Aaron Swartz and RSS - Negative PID

The modern Internet is not only infrastructure and protocols. Long before social media platforms controlled distribution through algorithms, content moved

Negative PID

@negativepid Oddly given it was a 1.0, Swartz' RSS spec made surprisingly little dent in usage of the 0.92->2.0 lineage spec, and later even Atom got more uptake than RSS 1.0. For example, the New York Times switched to Atom. WordPress offers multiple feed formats, but not RSS 1.0.

Swartz made countless other tech and political contributions arguably more weighty &/or widely adopted, from Jottit <3 to SOPA/PIPA to RDF Metadata Specification for Copyright Licenses... https://xml.coverpages.org/ni2002-09-09-a.html

@negativepid If you go through his memorial website you'll read from multiple people whose varied projects he made a difference in, giving his time to build or solve their technical conundrums. http://www.rememberaaronsw.com/memories/

One thing I wish more people were aware of is how carefully he had been studying political systems, and how to shift them. We lost a visionary political powerhouse who also really understood and practiced coding. https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2013/01/aaron-swartzs-politics.html

Remember Aaron Swartz

Celebrating Aaron Swartz