The Internet’s Own Boy

Aaron Swartz was a phenomenal person. Watching The Internet’s Own Boy recently reminded me of that fact.

The film is, to me, a fantastic reminder that the internet needs to remain open, that access to public information should always be free and open.

Some of my early activism was based on this. I was once involved in a project that was very similar to Swartz’s efforts with PACER. We never made any progress (given what happened to Swartz, maybe I should be thankful) but I still fundamentally believe in the principle that in order to comply with the law, we have to know what that law is. Similarly, I believe that publicly-funded research should be freely and openly available to the public.

So I consider Swartz, who was just 20 months younger than me, an inspiration.