A Tribute To Aaron

There is a great probability that you landed on this page through a web feed and that you are also unaware that one of the persons who created this amazing technology died exactly one month back. Perhaps I am over-reaching,  there definitely were more people involved but the contributions Aaron Swartz made in such a short time justifies it. Aaron's suicide at the age of 26 also indicates how fearful authorities are to the challenge of hacktivists and those seeking to democratize information through web. Internet activists are being hounded,arrested,illegally detained and even threatened simply because they are motivated to do something for the general good and  for being also smarter than the rest. Aaron was one such thought leader and one of the earliest martyrs of Open Information Revolution.


I must confess that when I read the news of Aaron's suicide on 11 January 2013, the only thing I knew about him was that he was one of the leading hacktivists and played a major role in stopping SOPA from being passed. It was only in the aftermath  that I learned of his accomplishments.I think it is a cruel joke of fate, we usually learn a lot more about a person after his/her death. He was a child prodigy who co-authored RSS specification  at the age of 14 ! Anyone even faintly familiar with web technology knows the key role web feeds play today in making the web what it is today. But that is not  his only contribution to web technology, he was also part of the RDF Core working group  at W3C  the body that maintains the standards for the World Wide Web (in a manner governing the web). Here is what Sir Tim Berners-Lee, father of the World Wide Web had to say in this context, when remembering Aaron.

  " He joined a working group which was doing work on the Semantic Web, the RDF Working Group...... And the RDF Working Group decided to meet. And somebody said to me: “So this … umm … Aaron Swartz, he’s going to be coming to the meeting, is he?” And I said: “Yes, I think so.” And they said: “You know, he’s 14.” “What? he’s 14 years old? Oh … He’s a minor! What? We’ve never had a minor, we don’t know what we should do – do we have to get a parent to sign a permission form? We don’t know how to do this!” Here’s this guy who is looked up to and respected and a major contributor - who is wise beyond his years. Suddenly so then he’s revealed face-to-face for being 14."  

Tim Berners Lee

18 Jan 2013

But that is not all, Aaron was also the creator of web application framework, web.py and co-founder of social news site Reddit. That's quite a lot of achievements for a teenager but then there have been other teenagers accomplishing astounding feats in computer technology, Aaron's understanding of society, politics, law and ethics sets him apart from the rest of his peers. He was one of the architects of the Creative Commons and an Open Access activist both of which are keys to the future of web.

The world’s entire scientific … heritage … is increasingly being digitized and locked up by a handful of private corporations.
… The Open Access Movement has fought valiantly to ensure that scientists do not sign their copyrights away but instead ensure their work is published on the Internet, under terms that allow anyone to access it. [ Read Aaron's Guerilla Open Access Manifesto here]

In 2010, he founded online group DemandProgress which was instrumental in stopping SOPA from becoming a law. Perhaps this is what made some people jittery, he was charged with  committing computer fraud for downloading a large number of academic journals from JSTOR using MIT's computer network. Although JSTOR released statement saying it would not pursue civil  litigation against Aaron, the prosecutor, apparently trying to send a message to other Open Access guerillas pursued with charges that could result in him being imprisoned for 35 years and fined a $1 million. Ironically, less than a week back an American court had convicted Pakistani-American terrorist, David Coleman Headley for his role in the 26/11 terror attack in Mumbai and for plotting a failed terror attack on a Danish newspaper. Coleman played a major  role in the dastardly Mumbai attack which left 166 people dead, scores injured and more than a billion people shocked.

Yet, the prosecution accepted a plea bargain and Coleman was sentenced to undergo 35 years in prison while the person  he testified against, Tawwahur Hussain Rana was sentenced to 14 years imprisonment. Clearly, the administrations around the world, backed by corporate believe that making locked information public is a greater crime than plotting and collaborating in one of the most heinous terrorist attack in civilized world after the Twin Tower attack on 9/11/2001. The treatment of Bradley Manning,  Julian Assange and members of the Anonymous paint an ominous and scary picture.

Aaron  Swartz committed suicide on 11 January 2013

Sir Tim Berners-Lee tweeted

Aaron dead.World wanderers, we have lost a wise elder.Hackers for right, we are one down.Parents all, we have lost a child. Let us weep.
— Tim Berners-Lee (@timberners_lee) January 12, 2013