Our regular reader, MySociety prime mover, pythonmeister, sysadmin, hammer of government mainframe psychosis, Chris “Chris” Lightfoot has died, at a terribly young age.
I never met him, but I saw and used enough of his projects, and shared enough blog, to respect his good sense, campaigning venom, and technical chops greatly. In fact, Chris was a prime example for the development of this blog for the last two years, and an example that led me to start regaining lost skills.
The last communication I had with him was on the subject of a campaign against John Reid. I’m not sure whether I should be concerned that this morning I had a moment of dread at the thought of removing the blog from my RSS reader – as if, perhaps, there might be some good news if I left it there. Grief, like all other emotions, will infect all new communications media – I don’t think William Gibson thought of that, or if he did he didn’t write it. It’s not as commercial as saying that sex will infect all new media like a virus.
Chris Lightfoot. Presente!