Aaron Swartz Day was founded, in 2013, after the passing of Aaron Swartz, with these combined goals:
Bringing attention to what happened to Aaron, in hopes of preventing it from happening to anyone else.
– This includes clarifying that, even if Aaron was a hacker, he didn’t hack MIT.
Providing an annual showcase of many of the projects Aaron started before his death.
– SecureDrop
– Open library
Providing an annual showcase of new projects directly inspired by Aaron and his work.
Here are some Aaron-inspired examples from this year’s event:
– The continuation project (by Barrett Brown and Steve Phillips)
– Open archives (by Natalie Cadranel)
– Jason Leopold’s activism under Freedom of Information Act Request (FOIA) (article from 2013)
What is happening right now is a livestream from 11 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. PST of “intimate virtual discussions,” including a special presentation by members of Brazil’s Aaron Swartz Institute that begins in just a few minutes. You can also play video of the discussions that took place earlier today.
Other speakers include:
- Cory Doctorow, science fiction novelist and technology activist (11:00 a.m.)
- User Support Engineer/Signal Project Manager Riya Abraham (11:30 a.m.)
- Cindy Cohn, Executive Director of the EFF (12 years)
- Alexis Hancock, EFF Certbot Engineering Director (12:20 p.m.)
- Internet Archive’s Brewster Kahle (12:40 p.m.)
- Peter Wang, CEO of Anaconda (1)
- Kevin O’Gorman of the Freedom of the Press Foundation (speaking on SecureDrop at 1:30 p.m.)
