Aaron Swartz Day: Live from the Internet Archive

Aaron Swartz Day:

The Internet Archive is hosting an Aaron Swartz Day Celebration on what would have been Aaron’s 28th birthday: November 8, 2014, from 6-10:30 pm. Although we are looking ahead, rather than dwelling on the past, this year’s theme is ‘Setting the record straight.’ Now that we have brought people together and shared information with each other, the smoke has cleared a bit, and we can clearly explain to the world exactly what Aaron actually did and did not do.

ocation: 300 Funston Ave, San Francisco, CA 94118

Reception: 6pm-7pm – Come mingle with the speakers and celebrate Aaron’s accomplishments.

Speakers: 7pm-8pm – The Year in Aaron 2014: A comprehensive update.

Movie: 8-9:45 pm – Watch The Internet’s Own Boy with Director Brian Knappenberger.

Q & A: 9:45 pm -  Audience Q & A with Brian Knappenberger and Trevor Timm (co-founder and Executive Director of the Freedom of the Press Foundation) and John Perry Barlow (EFF and Freedom of the Press Foundation co-founder) after the movie!

Speakers:

April Glaser (EFF, Freedom to Innovate Summit). The Freedom to Innovate Summit is a collaboration between EFF and the Center for Civic Media at MIT that calls upon Universities to protect students who innovate at the boundaries of the law.

Yan Zhu (Yahoo, SF Hackathon Organizer). Yan will explain the history, and evolution to the present day, of the Aaron Swartz International Hackathon.

Brewster Kahle (Digital Librarian, Internet Archive). Internet Archive has just launched a new set of tools for building collaborative libraries online that were inspired by Aaron’s dreams and visions.

Cindy Cohn (EFF Legal Director – CFAA Reform). A short and simple update on a very complicated subject: Why most attempts to reform the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act have largely stalled in Congress.

Kevin Poulsen (Journalist – FOIA case that MIT intervened in). An update on the most recent batch of documents and video from Aaron’s FBI and Secret Service files that have finally trickled out of the U.S. government over this last year, after undergoing further redactions by MIT.

Garrett Robinson and James Dolan (SecureDrop). 2014 was a big year for Aaron’s whistleblowing submission platform, with 15 new instances including:  Forbes, Greenpeace New Zealand, The Guardian, The Intercept, The New Yorker, BayLeaks, and The Washington Post.

Daniel Purcell (Keker & Van Nest, one of Aaron’s lawyers). Along with Eiliot Peters, Dan Purcell was hired by Aaron and his family in September 2012 to defend Aaron at his criminal trial, set for March 2013. Dan will talk about Aaron’s defenses to the criminal charges and the expert testimony the legal team planned to present.

The event will take place following this year’s San Francisco-based Aaron Swartz International Hackathon, which is going on Saturday and Sunday from 11am-6pm at the Internet Archive http://aaronswartzhackathon.org

Confirmed 2014 cities include: Berlin, Boston, Buenos Aires, Houston, Kathmandu, Los Angeles, Magdeberg, Mexico City, New York, Oxford, San Francisco and Sau Paulo.