Jump to content

Quinn Norton: Difference between revisions

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Browse history interactively
← Previous edit
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
wikilink fix (minor edit)
→Personal life: removed child's name
 
(430 intermediate revisions by more than 100 users not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
{{Short description|American journalist (born 1973)}}
[[Image:QN headshot.png|thumb|Quinn Norton (photo by [[Aaron Swartz]])]]
{{Infobox person
| name = Quinn Norton
| image = QN headshot.png
| alt = <!-- see WP:ALT -->
| caption = Norton in 2007
| birth_date = {{birth year and age|1973|05}}<ref name=QuinnNorton-Bday-2016>{{cite web|last1=Norton|first1=Quinn|title=My birthday I next month. I want something OTR-like for Twitter DM.|url=https://twitter.com/quinnnorton/status/719331821457002498|website=@quinnnorton|publisher=[[Twitter]]|language=en|date=11 April 2016}}</ref>
| birth_place =
| nationality = American
| children = 1
| other_names =
| occupation = Journalist<br/>Essayist<br/>
| years_active =
| website = {{URL|quinnnorton.com|QuinnNorton.com}}
}}


'''Quinn Norton'''<ref name=EFF-USA-AaronSwartz-2013>{{cite web|title=United States of America vs. Aaron Swartz, Defendant's Motion to Modify Protection Order|url=https://www.eff.org/files/swartz_motion_to_modify_protective_order_with_decls_and_exhs.pdf|website=[[Electronic Frontier Foundation]]|date=15 March 2013}}</ref> (born May 1973) is an American journalist and [[essayist]]. Her work covers [[hacker culture]], [[Anonymous (group)|Anonymous]], the [[Occupy movement]], [[intellectual property]] and [[copyright]] issues, and the [[Internet]].
'''Quinn Norton''' (born 1973) is a [[San Francisco]]-based journalist, photographer and blogger covering [[hacker culture]], [[intellectual property]] and [[copyright]] issues, and the [[Internet]]. Her work has appeared in ''[[Wired News]]'', ''[[The Guardian]]'', and [[O'Reilly Media]] publications such as [[Make (magazine)|''Make'']] magazine. She has also been a long-time fixture at O'Reilly's [[Foo Camp]]. She has recently became a columnist for [[Maximum PC]] magazine, primarily on the subject of copyright.


== Early life and education ==
Norton had a [[magnet]] implanted in the tip of her ring finger as an experiment in [[body modification|body augmentation]], enabling her to sense [[magnetic field]]s. The magnet eventually shattered and the pieces were later removed.
Quinn Norton was born in May 1973. She grew up in a poor family.<ref name=NewYorker-AaronSwartz-2013>{{cite magazine|last1=MacFarquhar|first1=Larissa|title=The Darker Side of Aaron Swartz|url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/03/11/requiem-for-a-dream|magazine=[[The New Yorker]]|date=4 March 2013|language=en}}</ref> She was raised between [[Los Angeles]] and [[Phoenix, Arizona|Phoenix]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=2018-02-25 |title=A Few Things That Are True About Me {{!}} Quinn Said |url=https://www.quinnnorton.com/said/?p=895 |access-date=2024-07-11 |language=en-US}}</ref> Her father's struggles with his experience post-[[Vietnam]] and his drug-related incarceration<ref name=QuinnNorton-TriggerWarning-2014>{{cite news|last1=Norton|first1=Quinn|title=Trigger Warning|url=https://medium.com/message/trigger-warning-b37a166da64f|work=The Message|publisher=[[Medium (website)|Medium]]|date=4 September 2014}}</ref> inspired her to write later about judicial reform and restorative justice.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://medium.com/message/a-great-injustice-689d24d12c10|title=A Great Injustice|first=Quinn|last=Norton|date=25 May 2015}}</ref>


Norton completed a [[GED]] and attended [[Orange Coast Community College]].<ref>{{cite web|last1=Norton|first1=Quinn|title=A Few Things That Are True About Me|date=25 February 2018 |url=https://www.quinnnorton.com/said/?p=895|access-date=15 May 2018}}</ref> She sporadically sat in on classes at [[University of California, Los Angeles]] and [[University of California, Santa Barbara]] but was never formally enrolled.<ref name=KioStark-DontGoBackToSchool-2013>{{cite book|last1=Stark|first1=Kio|title=Don't Go Back to School: A Handbook for Learning Anything|date=2013|publisher=Greenglass Books|isbn=978-0-988-94900-3|pages=23–28|url=http://content.bandzoogle.com/users/djolmstead/files/Dont-Go-Back-To-School-1.pdf|chapter=Quinn Norton, Technology journalist|oclc=877875249}}</ref>
==Quinn's Symphonic Conundrum==

Quinn's Symphonic Conundrum is a conceptual prank involving writing and executing a [[computer program]] that would output all possible [[melody|melodies]], and then copyrighting the resulting score. Any music made afterwards would, depending on licensing terms, therefore be a copyright violation. One possibility is that the completed work would be licensed under a [[Creative Commons|noncommercial license]], thereby providing that people could make music, but never again be able to sell it.
== Career ==
Norton began her professional life as a technologist when she worked as a [[systems administrator]] and web programmer.<ref name=Hack.lu-KeynoteInterview-2016>{{cite news|title=Interview with our first Hack.lu 2016 Keynote - Quinn Norton|url=https://2016.hack.lu/blog/Keynote-Interview/|work=[[Hack.lu]]|date=24 June 2016}}</ref> In 2006, she shifted to journalism. Her focus was initially on technology but eventually grew to encompass internet activism.<ref name=Whittier-DigLibArts-Interview-2016>{{cite web|last1=Rashid|first1=Amer|last2=Norton|first2=Quinn|title=Spotlight: Quinn Norton – DigLibArts|url=https://diglibarts.whittier.edu/spotlight-quinn-norton/|website=[[Whittier College]]|format=Audio interview|date=8 February 2016}}</ref>

