Added blog post

1 files changed, 88 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/src/blog/2023-01-11-aaron-swartz/aaron-swartz.md b/src/blog/2023-01-11-aaron-swartz/aaron-swartz.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..051b738
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/blog/2023-01-11-aaron-swartz/aaron-swartz.md
@@ -0,0 +1,88 @@
+# Aaron Swartz
+
+[Aaron Swartz](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Swartz) passed away
+ten years ago, at the age of 26. During his short life he contributed
+to multiple projects, including
+[Creative Commons](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_Commons),
+[RSS](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS),
+[Markdown](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown) and
+[reddit](https://www.reddit.com).
+
+If you are interested in learning more about Aaron's life,
+you can watch the biographical documentary
+[*The Internet's Own Boy*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Internet%27s_Own_Boy),
+which is freely available online. You can also still access
+[Aaron's website](http://www.aaronsw.com) and read
+[his old blog posts](http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog).
+
+I don't want to write a long post about Aaron's life.
+Instead, I'll take this chance to talk about
+[Open Access](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_access), which was
+one of Aaron's main battles as an activist. I'll try to be concise
+and go straight to the point.
+
+A word of warning: even though I pledged not to write "political" posts
+in this blog, I do have a strong opinion on this subject, and I won't
+try to hide it.
+
+## Open access
+
+Most academic journals make scientific articles available at very high
+prices, making them practically unaccessible for people who are not
+affiliated with a university in a wealthy country. To make things worse,
+the people involved in producing these articles - the scientists who
+write them and those who review them - do not get any revenue from this.
+
+This system made sense before the Internet, when distributing journals
+actually required some effort. The only reasons academics rely on it
+nowadays are prestige and having their work reviewed. The latter is a
+necessary step for science, and not many peer-reviewed journals offer
+open access.
+
+I believe the existence of academic journals that do not offer open access
+is unacceptable in the present day. As Aaron Swartz wrote in his 2008
+[*Guerrilla Open Access Manifesto*](./goam.txt), sharing knowledge is
+a moral imperative. I do stand by this principle.
+
+The *Manifesto* may have had little practical
+consequnces, but it has probably inspired
+[Alexandra Elbakyan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandra_Elbakyan)
+to create [Sci-Hub](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sci-Hub) in 2011.
+Sci-Hub is an online repository that gives free access to millions
+of research papers. This is of course illegal in most countries, but
+for many people it is the only way to access this material. For legal
+reasons the website is forced to change domain from time to time, but
+it is currently accessible at [sci-hub.ru](https://sci-hub.ru).
+
+Thanks to the Internet we could all have easy access to an incredible
+amount of knowledge, but some of it is still locked behind a paywall.
+I am hopeful this will change, and the people who fought against this
+system will be remembered as heroes, not criminals. But the path to get
+there is still long.
+
+## Eulogy
+
+
+*Aaron is dead.*
+
+
+*Wanderers in this crazy world,*
+
+*we have lost a mentor, a wise elder.*
+
+
+*Hackers for right, we are one down,*
+
+*we have lost one of our own.*
+
+
+*Nurtures, careers, listeners, feeders,*
+
+*parents all,*
+
+*we have lost a child.*
+
+
+*Let us all weep.*
+
+ -- [Tim Berners-Lee](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Berners-Lee)