Aaron Swartz Day was founded, in 2013, after the death of Aaron Swartz, with these combined goals:

1. To draw attention to what happened to Aaron, in the hopes of stopping it from happening to anyone else.
   • This includes clarifying that, although Aaron was a hacker, he didn’t hack MIT.
2. To provide a yearly showcase of many of the projects that were  started by Aaron before his death.
   • SecureDrop
   • Open Library
3. To provide a yearly showcase of new projects that were directly inspired by Aaron and his work.
   • A few Aaron-inspired examples from this year’s event include:
     1. The Pursuance Project (by Barrett Brown & Steve Phillips)
     2. Open Archive (by Natalie Cadranel)
     3. Jason Leopold’s Freedom of Information Act Request (FOIA) activism (article from 2013)