In 2006, Norton described a conceptual prank called Quinn's Prank / Quinn's Symphonic Conundrum involving writing and executing a [[computer program]] that would output all possible [[melody|melodies]], theoretically providing the opportunity to claim [[copyright]] for all music.<ref name=Guardian-QuinnsPrank-2006>{{cite news|last1=Brown|first1=Andrew|title=A worm's eye view|url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2006/aug/21/wormseyeview|work=[[The Guardian]]|date=21 August 2006|language=en}}</ref>

Norton's work has appeared in ''[[Wired (magazine)|Wired]]'', where she spent a year embedded with [[Occupy Wall Street]].<ref name=Wired-Occupy-2012>{{cite magazine|last1=Norton|first1=Quinn|title=A Eulogy for #Occupy|url=https://www.wired.com/2012/12/a-eulogy-for-occupy/|magazine=[[Wired (magazine)|WIRED]]|date=12 December 2012}}</ref> She contributed regularly to the ''Wired'' blog, ''Threat Level,'' which focused on digital security. From 2013 to 2014, she wrote a column, ''Notes on a Strange World'', at [[Medium (website)|Medium]].<ref name=QuinnNorton-NotesFromAStrangeWorld-2013>{{cite web|url=https://medium.com/quinn-norton|title=Notes from a Strange World – A writer's attempt to understand a world being weirded by a network|website=[[Medium (website)|Medium]]}}</ref> She wrote articles for ''[[Maximum PC]]'' magazine for five years and has published in ''[[The Guardian]],'' ''[[ProPublica]],'' ''[[Gizmodo]],'' and [[O'Reilly Media]] publications such as ''[[Make (magazine)|Make]]'' magazine. She was a long-time participant at O'Reilly's [[Foo Camp]].<ref name=QuinnNorton-RobertScobleAndMe-2017>{{cite news|last1=Norton|first1=Quinn|title=Robert Scoble and Me|url=https://medium.com/@quinnnorton/robert-scoble-and-me-9b14ee92fffb|work=Quinn Norton|publisher=[[Medium (website)|Medium]]|date=19 October 2017}}</ref>

Norton has spoken extensively on various aspects of technology, history and culture.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://diglibarts.whittier.edu/talk-quinn-norton-december-3-2015/|title=Talk: Quinn Norton, December 3, 2015 – DigLibArts|website=diglibarts.whittier.edu}}</ref><ref>["Life in the Invisible City": Quinn Norton talk at Goldsmiths
JULY 18, 2016]</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://2016.hack.lu/blog/Keynote-Interview/|title=Interview with our first Hack.lu 2016 Keynote - Quinn Norton}}</ref> From 2006 to 2008, she gave talks at technology conferences about [[body modification|body enhancement]], usually under the title "Body Hacking."<ref name=WeMakeMoneyNotArt-BodyHacking-2007>{{cite news|last1=Regine|title=Quinn Norton on Body Hacking at 23c3|url=http://we-make-money-not-art.com/quinn_norton_on/|work=We Make Money Not Art|date=4 January 2007}}</ref><ref name=CuspConf-Bio-2012>{{cite news|title=2008 Presenters: Quinn Norton|url=https://www.cuspconference.com/presenters-2008.php?section=Quinn-Norton|work=Cusp Conference|date=2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120514220448/https://www.cuspconference.com/presenters-2008.php?section=Quinn-Norton#presenters-2008.php?section=Quinn-Norton|archive-date=14 May 2012}}</ref> In connection with this work, Norton taught a course at [[New York University|NYU]] titled "Laboratory of the Self."<ref name=NYU-ITP-Bio>{{cite web|url=http://www.itp.nyu.edu/itp/people/people.php?id=2966&group=All&sort=last&page=N|title=NYU Tisch ITP People: ITP Community: Quinn Norton|website=[[Interactive Telecommunications Program]], [[New York University]]}}</ref> As part of her research, Norton had a [[Implant (body modification)#Magnetic implants|magnet implanted]] in the tip of her ring finger, enabling her to sense [[magnetic field]]s.<ref name=NPR-AllThingsConsidered-ElectromagneticEnergy-2006>{{cite news|last1=Elliott|first1=Debbie|last2=Norton|first2=Quinn|title=Wave of the Future: Magnetic Fingers|url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5477830|work=[[All Things Considered]]|date=11 June 2006|language=en|format=Audio interview}}</ref><ref name=Wired-MagneticImplant-2006>{{cite magazine|last1=Norton|first1=Quinn|title=A Sixth Sense for a Wired World|url=https://www.wired.com/2006/06/a-sixth-sense-for-a-wired-world/|magazine=[[Wired (magazine)|WIRED]]|date=7 June 2006}}</ref> The magnet was later removed.

