas" and "The Kickin’ Chicken", the last being a reference to the 101 proof of its...
and a traditional Native American creativity spell recommended by band friend Rolling Thunder, the twosome hammered out such endearing songs as "Cassidy," "Mexicali Blues," and "Black Throated Wind," all three of which would remain in the repertoires of the Grateful Dead and Weir's varied solo projects for years to come. Other songs to emerge from the Weir-Barlow collaboration include "Let It Grow," "The Music Never Stopped," "Estimated Prophet," "I Need A Miracle," "Lost Sailor," "Saint of Circumstance," and "Throwing Stones." Barlow also did collaborations with Grateful Dead keyboardists,
Brent MydlandBrent Mydland was the fourth keyboardist to play for the American rock band the Grateful Dead. He was with the band for eleven years and, despite being often referred to as "the new guy", he was with the band for a longer time than any other keyboardist, during which time they had their...
then later
Vince WelnickVince Welnick was an American keyboardist, best known for playing with the band The Tubes during the 1970s and 1980s and with the Grateful Dead in the 1990s.-Music career:...
.
In 1986, Barlow joined The WELL online community, then known for a strong
deadheadDeadhead or Dead Head is a name given to fans of the American jam band, the Grateful Dead. In the 1970s, a number of fans began travelling to see the band in as many shows or festival venues as they could. With large numbers of people thus attending strings of shows, a community developed...
presence. He served on the company's board of directors for several years. In 1990, Barlow founded the
Electronic Frontier FoundationThe Electronic Frontier Foundation is an international non-profit advocacy and legal organization based in the United States with the stated purpose of being dedicated to preserving the right to freedom of speech, such as protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, in the...
(EFF) along with fellow digital rights activists John Gilmore and
Mitch KaporMitchell David Kapor is the founder of Lotus Development Corporation and the designer of Lotus 1-2-3.-Early life and education:...
. As a founder of EFF, Barlow helped publicize the
Secret ServiceThe United States Secret Service is a United States federal law enforcement agency that falls under the United States Department of Homeland Security. The sworn members are divided among the Special Agents and the Uniformed Division. Until March 1, 2003, the Service was part of the United States...
raid on
Steve Jackson GamesSteve Jackson Games is a game company, founded in 1980 by Steve Jackson, that creates and publishes role-playing, board, and card games, and the gaming magazine Pyramid.-History:...
. Barlow's involvement is later documented in the non-fiction book
The Hacker Crackdown: Law and Disorder on the Electronic Frontier (1992) by
Bruce SterlingMichael Bruce Sterling is an American science fiction author, best known for his novels and his seminal work on the Mirrorshades anthology, which helped define the cyberpunk genre.-Writings:...
. EFF later sponsored the ground-breaking case
Steve Jackson Games, Inc. v. United States Secret ServiceSteve Jackson Games, Inc. v. United States Secret Service, 36 F.3d 457 , sprang from a raid by the United States Secret Service on the Austin headquarters of Steve Jackson Games in 1990...
. Steve Jackson Games won the case in 1993.
He married Elaine Parker Barlow, with whom he had three daughters: Amelia Rose, Anna Winter, and Leah Justine. Elaine and John were separated in 1992. He was engaged to Dr. Cynthia Horner, whom he met at a convention center. She died in 1994 from a heart arrhythmia.
Barlow was a good friend of John F. Kennedy Jr.
Politics
Barlow is a former chairman of the
Sublette CountySublette County is a county located in the U.S. state of Wyoming. It is a sparsely populated rural county in western Wyoming, along the Green River. It has an area of 4,883 square miles and a population of 5,920 as of 2000...
