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.

Person · Open Library

Born: 11/8/1986
Died: 1/11/2013
Works: 4

Top works

The Boy Who Could Change the World
A Programmable Web
Raw Thought, Raw Nerve
Guerilla Open Access Manifesto

via Open Library + Wikidata

Music · MusicBrainz

Type: Person
Gender: Male
Origin: United States
Active from: 1986-11-08
Active to: 2013-01-11

Discogs

via MusicBrainz · CC0

Listeners · Last.fm

Listeners: 25
Total plays: 54

via Last.fm · Aaron Swartz

Recent publications · Crossref

5 total works indexed

BEDTools: a flexible suite of utilities for comparing genomic features
· 2010 · cited 26,951x
The Genome Analysis Toolkit: A MapReduce framework for analyzing next-generation DNA sequencing data
· 2010 · cited 25,583x
MrBayes 3.2: Efficient Bayesian Phylogenetic Inference and Model Choice Across a Large Model Space
· 2012 · cited 24,136x
Integrated analysis of multimodal single-cell data
· 2021 · cited 14,292x
Generative adversarial networks
· 2020 · cited 13,347x

via Crossref · CC0

Quotes

“I’m a teenage kid who’s interested in improving the world (mostly through law, politics, and technology). This year, I’m going to try to update my weblog daily with interesting thoughts, program some interesting new website software, and work on some website projects that help people better understand what’s going on in American politics.”
“On the one hand, I want to be very open about everything, On the other, I heavily defend people’s right to privacy. Of course, as you point out, keeping your privacy is hard because if you slip once, it’s out there forever. I’m not sure what to say to people who want to protect their privacy except, be careful when you give out private information and think about where it could end up.”
“Think deeply about things. Don’t just go along because that’s the way things are or that’s what your friends say. Consider the effects, consider the alternatives, but most importantly, just think.”

via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA

Wikidata facts

Official website: www.aaronsw.com
Image: AaronSwartzPIPA.jpg

Show 8 more facts

official blog URL: www.aaronsw.com/weblog
Commons category: Aaron Swartz
date of birth: 1986-11-08
date of death: 2013-01-11
Commons Creator page: Aaron Swartz
birth name: Aaron Hillel George Swartz
name in native language: Aaron Swartz
social media followers: 23560

Sources (11)

via Wikidata · CC0

~40 min read

Article

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.