Skip to main content

A tragic premature death

Much has already been written about the suicide-death of Aaron Swartz - a person most people not "connected" to the nerdy-world of computing had probably never heard of.

The Independent has a piece which encapsulates who Swartz was and his amazing accomplishments in his far too short 26 year life.

"At the heart of each of Aaron Swartz’s projects was a compulsion to form new systems for the flow of information in the digital era, and challenge those which had emerged already as inadequate. From his hand in developing the technological standards that underpin the internet, to work on news, reference material and copyright online, Swartz was a vocal advocate of the free flow of information and the dangers of allowing traditional corporations to play a disproportionate role in forming the information systems of the 21st century.

Aged just 14 he assisted Tim Berners-Lee in founding RSS, one of the earliest ways that data on the internet was freed from the websites that provide it. Criticizing the mainstream news media for being a “closed system” of PR, politics and journalists, he took it on himself to open that system up, cofounding the social news website Reddit which has subsequently grown to be one of the largest news websites in the world. In his support for the SOPA movement in the US and other digital activism he helped shape the battleground on the politics of the internet for an ideological contest that will likely continue for many years to come.

Discussion of his life’s work has understandably focused on the last great debate in which he was involved – the freedom of academic information on the internet. Perhaps a victory in the trial he faced would have been his greatest achievement, and an opportunity to reexamine the draconian rules around academic publishing. As it is, the death of one of the internet’s great young pioneers is all the more tragic given the remarkable accomplishments made in those first 26 years of his life."

Another piece worth tracking down is that by Scott Horton in Harper's Magazine - link not possible.

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Robert Fisk's predictions for the Middle East in 2013

There is no gain-saying that Robert Fisk, fiercely independent and feisty to boot, is the veteran journalist and author covering the Middle East. Who doesn't he know or hasn't he met over the years in reporting from Beirut - where he lives?  In his latest op-ed piece for The Independent he lays out his predictions for the Middle East for 2013. Read the piece in full, here - well worthwhile - but an extract... "Never make predictions in the Middle East. My crystal ball broke long ago. But predicting the region has an honourable pedigree. “An Arab movement, newly-risen, is looming in the distance,” a French traveller to the Gulf and Baghdad wrote in 1883, “and a race hitherto downtrodden will presently claim its due place in the destinies of Islam.” A year earlier, a British diplomat in Jeddah confided that “it is within my knowledge... that the idea of freedom does at present agitate some minds even in Mecca...” So let’s say this for 2013: the “Arab Awakening” (the t...
Post a Comment
Read more

Palestinian children in irons. UK to investigate

Not for the first time does MPS wonder what sort of country it is when Israel so flagrently allows what can only be described as barbaric and inhuman behaviour to be undertaken by, amongst others, its IDF. No one has seemingly challenged Israel's actions. However, perhaps it's gone a bridge too far - as The Independent reports. The Foreign Office revealed last night that it would be challenging the Israelis over their treatment of Palestinian children after a report by a delegation of senior British lawyers revealed unconscionable practices, such as hooding and the use of leg irons. In the first investigation of its kind, a team of nine senior legal figures examined how Palestinians as young as 12 were treated when arrested. Their shocking report Children in Military Custody details claims that youngsters are dragged from their beds in the middle of the night, have their wrists bound behind their backs, and are blindfolded and made to kneel or lie face down in military vehi...
Post a Comment
Read more

Wow!.....some "visitor" to Ferryland in Newfoundland

Post a Comment
Read more