Republican PartyThe Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the Grand Old Party or the GOP, despite being the younger of the two major parties. In the U.S...
and served as campaign manager for
Dick CheneyRichard Bruce "Dick" Cheney served as the 46th Vice President of the United States from 2001 to 2009 in the administration of George W. Bush....
during his 1978 Congressional campaign. By the early 2000s, Barlow was unable to reconcile his ardent
libertarianismLibertarianism is a term adopted by a broad spectrum of political philosophies which advocate the maximization of individual liberty and the minimization or even abolition of the state...
with the prevailing neoconservative movement and "didn't feel tempted to vote for Bush"; after an arrest for possession of a small quantity of
marijuanaCannabisalso known as marijuana or marihuana, and ganja , among many other namesrefers to any number of preparations of the Cannabis plant intended for use as a psychoactive drug...
while traveling, he joined the
Democratic PartyThe Democratic Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. It is the oldest political party in continuous operation in the United States and it is one of the oldest parties in the world. In the U.S...
and publicly committed himself to outright political activism for the first time since his spell with the Republican Party. Barlow has subsequently declared that he is a Republican. He has also claimed on many occasions to be an anarchist. He said in 2004: "I'm embarrassed for my country that in my entire voting life, there has never been a major-party candidate whom I felt I could vote for. All of my presidential votes, whether for
George WallaceGeorge Corley Wallace, Jr. , was a governor of Alabama for four terms; 1963–1967, 1971–1979 and 1983–1987. "The most influential loser" in 20th-century U.S. politics, according to biographers Dan T...
, Dick Gregory, or
John HagelinJohn Hagelin is an American scientist who was a researcher at the European Center for Particle Physics and the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center , is an educator and author, and has been the Natural Law Party candidate for President of the United States three times...
, have been protest votes." Barlow said that year he was "voting for
John KerryJohn Forbes Kerry is the senior United States Senator from Massachusetts, and is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee....
, though with little enthusiasm."
Current work
Barlow currently serves as vice-chairman of the
EFFThe Electronic Frontier Foundation is an international non-profit advocacy and legal organization based in the United States with the stated purpose of being dedicated to preserving the right to freedom of speech, such as protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, in the...
's board of directors. The EFF was designed to mediate the "inevitable conflicts that have begun to occur on the border between Cyberspace and the physical world." They were trying to build a legal wall that would separate and protect the Internet from territorial government, and especially from the U.S. government.
He is a Fellow with the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at
Harvard Law SchoolHarvard Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it is the oldest continually-operating law school in the United States and is home to the largest academic law library in the world. HLS typically ranks among the top law...
and Diamond Management Technology Consultants, and a member of the
International Academy of Digital Arts and SciencesThe International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences or IADAS was founded in 1998 in New York to help drive the progress of the Internet and evolving forms of new media. The academy selects the nominees and winners for the Webby Awards....
. He spends much of his time on the road, lecturing and consulting.
Barlow also serves on the advisory boards of
Clear Path InternationalClear Path International is a non-profit organization based in the United States. The organization assists civilian victims of war in post-conflict zones. This assistance takes the form of direct medical and social services to survivors and their families as well as equipment support to hospitals...
,
TTI/VanguardTTI/Vanguard is a technology conference series for senior-level executives headquartered in Santa Monica, California. TTI/Vanguard explores emerging and potentially disruptive technologies and their impact. Five times annually, in a conference-like setting, corporate and government leaders,...
and the global company Touch Light Media founded by
Anita OndineAnita Ondine Smith is an Australian-British filmmaker and storyteller.-Biography:Born in Sydney, Australia, Anita is the daughter of Anka Makovec, a Slovene artist and Albert Arthur Smith, an Australian carpenter....
.
Writing
From 1971 until 1995, Barlow wrote lyrics for the
Grateful DeadThe Grateful Dead were an American rock band formed in 1965 in the San Francisco Bay Area. The band was known for its unique and eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, folk, bluegrass, blues, reggae, country, jazz, psychedelia, and space rock—and for live performances of long musical...
, mostly through his relationship with
Bob WeirBob Weir is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist, most recognized as a founding member of the Grateful Dead. After the Grateful Dead disbanded, Weir performed with The Other Ones, later known as The Dead, together with other former members of the Grateful Dead...
. Amongst others, Barlow's songs include "Cassidy" (about Neal Cassady or Cassidy Law), "Estimated Prophet", "Black-Throated Wind", "Hell in a Bucket", "Mexicali Blues", "The Music Never Stopped", and "Throwing Stones".
