A few weeks ago, while sitting on a train to Paris, I stumbled across writer Flore Vasseur. I’d just read her book What Remains Of Our Dreams on the life of Aaron Swartz, an American internet activist, my age, whose inspiring journey I knew from following his writings in the late 2000s and early 2010s, and whose death had left a deep impression on me. In her book, Flore Vasseur recounts her important and delicate meeting with Larry Lessig, Swartz’s mentor, on a train in south-east France heading for Paris. That’s just where we were.

Recognizing her, I thought back to that chapter and scene, and set off to shyly stammer a few words of thanks for her book. As I listened to her talk about her future projects, I also thought about her meeting with Edward Snowden. I would have liked to go into more detail with her on these subjects, but I moved a few seats away. Sitting in my seat, as the scenery unfolded, I kept thinking about her book, the activists she highlights, and more technical things linked to the subjects Swartz had worked on, such as the RSS format and the Markdown language, which I use to publish on this website.

In the light of this chance encounter, I also wondered about the way someone can decide to commit their efforts and militate in a certain direction according to their background and values, this commitment being transformed into a book, a film, a photo, a painting, a piece of music.