Michael D. Swartz

Aaron Hillel Swartz (1986-2013) was an American computer programmer, entrepreneur, writer, and activist. He played a significant role in the development of early internet technologies, including the web feed format RSS, the architecture for Creative Commons licenses, and the web framework web.py. Swartz was also a co-owner of the social news website Reddit and contributed to its growth. His work often centered on civic awareness and progressive activism, aiming to make information more accessible.

Following the sale of Reddit, Swartz dedicated more time to activism. He co-founded Demand Progress, a group known for its opposition to the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). He also launched Watchdog.net to track politicians and participated in efforts to make public court documents from the PACER system freely available. In 2010, he became a research fellow at Harvard University's Safra Research Lab on Institutional Corruption.

Swartz's activism led to legal troubles. In 2011, he was arrested at MIT for downloading academic articles from JSTOR. He faced federal charges for wire fraud and violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Despite declining a plea bargain, he was found deceased in his Brooklyn apartment shortly after the prosecution rejected a counter-offer. He was posthumously inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame in 2013.

Aaron Swartz demonstrated an early aptitude for computers and the internet, immersing himself in programming and online culture from a young age. By the age of 12, he had created an early user-generated encyclopedia, The Info Network, which earned him recognition for his coding talents. At 14, he was involved in developing the RSS 1.0 web syndication specification, a format for distributing content. His involvement with Creative Commons, an organization focused on copyright licensing, began when he was just 15. These early projects laid the groundwork for his future work in shaping internet infrastructure and promoting information sharing.

Swartz's entrepreneurial spirit led him to co-found Infogami, a content management system, while attending Stanford. He developed the web.py framework due to dissatisfaction with existing Python web systems. This framework later became foundational for many projects, including supporting the Internet Archive's Open Library. In 2005, Infogami merged with Reddit, a nascent social news aggregation site, forming the company Not a Bug, with Swartz as a co-founder of Reddit. After Reddit's acquisition by Condé Nast in 2006, Swartz found the corporate environment stifling and left in 2007. He then co-founded Jottit, another content management system project.

A significant part of Swartz's career was dedicated to activism, particularly advocating for open access to information and government transparency. He founded Watchdog.net to aggregate and visualize data on politicians and authored the "Guerilla Open Access Manifesto." His efforts to make public court documents from the PACER system accessible to everyone, by downloading and distributing them, drew FBI attention but resulted in no charges. He also filed a Freedom of Information Act request concerning the treatment of Chelsea Manning. His work with Demand Progress, a political advocacy group, focused on civil liberties and government accountability.