[Wikimedia-l] Aaron Swartz is dead

[Jay Walsh]

> > Official statement from the family:
> >
> > http://soupsoup.tumblr.com/**post/40373383323/official-**
> > statement-from-the-family-and-**partner-of<
> http://soupsoup.tumblr.com/post/40373383323/official-statement-from-the-family-and-partner-of
> >
> >
> > I hope someone will perhaps write a blog post for the Wikimedia blog
> about
> > his impact on the Wikimedia and free knowledge movement. This could be a
> > community project.
> >
> > https://meta.wikimedia.org/**wiki/Blog<
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Blog>
> >
> > -Sarah
> >
>
> I do not know about a blog post, but a few San Francisco Wikimedians
> (myself included) are exploring the possibility of holding a quiet,
> respectful open house next week in honor of Aaron, hosted at the
> Foundation.
>
> I should emphasize that we haven't decided yet, since if Creative Commons
> or the EFF are holding events of any kind, we will likely defer to
> supporting that, rather than holding anything separately. I will keep folks
> posted.
>
>
Hi all - sharing with you in this real sense of loss and sadness. It's hard
to believe it was just a year ago that the energy around SOPA was
everywhere in the Wikimedia movement, and I think it's safe to say that
Aaron was so much the nucleus of that energy.

Re a blog post - yes, we're working on something now for the Wikimedia
blog, but what I think we'd really like to do is point to a community
memorial on Wikipedia or meta or wherever, where our community might be
recording their thoughts on Aaron. I suspect we would also point to the
memorial referenced by his family.

Has anyone seen such an on-wiki memorial? Might someone be able to
propose/create such a page if it doesn't already exist? There are so many
voices in our community who have something to say about Aaron, it would be
great to share that.

jay


-- 
Jay Walsh
Senior Director, Communications
WikimediaFoundation.org
blog.wikimedia.org
+1 (415) 839 6885 x 6609, @jansonw