In 2018, ''[[The New York Times]]'' announced Norton as its new lead opinion writer covering technology.<ref name="NYTimes-QuinnNorton-Hired-2018">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytco.com/quinn-norton-named-to-editorial-board/|title=Quinn Norton Named to Editorial Board|last1=Bennet|first1=James|date=13 February 2018|work=[[The New York Times]]|last2=Kingsbury|first2=Katie|format=Press release|last3=Dao|first3=Jim}}</ref> The hire drew sharp criticism focused on tweets Norton wrote between 2013 and 2017, particularly use of slurs referring to gay people and her defense of her friendship with [[Andrew Auernheimer]], a hacker and [[White Supremacist|white supremacist]]<ref name=":0">{{cite magazine|url=https://www.wired.com/story/the-ny-times-fires-tech-writer-quinn-norton-and-its-complicated/|title=The NY Times Fires Tech Writer Quinn Norton, and It's Complicated|last=Rogers|first=Adams|date=February 14, 2018|magazine=Wired|access-date=August 9, 2018}}</ref> known as weev.<ref name="auto1">{{cite web|url=https://slate.com/technology/2018/02/why-a-tech-journalist-like-quinn-norton-might-think-its-fine-to-be-friends-with-weev.html|title=Why a Tech Journalist Might Think It's Fine to Be Friends With a Neo-Nazi Troll|last=Glaser|first=April|date=February 14, 2018|website=Slate|access-date=August 9, 2018}}</ref><ref name="NYTimes-QuinnNorton-Fired-2018">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/13/business/media/quinn-norton-new-york-times.html|title=After Storm Over Tweets, The Times and a New Hire Part Ways|last1=Windolf|first1=Jim|date=13 February 2018|work=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref> Later that day, she and the ''Times'' announced she would not join the paper after all;<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/quinn-norton-new-york-times-fire-writer-twitter-racist-homophobic-neo-nazi-opinion-journalist-a8209606.html|title=New York Times fires star writer after seven hours over homophobic and racist slurs|last=Sharman|first=Jon|date=14 February 2018|website=The Independent|access-date=August 9, 2018}}</ref> the ''Times'' said it had been unaware of her comments.<ref name="Splinter-NYTimesInfo-2018">{{cite news|url=https://splinternews.com/the-quinn-norton-debacle-is-far-from-the-worst-thing-th-1822990842|title=The Quinn Norton Debacle Is Far From the Worst Thing the New York Times Has Done Recently|last1=Mirkinson|first1=Jack|date=13 February 2018|work=[[Splinter News]]|access-date=August 9, 2018}}</ref> Calling the episode an example of "context collapse",<ref name=":0" /> and describing herself as a member of the [[LGBT community]],<ref name="Slate-NYTimes-2018">{{cite news|url=https://slate.com/technology/2018/02/why-a-tech-journalist-like-quinn-norton-might-think-its-fine-to-be-friends-with-weev.html|title=Why Would a Tech Journalist Be Friends With a Neo-Nazi Troll?|last1=Glaser|first1=April|date=14 February 2018|work=[[Slate (magazine)|Slate]]}}</ref> Norton said her use of slurs had been specific to the context of engaging with the language of hackers.<ref name=":0" /><ref name="auto">{{cite web|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/02/the-new-york-times-fired-my-doppelganger/554402/|title=The New York Times Fired My Doppelgänger|last=Norton|first=Quinn|website=[[The Atlantic]] |date=27 February 2018 }}</ref> She also said her friendship with Auernheimer (with whom she was no longer in contact)<ref name="auto1" /> had been an effort to discourage his racism.<ref name="auto" /> The incident led to debate over the ethics of free speech in the hacking community at large as well as ''Times'' [[social media policy]].<ref name="auto1" />

== Advocacy ==

Norton is an advocate of encryption when communicating electronically.<ref name=NYT-CUNY-FederalShieldPanel-2014>{{cite news|last1=Keller|first1=Bill|last2=Schumer|first2=Charles|last3=Horton|first3=Scott|last4=Landay|first4=Jonathan S.|last5=Norton|first5=Quinn|last6=Wimmer|first6=Kurt A.|last7=Wainstein|first7=Kenneth L.|title=A Conference on the Press, the Government and National Security: Prospects for a Federal Shield Law from Sources and Secrets|url=https://www.c-span.org/video/?318416-4/media-shield-laws|work=[[The New York Times]], [[CUNY Graduate School of Journalism]]|publisher=[[C-SPAN]]|date=21 March 2014|format=Video of conference panel}}</ref>

In 2009, she opposed the [[Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act|Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA)]].<ref name=QuinNorton-CISPA-2009>{{cite news|last1=Norton|first1=Quinn|title=4/22 CISPA Page|url=http://www.quinnnorton.com/said/?page_id=2|work=Quinn Said|date=12 January 2009}}</ref>

Norton describes herself as an [[Anarchism|anarchist]]<ref name="QuinnNorton-Lessig-2015">{{cite news|url=https://medium.com/@quinnnorton/my-plan-and-why-you-don-t-want-it-b6bcaf0403f2|title=My Plan, and Why You Don't Want it|last1=Norton|first1=Quinn|date=2 September 2015|work=Quinn Norton|publisher=[[Medium (website)|Medium]]}}</ref> and a queer activist.<ref name="Slate-NYTimes-2018" />

=== Aaron Swartz ===
{{see|United States v. Swartz}}
On March 3, 2011, Norton was subpoenaed to testify before a grand jury regarding an investigation of her then-partner [[Aaron Swartz]] that led to the case ''[[United States v. Swartz]].''<ref name=USDCMA-Subpoena-2011>{{cite news|last1=Heymann|first1=Stephen P.|title=Subpoena to Testify Before a Grand Jury: Quinn Norton|url=https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B1C_pAJFqGnHOFhTeEZCMGN6Y2M/edit|work=[[United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts]]|date=7 April 2011}}</ref> She ultimately accepted a [[proffer]] agreement with the prosecutor, whereby she shared information about the Guerrilla Open Access Manifesto,<ref name=GuerillaOpenAccessManifesto-2008>{{cite web|last1=Swartz|first1=Aaron|title=Guerilla Open Access Manifesto|url=https://openaccessmanifesto.wordpress.com/|website=Guerilla Open Access Manifesto|date=July 2008}}</ref> which defendant [[Aaron Swartz]] either wrote or co-wrote. The document offered the prosecution additional evidence in their case against Swartz.<ref name=Atlantic-AaronSwartz-EditorsNote-2013>{{cite news|last1=Madrigal|first1=Alexis C.|title=Editor's Note to Quinn Norton's Account of the Aaron Swartz Investigation|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/03/editors-note-to-quinn-nortons-account-of-the-aaron-swartz-investigation/273666/|work=[[The Atlantic]]|date=3 March 2013}}</ref>

