“s scientific literature was being”
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Figure timeline
Aaron Swartz
Aaron Hillel Swartz, 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…
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business · American computer programmer and activist (1986–2013) · programmer · writer · Wikimedian · political activist · businessperson · hacktivist · also Aaron Swartz, Aaron Hillel George Swartz, Swartz
Born 8 November 1986 · Died 11 January 2013 · Q302817
55 published statements · 0 followers
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Aaron Swartz - The Network Transformation
Internet Hall of Fame Induction 2013- Robert Swartz
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En-us-Aaron Hillel Swartz
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2026· 4 entries
“Aaron was killed by the government, and MIT betrayed all of its basic principles.”
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“The question this government needs to answer is why it was so necessary that Aaron Swartz be labeled a”
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“These political hacktivist tools can be used by anyone motivated and talented enough.... Now it”
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2025· 1 entry
A statue of Swartz was unveiled at the Internet Archive building in San Francisco
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2023· 1 entry
WBUR: 'You are powerful': Missing and remembering Aaron Swartz
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2017· 1 entry
The Turkish-Dutch artist Ahmet Öğüt commemorated Swartz in a work titled "Information Power to The People", which depicted his bust
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2014· 1 entry
Marking the first anniversary of his death, a preview was released of The Internet's Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz, a documentary about Swartz, the NSA and SOPA
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2013· 25 entries
Complex: Here's the Video That Launched the Investigation Into Hacktivist Aaron Swartz
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Due to a Freedom of Information Act suit by the investigations editor of Wired magazine, several documents related to the case were released by the Secret Service, including a video of Swartz entering the MIT network clo
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The Forward: Aaron Swartz Was Probed by Secret Service
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Swartz was posthumously inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame
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JSTOR released 300 partially redacted documents used as incriminating evidence against Swartz, originally sent to the United States Attorney's Office in response to subpoenas in the case United States v
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The Abelson panel submitted a report to Reif, who authorized its public release on July 30
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Time: Aaron Swartz's Father Praises 'Aaron's Law' Proposal
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Awarded EFF Award (2013).
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Awarded James Madison Award (2013).
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Awarded Internet Hall of Fame (2013).
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Time: Aaron Swartz's Father Calls for U.S. Legal Reforms Ahead of MIT Report
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Yuval Noah Harari called Swartz "the first martyr of the Freedom of Information movement"
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Issa and ranking committee member Elijah Cummings published a letter to Holder asking why federal prosecutors had filed the superseding indictment
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At Central Avenue Synagogue in Highland Park, Illinois
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Members of Anonymous hacked two websites on the MIT domain, replacing them with tributes to Swartz that called on members of the Internet community to use his death as a rallying point for the open access movement
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Swartz's family and partner issued a statement criticizing the prosecutors and MIT
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Died 2013-01-11.
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Swartz was posthumously awarded the American Library Association's James Madison Award for being an "outspoken advocate for public participation in government and unrestricted access to peer-reviewed scholarly articles"
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“Original: «A piece of knowledge, unlike a piece of physical property, can be shared by large groups of people without making anybody poorer.”
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“Original: «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.”
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Swartz was inducted posthumously into the Internet Hall of Fame
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When Kenneth Goldsmith dedicated his "Printing out the Internet" exhibition to Swartz
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The Office of Science and Technology Policy directed "each Federal agency with over $100 million in annual conduct of research and development expenditures to develop a plan to support increased public access to the resu
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2015 and 2017, while the bill was introduced to the House of Representatives by Lofgren, Mike Doyle, and Kevin Yoder
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Lofgren introduced a bill, Aaron's Law (H
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2012· 1 entry
Federal prosecutors filed a superseding indictment adding nine more felony counts, increasing Swartz's maximum criminal exposure to 50 years of imprisonment and $1 million in fines
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2011· 4 entries
State prosecutors filed a notice that they were dropping the two original charges, and the charges listed in the November 17, 2011, indictment were dropped on March 8, 2012
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Swartz was indicted by a Middlesex County Superior Court grand jury on state charges of breaking and entering with intent, grand larceny, and unauthorized access to a computer network
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Was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of wire fraud, computer fraud, unlawfully obtaining information from a protected computer, and recklessly damaging a protected computer
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Swartz was arrested by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) police on state breaking-and-entering charges after connecting a computer to the MIT network in an unmarked and unlocked closet and setting it to downloa
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2010· 3 entries
Filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to learn about the treatment of Chelsea Manning, alleged source for WikiLeaks
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Swartz co-founded Demand Progress, a political advocacy group that organizes people online to "take action by contacting Congress and other leaders, funding pressure tactics, and spreading the word" about civil liberties
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Became a research fellow at Harvard University's Safra Research Lab on Institutional Corruption, directed by Lawrence Lessig
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2009· 1 entry
Wanting to learn about effective activism, Swartz helped launch the Progressive Change Campaign Committee
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2008· 4 entries
The GPO suspended the free trial, "pending an evaluation" of the program
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Swartz downloaded about 2
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In 2008, Swartz founded Watchdog.net, "the good government site with teeth", to aggregate and visualize data about politicians.
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Swartz worked with Virgil Griffith to design and implement Tor2web, an HTTP proxy for Tor-hidden services
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2006· 4 entries
“The first day I showed up here, I simply couldn”
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Swartz wrote an analysis of how Wikipedia articles are written, and concluded that the bulk of its content came from tens of thousands of occasional contributors, or "outsiders", each of whom made few other contributions
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Swartz became more involved in activism, helping launch the Progressive Change Campaign Committee in 2009
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Ran unsuccessfully for the Wikimedia Foundation's Board of Trustees
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2004· 1 entry
Enrolled at Stanford University but left the school after his first year
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2002· 1 entry
Swartz had said that when he died, he wanted the contents of his hard drives made publicly available
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2001· 1 entry
Swartz joined the RDFCore working group at the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), where he authored RFC 3870, Application/RDF+XML Media Type Registration
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1999· 1 entry
At age 12, he created the website The Info Network, a user-generated encyclopedia
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1986· 1 entry
Born 1986-11-08.
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