His writings include "
A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace"A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace" was an influential early paper on the applicability of government on the rapidly-growing internet. It was written by John Perry Barlow, a founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and published online February 8 1996 from Davos, Switzerland...
", which was written corresponding to the enactment of the
Communications Decency ActThe Communications Decency Act of 1996 was the first notable attempt by the United States Congress to regulate pornographic material on the Internet. In 1997, in the landmark cyberlaw case of Reno v. ACLU, the U.S. Supreme Court partially overturned the law.The Act was Title V of the...
in 1996 as they saw the incident as an invasion to the independency and sovereignty of the cyberspace. He argued that the cyberspace legal order would reflect ethical deliberation instead of the coercive power that characterized real-space governance. Therefore, they found it inappropriate to obtain order in the cyberspace by physical coercion. Instead ethics, enlightened self-interest and the commonwealth were the elements they believed to create a civilization of the Mind in Cyberspace. Later, article such as "The Economy of Ideas" is also widely circulated in providing a vision for human creativity online.
Barlow has written extensively for
WiredWired is a full-color monthly American magazine and on-line periodical, published since March 1993, that reports on how technology affects culture, the economy, and politics...
magazine, as well as
The New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded in 1851 and published in New York City. The largest metropolitan newspaper in the United States, "The Gray Lady"—named for its staid appearance and style—is regarded as a national newspaper of record...
,
NerveNerve is an American online magazine dedicated to sex, relationships and culture. Founded by Rufus Griscom and Genevieve Field, it publishes articles, fiction and photography devoted to sex and relationships, and interviews and criticism regarding film, music, books and television. It also hosts...
, and
Communications of the ACMCommunications of the ACM is the flagship monthly journal of the Association for Computing Machinery . First published in 1957, CACM is sent to all ACM members, currently numbering about 80,000. The articles are intended for readers with backgrounds in all areas of computer science and information...
. In his writings, he explained the wonder of the Internet. The Internet to him is more than a computer network. It is a place that he called an "electronic frontier". "He frequently wrote in language that echoed Henry Stanley's African diary. "Imagine discovering a continent so vast that it may have no end to its dimensions. Imagine a new world with more resources than all our future greed might exhaust, more opportunities than there will ever be entrepreneurs enough to exploit, and a peculiar kind of real estate that expands with development. Imagine a place where trespassers leave no footprints, where goods can be stolen infinite number of times and yet remain in the possession of their original owners, where business you never heard of can own the history of your personal affairs."" He has wanted to encourage and provoke youngsters to explore the cyberspace through his writing.
Barlow has also returned to writing lyrics, most recently collaborating with the
String Cheese IncidentThe String Cheese Incident , is a jam band from Crested Butte and Telluride, Colorado formed in 1993. The band is composed of Michael Kang , Michael Travis , Bill Nershi , Kyle Hollingsworth The String Cheese Incident (abbreviated SCI), is a jam band from Crested Butte and Telluride, Colorado...
's mandolinist and vocalist
Michael KangMichael Kang may refer to:*Michael Kang , director of the 2006 independent film The Motel*Michael Kang , member of the String Cheese Incident*Michael Kang , teenage activist and founder of Generation Against Global Injustice...
, including their song "Desert Dawn." Barlow is often seen at
String Cheese IncidentThe String Cheese Incident , is a jam band from Crested Butte and Telluride, Colorado formed in 1993. The band is composed of Michael Kang , Michael Travis , Bill Nershi , Kyle Hollingsworth The String Cheese Incident (abbreviated SCI), is a jam band from Crested Butte and Telluride, Colorado...
concerts mixing with the fans and members in the band.
He has also recently collaborated with the Chicago based jamband
Mr. BlottoMr. Blotto is a jam band band from Chicago, Illinois. They blend hard rock, original rock, southern rock, folk music, and country rock. They formed in 1991, and tour extensively in the midwest area...
on their release
Barlow Shanghai.
External links