Articles in ''[[The Atlantic]]'' and in ''[[New York (magazine)|New York Magazine]]'' indicate that in 2011 Norton was pressured by prosecutors to offer information or testimony that could be used against [[Aaron Swartz]] in his trial for fraud for downloading thousands of academic articles from behind a paywall, but that she denied having information that supported prosecutors' claims of criminal intentions on Swartz's part. Prosecutors nevertheless attempted to use a public blog post on Swartz's blog that Norton mentioned, which may or may not have been co-authored by Swartz, as proof of a criminal intent.<ref name=NewYorker-AaronSwartz-2013 /><ref name=Atlantic-AaronSwartz-2013>{{cite news|last1=Norton|first1=Quinn|title=Life Inside the Aaron Swartz Investigation|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/03/life-inside-the-aaron-swartz-investigation/273654/|work=[[The Atlantic]]|date=3 March 2013}}</ref><ref name=Atlantic-AaronSwartz-EditorsNote-2013 />

=== Robert Scoble ===
In October 2017, Norton wrote a piece about [[Robert Scoble]] that described an alleged sexual assault by Scoble on Norton as well as another woman.<ref name="QuinnNorton-RobertScobleAndMe-2017" /><ref name=BoingBoing-Scoble-2017>{{cite news|title=Quinn Norton on sexual assault, community response, and restorative justice / Boing Boing|url=https://boingboing.net/2017/10/20/quinn-norton-on-sexual-assault.html|work=[[Boing Boing]]|date=20 October 2017}}</ref> Scoble denied what turned out to be multiple claims of assault, and said they were the result of his struggle with alcoholism.<ref name=RobertScoble-Innocent-2017>{{cite news|last1=Scoble|first1=Robert|title=No, of that I'm innocent|url=https://scobleizer.blog/2017/10/25/no-of-that-im-innocent-sexual-harassment-assault-accusations/|work=Robert Scoble's Augment Your Life|date=25 October 2017|access-date=14 February 2018|archive-date=10 February 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190210065844/https://scobleizer.blog/2017/10/25/no-of-that-im-innocent-sexual-harassment-assault-accusations/|url-status=dead}}</ref> His response was met with a critical reaction.<ref name=Slate-ScobleIsntSorry-2017>{{cite news|last1=Glaser|first1=April|title=Scoble Isn't Sorry|url=http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2017/10/robert_scoble_s_blog_post_is_everything_you_shouldn_t_do_when_publically.html|work=[[Slate (magazine)|Slate]]|date=25 October 2017}}</ref>

== Personal life ==
Norton was married to journalist [[Danny O'Brien (journalist)|Danny O'Brien]].<ref name=NewYork-AaronSwartz-2013>{{cite news|last1=Yang|first1=Wesley|title=The Life and Afterlife of Aaron Swartz|url=http://nymag.com/news/features/aaron-swartz-2013-2/|work=[[New York (magazine)|New York]]|date=8 February 2013}}</ref> They have a daughter. They divorced in 2007.<ref name=QuinnSaid-MyAaronSwartz-2013>{{cite news|last1=Norton|first1=Quinn|title=My Aaron Swartz, whom I loved|url=http://www.quinnnorton.com/said/?p=644|work=Quinn Said|date=12 January 2013}}</ref>

Norton dated computer programmer and activist [[Aaron Swartz]] for roughly three years, from 2007 until early 2011.<ref name=QuinnSaid-MyAaronSwartz-2013 /><ref name=Idealist-AaronSwartz-2017>{{cite book|last1=Peters|first1=Justin|title=The Idealist: Aaron Swartz and the Rise of Free Culture on the Internet|date=2017|publisher=Scribner|location=New York|isbn=978-1-476-76774-1|oclc=944380312}}</ref>

In 2016, Norton moved to [[Luxembourg]] to live with the man she eventually married in 2017.<ref name=NYTimes-QuinnNorton-Hired-2018 /><ref name=Patreon-QuinnNorton-PersonalNews-2018>{{cite news|last1=Norton|first1=Quinn|title=Even More Personal News|url=https://www.patreon.com/posts/even-more-news-16979493|work=Quinn Norton|publisher=Patreon|date=13 February 2018|language=en}}</ref><ref name="QuinnNorton-Marriage-2016">{{cite web|last1=Norton|first1=Quinn|title=I know it's mostly not cool to be a fan of 2016, but I wanted to let you all know it's not all bad: against all odds, I'm getting married.|url=https://twitter.com/quinnnorton/status/801102736049770496|website=@quinnnorton|publisher=[[Twitter]]|language=en|date=22 November 2016}}</ref>

Norton identifies as [[bisexual]] and [[polyamorous]].<ref name="med-19may2021">{{cite web |last1=Norton |first1=Quinn |title=Police Uniforms Don't Belong at Pride. |url=https://medium.com/a-side-of-my-own/police-uniforms-dont-belong-at-pride-6b7d1fd7d7fe |website=[[Medium (website)|Medium]] |access-date=October 30, 2023 |date=May 19, 2021 |quote=I’m a passing queer — bisexual, polyamourus, weakly gendered female, and white.}}</ref>

