Aaron Swartz

Also known as Aaron H. Swartz, AaronSw, Aaron Hillel Swartz, Aaron Hillel George Swartz

American computer programmer and internet-political activist (1986-2013)

AI overview

Aaron Swartz was an American computer programmer and internet activist who worked on significant digital projects and advocated for open access to information online. His life and work remain influential in discussions about internet freedom, activism, and data access, though his legacy continues to be debated.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

In the Vinony graph

Vinony's link graph records 481 inbound references to Aaron Swartz, and connects out to Creative Commons license, Carmen Ortiz and YouTube.

The entry is geolocated on the map in IL.

It is catalogued under topics including 1986 births, 2013 deaths and 2013 suicides.

Vinony links it to 69 Wikipedia language editions.

Film & TV

Chicago, Illinois, USA

Aaron Hillel Swartz (November 8, 1986 – January 11, 2013) was an American computer programmer, entrepreneur, writer, political organizer and Internet hacktivist who was involved in the development of the web feedformat RSS and the Markdown publishing format, the organization Creative Commons, the website framework web.py and the social news site, Reddit, in which he became a partner after its…

Known for

The Death of Reddit's Creator — self2024
70 Years of Youth Revolt — Self (archive footage)2020
Killswitch — Self2015
The Internet's Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz — Self2014
Steal This Film II — Self2007
Steal This Film — Self2006
Aardvark'd: 12 Weeks with Geeks — Self2005
The Fortunate Pilgrim — Dan Jacoby1988

via TMDB

Wikidata facts

Instance of: human
Given name: George
Family name: Swartz
Gender: male
Citizenship: United States
Place of birth: Highland Park
Place of death: Brooklyn
Languages spoken: English language
Native language: English language
Religion: atheism
Award: Internet Hall of Fame
Notable work: RSS
Field of work: information technology
Official website: www.aaronsw.com
Image: AaronSwartzPIPA.jpg
Work location: United States

Show 13 more facts

official blog URL: www.aaronsw.com/weblog
writing language: English language
Commons category: Aaron Swartz
date of birth: 1986-11-08
date of death: 2013-01-11
manner of death: Suicide
Commons Creator page: Aaron Swartz
unmarried partner: Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman
cause of death: hanging to death
birth name: Aaron Hillel George Swartz
name in native language: Aaron Swartz
social media followers: 23560
archives at: Internet Archive

Sources (11)

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Encyclopedic overview

Aaron Hillel Swartz (November 8, 1986 – January 11, 2013), also known as AaronSw, was an American computer programmer, entrepreneur, writer, political organizer, and Internet hacktivist. As a programmer, Swartz helped develop the web feed format RSS; the technical architecture for Creative Commons, an organization dedicated to creating copyright licenses; and the Python website framework web.py. Swartz helped define the syntax of the lightweight markup language format Markdown, and was a co-owner of the social news aggregation website Reddit and contributed to its development until he left the company in 2007. He is often credited as a martyr and a prodigy, and much of his work focused on civic awareness and progressive activism.

After Reddit was sold to Condé Nast Publications in 2006, Swartz became more involved in activism, helping launch the Progressive Change Campaign Committee in 2009. In 2010, he became a research fellow at Harvard University's Safra Research Lab on Institutional Corruption, directed by Lawrence Lessig. He founded the online group Demand Progress, known for its campaign against the Stop Online Piracy Act.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Aaron Swartz” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.