Aaron Swartz

Swartz in January 2012

Aaron Hillel Swartz (November 8, 1986 – January 11, 2013) was an American computer programmer, writer, political organizer, and Internet activist who also helped invent the first version of RSS. He was arrested on January 6, 2011 and charged with illegally downloading files from JSTOR.^[1] Swartz committed suicide on January 11, 2013.^[1]

Early life and career

Swartz was born on November 8, 1986 in Chicago, Illinois. Swartz left high school in the 10th grade. He studied at Stanford University. In 2008 Swartz started Watchdog.net, "the good government site with teeth". In 2009 he helped start the Progressive Change Campaign Committee. In 2010 Swartz started Demand Progress.

Death

Swartz committed suicide by hanging himself in his apartment in Brooklyn, New York City, aged 26.^[2] Speaking at his son's funeral, Robert Swartz said, "[Aaron] was killed by the government, and MIT betrayed all of its basic principles".^[3]

Swartz was given a place in the Internet Hall of Fame in June 2013.^[4]

A documentary about Swartz called The Internet's Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz was released in 2014.

Aaron Swartz Media

Swartz in 2002 with Lawrence Lessig at the launch party for Creative Commons
Swartz describes the nature of the shift from centralized one-to-many systems to the decentralized many-to-many topology of network communication. San Francisco, April 2007 (9:29)
Swartz at the Boston Wikipedia Meetup in 2009
Aaron Swartz Memorial sign at Internet Archive headquarters, San Francisco, January 24, 2013
Swartz's father Robert accepting his son's induction into the Internet Hall of Fame, 2013
A clay statue of Aaron Swartz at the Internet Archive