== Selected works ==
* {{cite news|last1=Norton|first1=Quinn|title=That Time I Tweeted About #BlackGirlsAreMagic|url=https://medium.com/@quinnnorton/that-time-i-tweeted-about-blackgirlsaremagic-b2eed3aa38d4|work=Quinn Norton|publisher=[[Medium (website)|Medium]]|date=17 November 2015}}<ref name=TheCut-BlackGirlsAreMagic-2015>{{cite news|last1=Weatherford|first1=Ashley|title=#BlackGirlsAreMagic. Sorry If You Don't Agree.|url=https://www.thecut.com/2015/11/blackgirlsaremagic-sorry-if-you-dont-agree.html|work=The Cut|publisher=[[New York (magazine)|New York]]|date=19 November 2015|language=en}}</ref>
<!--
* {{cite news|last1=Norton|first1=Quinn|title=Squid Labs: Suckers for Novelty|url=https://www.wired.com/2005/09/squid-labs-suckers-for-novelty/|work=[[Wired (magazine)|WIRED]]|date=21 September 2005}}
* {{cite book|last1=Norton|first1=Quinn|editor1-last=Newitz|editor1-first=Annalee|editor2-last=Anders|editor2-first=Charlie|title=She's Such a Geek!: Women Write About Science, Technology & Other Nerdy Stuff|date=2006|publisher=Seal Press|location=Emeryville, CA|isbn=978-1-580-05190-3|chapter=Dreaming in Unison|oclc=70219909}}
* {{cite news|last1=Norton|first1=Quinn|title=A Sixth Sense for a Wired World|url=https://www.wired.com/2006/06/a-sixth-sense-for-a-wired-world/|work=[[Wired (magazine)|WIRED]]|date=7 June 2006}}
* {{cite news|last1=Norton|first1=Quinn|title=Reprivatizing Elvis: E.U. may take a half-century of music out of the public domain|url=https://fair.org/extra/reprivatizing-elvis/|work=[[Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting|Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR)]]|date=June 2008}}
* {{cite news|last1=Norton|first1=Quinn|title=Open Access Has Corporate Journals on the Run: Researchers create alternatives to for-profit academic publishing|url=https://fair.org/extra/open-access-has-corporate-journals-on-the-run/|work=[[Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting|Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR)]]|date=October 2008}}
* {{cite news|last1=Norton|first1=Quinn|title=Rewiring the Brain: Inside the New Science of Neuroengineering|url=https://www.wired.com/2009/03/neuroengineering1/|work=[[Wired (magazine)|WIRED]]|date=2 March 2009}}
* {{cite news|last1=Norton|first1=Quinn|title=Why Do Anonymous Geeks Hate Scientologists?|url=https://gizmodo.com/5590049/why-do-anonymous-geeks-hate-scientologists|work=[[Gizmodo]]|date=18 July 2010}}
* {{cite news|last1=Norton|first1=Quinn|title=The Rise of Backyard Biotech|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/06/the-rise-of-backyard-biotech/308487/|work=[[The Atlantic]]|date=June 2011}}
* {{cite news|last1=Norton|first1=Quinn|title=BART's Cell-Service Cuts: Not Egypt, But Not Quite America Either|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/08/barts-cell-service-cuts-not-egypt-but-not-quite-america-either/244161/|work=[[The Atlantic]]|date=26 August 2011}}
* {{cite news|last1=Norton|first1=Quinn|title=Scenes From the Occupation: Before and After the Wall Street Eviction|url=https://www.wired.com/2011/11/zuccotti-before-after/all/|work=[[Wired (magazine)|WIRED]]|date=16 November 2011}}
* {{cite news|last1=Norton|first1=Quinn|title=Occupy DC Evicted From a Winter of Communal Discontent|url=https://www.wired.com/2012/02/occupy-dc-eviction/|work=[[Wired (magazine)|WIRED]]|date=10 February 2012}}
* {{cite news|last1=Norton|first1=Quinn|title=How Anonymous Picks Targets, Launches Attacks, and Takes Powerful Organizations Down|url=https://www.wired.com/2012/07/ff_anonymous/|work=[[Wired (magazine)|WIRED]]|date=3 July 2012}}
* {{cite news|last1=Norton|first1=Quinn|title=A Eulogy for #Occupy|url=https://www.wired.com/2012/12/a-eulogy-for-occupy/|work=[[Wired (magazine)|WIRED]]|date=12 December 2012}}
* {{cite news|last1=Norton|first1=Quinn|title=My Aaron Swartz, whom I loved|url=http://www.quinnnorton.com/said/?p=644|work=Quinn Said|date=12 January 2013}}
* {{cite news|last1=Norton|first1=Quinn|title=Life Inside the Aaron Swartz Investigation|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/03/life-inside-the-aaron-swartz-investigation/273654/|work=[[The Atlantic]]|date=3 March 2013}}
* {{cite news|last1=Norton|first1=Quinn|title=Worried about the Mass Surveillance? How to Practice Safer Communication|url=https://www.propublica.org/article/worried-about-the-mass-surveillance-how-to-practice-safer-communication|work=[[ProPublica]]|date=11 June 2013|language=en-us}}
* {{cite news|last1=Norton|first1=Quinn|title=A Buyer's Guide to Safer Communication|url=https://www.propublica.org/article/a-buyers-guide-to-safer-communication|work=[[ProPublica]]|date=18 June 2013|language=en-us}}
* {{cite news|last1=Norton|first1=Quinn|title=Women and the Internet: Part One. Online and Offline Violence Towards Women|url=https://medium.com/message/online-and-offline-violence-towards-women-4c854eb591a5|work=The Message|publisher=[[Medium (website)|Medium]]|date=4 November 2013}}
* {{cite news|last1=Norton|first1=Quinn|title=Women and the Internet: Part Two. Context Collapse, Architecture, and Plows|url=https://medium.com/message/context-collapse-architecture-and-plows-d23a0d2f7697|work=The Message|publisher=[[Medium (website)|Medium]]|date=8 November 2013}}
* {{cite news|last1=Norton|first1=Quinn|title=Women and the Internet: Part Three. Sexytime, Gender Roles, and Credit Where Due|url=https://medium.com/message/sexytime-gender-roles-and-credit-where-due-d68a2ff36bb7|work=The Message|publisher=[[Medium (website)|Medium]]|date=14 November 2013}}
* {{cite news|last1=Norton|first1=Quinn|title=Women and the Internet: Part Four. Feminism's Twist Ending|url=https://medium.com/message/feminisms-twist-ending-e057ed6bb9e0|work=The Message|publisher=[[Medium (website)|Medium]]|date=25 November 2013}}
* {{cite news|last1=Norton|first1=Quinn|title=The Morality of John Rabe|url=https://medium.com/quinn-norton/the-morality-of-john-rabe-f99072fabf5f|work=Notes from a Strange World|publisher=[[Medium (website)|Medium]]|date=5 December 2013}}
* {{cite news|last1=Norton|first1=Quinn|title=The Values of Money|url=https://medium.com/quinn-norton/the-values-of-money-f3db7e13e6e3|work=Notes from a Strange World|publisher=[[Medium (website)|Medium]]|date=19 December 2013}}
* {{cite news|last1=Norton|first1=Quinn|title=Crypto for the Masses: Here's How You Can Resist the NSA|url=https://www.thedailybeast.com/crypto-for-the-masses-heres-how-you-can-resist-the-nsa|work=[[The Daily Beast]]|date=12 May 2014|language=en}}
* {{cite news|last1=Norton|first1=Quinn|title=Everything Is Broken|url=https://medium.com/message/everything-is-broken-81e5f33a24e1|work=The Message|publisher=[[Medium (website)|Medium]]|date=20 May 2014}}
* {{cite news|last1=Norton|first1=Quinn|title=Trigger Warning|url=https://medium.com/message/trigger-warning-b37a166da64f|work=The Message|publisher=[[Medium (website)|Medium]]|date=4 September 2014}}
* {{cite news|last1=Norton|first1=Quinn|title=The White Problem|url=https://medium.com/message/whiteness-3ead03700322|work=Quinn Norton|publisher=[[Medium (website)|Medium]]|date=3 October 2014}}
* {{cite news|last1=Norton|first1=Quinn|title=How White People Got Made|url=https://medium.com/message/how-white-people-got-made-6eeb076ade42|work=Quinn Norton|publisher=[[Medium (website)|Medium]]|date=17 October 2014}}
* {{cite news|last1=Norton|first1=Quinn|title=My Plan, and Why You Don't Want it|url=https://medium.com/@quinnnorton/my-plan-and-why-you-don-t-want-it-b6bcaf0403f2|work=Quinn Norton|publisher=[[Medium (website)|Medium]]|date=2 September 2015}}
* {{cite news|last1=Norton|first1=Quinn|title=The International Fight Over Marcel Duchamp's Chess Set|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/09/the-international-fight-over-marcel-duchamps-chess-set/404248/|work=[[The Atlantic]]|date=8 September 2015}}
* {{cite news|last1=Norton|first1=Quinn|title=A Network of Sorrows: Small Adversaries and Small Allies|url=http://opentranscripts.org/transcript/network-of-sorrows/|work=[[Hack.lu]]|publisher=Open Transcripts|date=2016}}
* {{cite news|last1=Norton|first1=Quinn|title=Backchannel: Love in the Time of Cryptography|url=https://www.wired.com/2017/04/love-in-the-time-of-cryptography/|work=[[Wired (magazine)|WIRED]]|date=3 April 2017}}
* {{cite news|last1=Norton|first1=Quinn|title=How Soon Until the Next Ransomware Catastrophe?|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/05/how-soon-until-the-next-ransomware-catastrophe/527085/|work=[[The Atlantic]]|date=18 May 2017}}
* {{cite news|last1=Norton|first1=Quinn|title=Learning From Pain|url=https://medium.com/@quinnnorton/learning-from-pain-6cddfc587512|work=Quinn Norton|publisher=[[Medium (website)|Medium]]|date=14 September 2017}}
* {{cite news|last1=Norton|first1=Quinn|title=Robert Scoble and Me|url=https://medium.com/@quinnnorton/robert-scoble-and-me-9b14ee92fffb|work=Quinn Norton|publisher=[[Medium (website)|Medium]]|date=19 October 2017}}
* {{cite news|last1=Norton|first1=Quinn|title=The Problem With White Shunning|url=https://medium.com/@quinnnorton/the-problem-with-white-shunning-56b67cc2d726|work=Quinn Norton|publisher=[[Medium (website)|Medium]]|date=21 November 2017}}
-->

