Aaron Hillel Swartz (1986 - 2013) was an American computer programmer, entrepreneur, writer, political organizer, and Internet hacktivist.
As a programmer, Swartz helped develop the web feed format RSS; the technical architecture for Creative Commons, an organization dedicated to creating copyright licenses; the website framework web.py; and Markdown, a lightweight markup language format.
Swartz was involved in the development of the social news aggregation website Reddit until he departed from the company in 2007.
He is often credited as a martyr and a prodigy, and his work focused on civic awareness and activism.