[Wikimedia-l] Aaron Swartz is dead

[Erik Moeller]

As has been noted, Aaron (User:AaronSw) was a prolific Wikipedian
since 2003 and a candidate in the 2006 Board election. His writings
during his election campaign are worth re-reading:

http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/wikiroads
http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/whowriteswikipedia
http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/whorunswikipedia
http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/morewikipedians
http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/morewikipedias
http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/wikicodeislaw

He was also described as "one of the early architects of Creative
Commons" by Larry Lessig [1], and founded infogami which merged into
Reddit, so he's sometimes called a Reddit co-founder as well.

Since then he's turned to activism and co-founded Demand Progress
which has been rallying opposition to bad Internet law, including
SOPA/PIPA.

Cory Doctorow's obituary is a very personal goodbye and includes a
video of Aaron's talk "How we stopped SOPA".

http://boingboing.net/2013/01/12/rip-aaron-swartz.html

Aaron was an intense, passionate and focused intellectual who
dedicated his life to changing the world for the better - and he did.
It's a shocking loss and deeply sad that he left us so early, that he
saw no other way. May he rest in peace.

Erik

[1] http://www.lessig.org/2006/09/if-i-could-vote-on-the-wikiped/