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}


== External links ==
== External links ==
{{Commons category|Quinn Norton|nowrap=yes}}
{{commonscat}}
* {{Official website|http://quinnnorton.com}}
*[http://www.guardian.co.uk/wormseyeview/story/0,,1855165,00.html ''Guardian Unlimited''] Quinn's Symphonic Conundrum
* [https://www.wired.com/author/quinn-norton/ Quinn Norton] at ''[[Wired (magazine)|WIRED]]''
*[http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5477830 ''NPR All Things Considered''] Radio Interview about the magnet in her finger and her body hacking story
* [https://medium.com/@quinnnorton Quinn Norton] at ''[[Medium (service)|Medium]]''
*[http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,71087-0.html ''A Sixth Sense for a Wired World''] Article and pictures about her magnetic implant
* {{IMDb name|nm5524927}}
*[http://www.wired.com/search?query=quinn%20norton&orderby=latest&dups=y&siteAlias=noblog Quinn Norton's articles for ''Wired News'']

{{Authority control}}


{{DEFAULTSORT:Norton, Quinn}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Norton, Quinn}}
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:1973 births]]
[[Category:1973 births]]
[[Category:American journalists]]
[[Category:American women journalists]]
[[Category:American bloggers]]
[[Category:American bloggers]]
[[Category:American photographers]]
[[Category:American photographers]]
[[Category:Copyright activists]]
[[Category:Copyright activists]]
[[Category:American technology writers]]
[[Category:American technology writers]]
[[Category:Wired magazine people]]
[[Category:Place of birth missing (living people)]]
[[Category:Guardian journalists]]
[[Category:Wired (magazine) people]]
[[Category:People from the San Francisco Bay Area]]
[[Category:The Guardian journalists]]
[[Category:Journalists from Los Angeles]]

[[Category:American women photographers]]
{{US-journalist-1970s-stub}}
[[Category:American women bloggers]]
{{US-photographer-stub}}
[[Category:21st-century American non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:Bisexual women writers]]
[[Category:American bisexual writers]]

Latest revision as of 22:19, 23 August 2024

Quinn Norton
Norton in 2007
BornMay 1973 (age 51)[1]
NationalityAmerican
Occupation(s)Journalist
Essayist
Children1
WebsiteQuinnNorton.com

Quinn Norton[2] (born May 1973) is an American journalist and essayist. Her work covers hacker culture, Anonymous, the Occupy movement, intellectual property and copyright issues, and the Internet.

