My good friend Marvin Ammori, a board member of Demand Progress, the foundation that Aaron Swartz founded, just published a book on the causes that ended up putting immense pressure on him. Aaron Swartz is on the first page, and his work mentioned throughout. You need to learn about the legal issues, the history, and what you can do to be a part of this important conversation. Get and read it: On Internet Freedom. Marvin's been working on the book for months, and on the cause for a decade. It's free today only, because today is Internet Freedom Day (the 1-year anniversary of stopping SOPA). You might want to buy it tomorrow, though, because all the proceeds go to Fight for the Future and Demand Progress.

I've been thinking about this all week. I'm tearing up just typing this. I've had anxiety all week, I've never known anyone who died. I don't know how to handle it. Aaron Swartz felt like a good old friend to me. I have never met him, but I've been following his life, his startups, and his blog for years. He is my inspiration for this very blog. I saw another kid, my age, writing eloquent thoughtful prose and getting great feedback. He began his life on the Internet, in suburban areas far away from the centers of power. The Internet and his blog gave him access and purpose. He dedicated his life to ensuring that everyone else have that very same access.

His article How to be more productive I read regularly once every year lest I forget. I remember when he renamed his blog Raw Thought.

I can't believe I won't read anything else he writes. He's never replied to my cold emails (he's written many times about his email overflow and business). I'm disappointed by that, so in many ways he's not even an an acquaintance. But I know he's read my writing, my blog, my quora posts. He's commented. In some ways we've had conversations in this cosmic universe.

I was in no rush to meet him because I felt I had decades to get the opportunity to know him. Maybe I felt I needed to learn more, build more, accomplish more in order to deserve the opportunity. I built weby because of the inspiration of his web.py framework. I've imitated his articles, scraped millions of academic papers, followed him in startups, absorbed his ideas. He is a part of me. I sometimes feel like just an echo or shadow of his work.

I hope that, in some way, by promoting the causes that he so dearly loved right now, I can help continue his legacy and continue his spirit and life.