One of the assignments in the DGPLUG summer training is to watch “The Internet’s Own Boy”.
I keep telling the youth in the channel, I lived through Aaron Swartz’s life and followed him throughout.
And then I began to wonder how I did it.
I’ve never followed him personally; not his blog, or any mailing list.
Early on, I only knew him, through Google and Dave Winer & John Gruber’s posts.
And then it struck me today.
Going all the way back to late 2004 (I don’t know when he imported it all), it’s a goldmine of information into how Aaron’s mind ticked. What he liked, the political discourse that influenced him, movies and books that appealed to him, people that he followed.
It’s all there.
I think I actually stumbled on to Maciej via Aaron and then followed him too, as he started Pinboard and went on his way to build his Bookmark Empire.
And in the early halcyon days of whom to follow, whom to read, I binge read Aaron’s profile in 2009-10 and then kept binging again on and off through the years.
And that’s how I know Aaron.
Go read. It’s a wonderful complement to the video.