Early life and education

[edit]

Quinn Norton was born in May 1973. She grew up in a poor family.[3] She was raised between Los Angeles and Phoenix.[4] Her father's struggles with his experience post-Vietnam and his drug-related incarceration[5] inspired her to write later about judicial reform and restorative justice.[6]

Norton completed a GED and attended Orange Coast Community College.[7] She sporadically sat in on classes at University of California, Los Angeles and University of California, Santa Barbara but was never formally enrolled.[8]

Career

[edit]

Norton began her professional life as a technologist when she worked as a systems administrator and web programmer.[9] In 2006, she shifted to journalism. Her focus was initially on technology but eventually grew to encompass internet activism.[10]

In 2006, Norton described a conceptual prank called Quinn's Prank / Quinn's Symphonic Conundrum involving writing and executing a computer program that would output all possible melodies, theoretically providing the opportunity to claim copyright for all music.[11]

Norton's work has appeared in Wired, where she spent a year embedded with Occupy Wall Street.[12] She contributed regularly to the Wired blog, Threat Level, which focused on digital security. From 2013 to 2014, she wrote a column, Notes on a Strange World, at Medium.[13] She wrote articles for Maximum PC magazine for five years and has published in The Guardian, ProPublica, Gizmodo, and O'Reilly Media publications such as Make magazine. She was a long-time participant at O'Reilly's Foo Camp.[14]

Norton has spoken extensively on various aspects of technology, history and culture.[15][16][17] From 2006 to 2008, she gave talks at technology conferences about body enhancement, usually under the title "Body Hacking."[18][19] In connection with this work, Norton taught a course at NYU titled "Laboratory of the Self."[20] As part of her research, Norton had a magnet implanted in the tip of her ring finger, enabling her to sense magnetic fields.[21][22] The magnet was later removed.

In 2018, The New York Times announced Norton as its new lead opinion writer covering technology.[23] The hire drew sharp criticism focused on tweets Norton wrote between 2013 and 2017, particularly use of slurs referring to gay people and her defense of her friendship with Andrew Auernheimer, a hacker and white supremacist[24] known as weev.[25][26] Later that day, she and the Times announced she would not join the paper after all;[27] the Times said it had been unaware of her comments.[28] Calling the episode an example of "context collapse",[24] and describing herself as a member of the LGBT community,[29] Norton said her use of slurs had been specific to the context of engaging with the language of hackers.[24][30] She also said her friendship with Auernheimer (with whom she was no longer in contact)[25] had been an effort to discourage his racism.[30] The incident led to debate over the ethics of free speech in the hacking community at large as well as Times social media policy.[25]

Advocacy

[edit]

Norton is an advocate of encryption when communicating electronically.[31]

In 2009, she opposed the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA).[32]

Norton describes herself as an anarchist[33] and a queer activist.[29]

Aaron Swartz

[edit]
Further information: United States v. Swartz

On March 3, 2011, Norton was subpoenaed to testify before a grand jury regarding an investigation of her then-partner Aaron Swartz that led to the case United States v. Swartz.[34] She ultimately accepted a proffer agreement with the prosecutor, whereby she shared information about the Guerrilla Open Access Manifesto,[35] which defendant Aaron Swartz either wrote or co-wrote. The document offered the prosecution additional evidence in their case against Swartz.[36]

Articles in The Atlantic and in New York Magazine indicate that in 2011 Norton was pressured by prosecutors to offer information or testimony that could be used against Aaron Swartz in his trial for fraud for downloading thousands of academic articles from behind a paywall, but that she denied having information that supported prosecutors' claims of criminal intentions on Swartz's part. Prosecutors nevertheless attempted to use a public blog post on Swartz's blog that Norton mentioned, which may or may not have been co-authored by Swartz, as proof of a criminal intent.[3][37][36]

Robert Scoble

[edit]

In October 2017, Norton wrote a piece about Robert Scoble that described an alleged sexual assault by Scoble on Norton as well as another woman.[14][38] Scoble denied what turned out to be multiple claims of assault, and said they were the result of his struggle with alcoholism.[39] His response was met with a critical reaction.[40]

Personal life

[edit]

Norton was married to journalist Danny O'Brien.[41] They have a daughter. They divorced in 2007.[42]

Norton dated computer programmer and activist Aaron Swartz for roughly three years, from 2007 until early 2011.[42][43]

In 2016, Norton moved to Luxembourg to live with the man she eventually married in 2017.[23][44][45]

Norton identifies as bisexual and polyamorous.[46]

