Aaron Swartz (1986-2013), Web Technologist & Internet Activist

UPDATE – A memorial blog Remember Aaron Swartz has been created. Here’s the official statement from his family.

Aaron Swartz

photo by Fred Benenson

Aaron Swartz, a web technologist and internet activist who worked on RSS, reddit and fought against SOPA/PIPA, committed suicide yesterday in New York City. MetaFilter has a great round of some of his accomplishments.

It’s such a tragic loss for the internet community. Aaron was only 26 years old and had accomplished so much.

Aaron Swartz commits suicide (The Tech, MIT)
Aaron Swartz, Internet Activist, Dies at 26 (New York Times)
Reddit co-founder commits suicide (New York Post)
Open access, open internet, closed book (MetaFilter)
Aaron Shwartz- Reddit Co-founder R.I.P (reddit)
Aaron Swartz commits suicide (Hacker News)
Aaron Swartz, hero of the open world, dies (Brewster Kahle, Internet Archive)
My buddy Aaron Swartz hung himself on Friday. (Jason Scott)
Farewell to Aaron Swartz, an extraordinary hacker and activist (EFF)
Prosecutor as bully (Lawrence Lessig)
My Aaron Swartz, whom I loved. (Quinn Norton)
Aaron is dead. (Tim Berners-Lee)
Aaron Swartz Commits Suicide (John Gruber, Daring Fireball)
RIP, Aaron Swartz (Cory Doctorow, Boing Boing)
Aaron Swartz (Rick Perlstein, The Nation)
Aaron Swartz (Philip Greenspun)
The Truth about Aaron Swartz’s “Crime” (Alex Stamos, Unhandled Exception)
Aaron Swartz, American hero (Tim Lee, Wonkblog)

Here’s Aaron giving the keynote at F2C:Freedom to Connect 2012 in Washington DC on “How we stopped SOPA”.

In 2002 Aaron posted some notes regarding his wishes if he were to die, including asking that all of the contents of his hard drive be posted on his website.

I ask that the contents of all my hard drives be made publicly available from aaronsw.com.

Aaron

photo by Jacob Appelbaum

Scott Beale
Scott Beale

Scott Beale is the founder of Laughing Squid and is based in New York City. When not running the blog, Scott can be found posting on Threads and sharing photos on Instagram.