We Will Miss You, Nick

Nick Givotovsky was one of the smarter people I ever met.

To this day, I only ever understood half of what he said. For years, I was debating with myself whether the other half was just nonsense or whether I simply didn’t manage to understand it. Well, when I finally realized that the first half, which I did understand, was always very insightful, very smart, often brilliant and always trailblazing, I had to acknowledge that chances are the second half would be, too. Whether I could understand it or not. I would have liked to understand it.

Nick was a new media philosopher, if there is such a thing: observing the world, and creating and advocating a coherent intellectual framework for understanding it. And then he was an missionary: helping shape its evolution in a way that would respect and enhance the rights of the individual.

His particular area of interest was the intersection of new media technologies and the individual — an area that will cause immense debate for decades to come. He was one of the first to realize this and dedicate himself to it. I would have liked the opportunity to learn more from him.

But that brilliance was not what was most remarkable about Nick. In my view, the most remarkable thing about him was that he really and truly cared. He cared about his family, his kids, his community, his friends, and audaciously, he cared about the world. Everybody and everything in the world. It was the most natural thing for him to do, and it came out in everything he said and did, all the time.

I will remember him most for having coined the phrase "Digital Deal". For a while, he and I had plans to evangelize this term to start a global discussion on human rights in cyberspace. Alas, life interfered and nothing has come out of it so far.

But the importance of the topic will only grow, the discussion will follow regardless who catalyzes it, and Nick should forever be remembered as the one who started it.

I miss you already, Nick. The world is worse off without you.