Selected works

[edit]
  • Norton, Quinn (17 November 2015). "That Time I Tweeted About #BlackGirlsAreMagic". Quinn Norton. Medium.[47]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Norton, Quinn (11 April 2016). "My birthday I next month. I want something OTR-like for Twitter DM". @quinnnorton. Twitter.
  2. ^ "United States of America vs. Aaron Swartz, Defendant's Motion to Modify Protection Order" (PDF). Electronic Frontier Foundation. 15 March 2013.
  3. ^ a b MacFarquhar, Larissa (4 March 2013). "The Darker Side of Aaron Swartz". The New Yorker.
  4. ^ "A Few Things That Are True About Me | Quinn Said". 2018-02-25. Retrieved 2024-07-11.
  5. ^ Norton, Quinn (4 September 2014). "Trigger Warning". The Message. Medium.
  6. ^ Norton, Quinn (25 May 2015). "A Great Injustice".
  7. ^ Norton, Quinn (25 February 2018). "A Few Things That Are True About Me". Retrieved 15 May 2018.
  8. ^ Stark, Kio (2013). "Quinn Norton, Technology journalist". Don't Go Back to School: A Handbook for Learning Anything (PDF). Greenglass Books. pp. 23–28. ISBN 978-0-988-94900-3. OCLC 877875249.
  9. ^ "Interview with our first Hack.lu 2016 Keynote - Quinn Norton". Hack.lu. 24 June 2016.
  10. ^ Rashid, Amer; Norton, Quinn (8 February 2016). "Spotlight: Quinn Norton – DigLibArts" (Audio interview). Whittier College.
  11. ^ Brown, Andrew (21 August 2006). "A worm's eye view". The Guardian.
  12. ^ Norton, Quinn (12 December 2012). "A Eulogy for #Occupy". WIRED.
  13. ^ "Notes from a Strange World – A writer's attempt to understand a world being weirded by a network". Medium.
  14. ^ a b Norton, Quinn (19 October 2017). "Robert Scoble and Me". Quinn Norton. Medium.
  15. ^ "Talk: Quinn Norton, December 3, 2015 – DigLibArts". diglibarts.whittier.edu.
  16. ^ ["Life in the Invisible City": Quinn Norton talk at Goldsmiths JULY 18, 2016]
  17. ^ "Interview with our first Hack.lu 2016 Keynote - Quinn Norton".
  18. ^ Regine (4 January 2007). "Quinn Norton on Body Hacking at 23c3". We Make Money Not Art.
  19. ^ "2008 Presenters: Quinn Norton". Cusp Conference. 2008. Archived from the original on 14 May 2012.
  20. ^ "NYU Tisch ITP People: ITP Community: Quinn Norton". Interactive Telecommunications Program, New York University.
  21. ^ Elliott, Debbie; Norton, Quinn (11 June 2006). "Wave of the Future: Magnetic Fingers" (Audio interview). All Things Considered.
  22. ^ Norton, Quinn (7 June 2006). "A Sixth Sense for a Wired World". WIRED.
  23. ^ a b Bennet, James; Kingsbury, Katie; Dao, Jim (13 February 2018). "Quinn Norton Named to Editorial Board" (Press release). The New York Times.
  24. ^ a b c Rogers, Adams (February 14, 2018). "The NY Times Fires Tech Writer Quinn Norton, and It's Complicated". Wired. Retrieved August 9, 2018.
  25. ^ a b c Glaser, April (February 14, 2018). "Why a Tech Journalist Might Think It's Fine to Be Friends With a Neo-Nazi Troll". Slate. Retrieved August 9, 2018.
  26. ^ Windolf, Jim (13 February 2018). "After Storm Over Tweets, The Times and a New Hire Part Ways". The New York Times.
  27. ^ Sharman, Jon (14 February 2018). "New York Times fires star writer after seven hours over homophobic and racist slurs". The Independent. Retrieved August 9, 2018.
  28. ^ Mirkinson, Jack (13 February 2018). "The Quinn Norton Debacle Is Far From the Worst Thing the New York Times Has Done Recently". Splinter News. Retrieved August 9, 2018.
  29. ^ a b Glaser, April (14 February 2018). "Why Would a Tech Journalist Be Friends With a Neo-Nazi Troll?". Slate.
  30. ^ a b Norton, Quinn (27 February 2018). "The New York Times Fired My Doppelgänger". The Atlantic.
  31. ^ Keller, Bill; Schumer, Charles; Horton, Scott; Landay, Jonathan S.; Norton, Quinn; Wimmer, Kurt A.; Wainstein, Kenneth L. (21 March 2014). "A Conference on the Press, the Government and National Security: Prospects for a Federal Shield Law from Sources and Secrets" (Video of conference panel). The New York Times, CUNY Graduate School of Journalism. C-SPAN.
  32. ^ Norton, Quinn (12 January 2009). "4/22 CISPA Page". Quinn Said.
  33. ^ Norton, Quinn (2 September 2015). "My Plan, and Why You Don't Want it". Quinn Norton. Medium.
  34. ^ Heymann, Stephen P. (7 April 2011). "Subpoena to Testify Before a Grand Jury: Quinn Norton". United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts.
  35. ^ Swartz, Aaron (July 2008). "Guerilla Open Access Manifesto". Guerilla Open Access Manifesto.
  36. ^ a b Madrigal, Alexis C. (3 March 2013). "Editor's Note to Quinn Norton's Account of the Aaron Swartz Investigation". The Atlantic.
  37. ^ Norton, Quinn (3 March 2013). "Life Inside the Aaron Swartz Investigation". The Atlantic.
  38. ^ "Quinn Norton on sexual assault, community response, and restorative justice / Boing Boing". Boing Boing. 20 October 2017.
  39. ^ Scoble, Robert (25 October 2017). "No, of that I'm innocent". Robert Scoble's Augment Your Life. Archived from the original on 10 February 2019. Retrieved 14 February 2018.
  40. ^ Glaser, April (25 October 2017). "Scoble Isn't Sorry". Slate.
  41. ^ Yang, Wesley (8 February 2013). "The Life and Afterlife of Aaron Swartz". New York.
  42. ^ a b Norton, Quinn (12 January 2013). "My Aaron Swartz, whom I loved". Quinn Said.
  43. ^ Peters, Justin (2017). The Idealist: Aaron Swartz and the Rise of Free Culture on the Internet. New York: Scribner. ISBN 978-1-476-76774-1. OCLC 944380312.
  44. ^ Norton, Quinn (13 February 2018). "Even More Personal News". Quinn Norton. Patreon.
  45. ^ Norton, Quinn (22 November 2016). "I know it's mostly not cool to be a fan of 2016, but I wanted to let you all know it's not all bad: against all odds, I'm getting married". @quinnnorton. Twitter.
  46. ^ Norton, Quinn (May 19, 2021). "Police Uniforms Don't Belong at Pride". Medium. Retrieved October 30, 2023. I'm a passing queer — bisexual, polyamourus, weakly gendered female, and white.
  47. ^ Weatherford, Ashley (19 November 2015). "#BlackGirlsAreMagic. Sorry If You Don't Agree". The Cut. New York.
[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Quinn Norton.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Quinn_Norton&oldid=1241920331"