Hard drives of Aaron Swartz
February 28, 2013 7:49 PM

According to The Economist, before Aaron Swartz died he expressed his desire that all the contents of his hard drives were made publicly available. Are they available online anywhere? BitTorrent?
posted by sindark to Computers & Internet (7 answers total) 10 users marked this as a favorite
It may be totally wrong, but this comment on Swartz's obituary suggests that he was involved with WikiLeaks.

Does anyone know anything about that?
posted by sindark at 7:55 PM on February 28, 2013


I'm plugged into this stuff at a medium level and I have not heard about it. Which is not to say that it may not be going on, but it's happening seriously on the darknet if it is happening.
posted by jessamyn at 8:22 PM on February 28, 2013


The WikiLeaks part had come up on my radar. I duckduckgo'd "Aaron Swartz WikiLeaks" and there's a trove: for instance.

I am not aware of whether or where this wish, if reported correctly, was carried out. I couldn't find the entry in his weblog that the Economist refers to.
posted by daveliepmann at 8:59 PM on February 28, 2013


I've been wondering about this a little myself lately, though I haven't heard anything. Here is Aaron's If I get hit by a truck... blog entry from 2002, wherein he states "I ask that the contents of all my hard drives be made publicly available from aaronsw.com."

He designates Sean B. Palmer as his "virtual executor." I have no idea how much Palmer kept in touch with Aaron or even whether Aaron's wishes from 11 years ago correspond to his later desires. I do know that Palmer tweeted last month: "I am working to preserve Aaron Swartz's digital legacy, in collaboration with the appropriate people. Thanks to all who enquired." So perhaps something is in the works, but I haven't seen anything yet.

Personally, I'm not sure whether all that data would be fascinating, horrifying, just a touch boring, or simply saddening, but I have been curious what all we'll learn.
posted by zachlipton at 9:09 PM on February 28, 2013


It's not available yet.
posted by michaelh at 12:06 AM on March 1, 2013


This may interest people: Life Inside the Aaron Swartz Investigation (The Atlantic).
posted by sindark at 12:48 PM on March 4, 2013




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