Hello people,
Nov. 8th is Aaron Swartz's (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Swartz)
birthday.
For those who are unaware of who Aaron Swartz is,
He was an hacktivist, entrepreneur (who did not focus on profit), political
organizer, open access activist and winner of couple of awards and one is
from Electronic Frontier Foundation (an organization that defends the
electronic freedom of Users).
He was also responsible for the development of the Rich Site Summary (RSS)
web format standard. He contributed to the development of Creative Commons,
Wikipedia and others. He is also known for the development of famous site
"Reddit.com".
He has been a supporter of Free Software and Free Culture throughout his
life. He organized people to fight against two laws which were curbing the
online freedom of the people of United States of America and they won the
fight too.
He took his life at the age of 26 due to severe mental stress which was
caused by the US govt. for a brave act he committed to bring about a
radical change in the publishing sector.
His thoughts and actions have inspired a lot of people around the world and
in the past Free software Movements in India have also organized events in
his memory.
An international hackathon is being organized in his memory every year
http://www.aaronswartzday.org/ and this day is remembered as Aaron Swartz
Day.
I propose we should host events in our university.
1. We can ask the Media & Mass Communication folks to host a documentary
screening on "The Internet's Own Boy"
2. We can hold hackathon in the Department of Computer Science and
invite anyone to participate.
Do add your suggestions on what else can be done.
Aaron Swartz's website: http://aaronsw.com/
--
Thanks & Regards,
Prasanna Venkadesh.
