In Memory of Claudio Ciborra 1951 - 2005

Tributes to Claudio Ciborra

index to tributes

Page 1

Tony Giddens
Former director, LSE
Claudio was a major figure in the LSE, whose contributions stretched well beyond his own Department. I was extremely pleased when he was appointed, and his contributions more than lived up to expectations. He was not only an outstanding scholar, but a warm-hearted and inspiring colleague. He will be greatly missed by everyone who knew him, both within the School and in the larger academic community.

Rick Watson
AIS President
On behalf of AIS, and personally, I lament the great loss to our community with the passing of Claudio Ciborra. His writings and thoughts will live to inspire and provoke generations of IS scholars.

Carlo Ciborra
Milan, Italy
a Claudio,
Flying away....
In your last days I have been holding you as a kite high in the sky,
with your string attached to life,
but a colder wind has taken command , impairing my struggle to keep you alive.

Your brother Carlo

Ian Angell
Acting convenor, Department of Information Systems, LSE
It is hard to accept that Claudio is dead. He was such a towering intellect, a forceful personality, a giant presence in our department. However, coming into the office this morning and seeing his black-bordered photograph, smiling benignly on all who entered, brought home the dreadful finality. Claudio, colleague and friend, has gone, and we are left only with memories – so many memories.

One particular memory I shall always cherish concerns the time when he twisted my arm to do a double act with him at the Italian Cultural Institute in London – “Think of it Ian: Nietzsche and Heidegger take on Information Systems.” An offer I couldn’t refuse! He wanted each of us to do three five minutes pieces, interleaved. Needless to say he was to speak for Heidegger. Not wanting to let him down I spent days in careful tortuous preparation. Knowing how tricky balancing six separate pieces could be, I suggested a rehearsal. He replied “let’s be spontaneous!” And spontaneous he was, with an awesome performance, seamlessly linking my three sections with the points he set out to say – in total control of his, and my, material. s

Claudio ran our department with the same enthusiastic confidence and certainty. He was marvellous leader, a true motivator – a brilliant tactician, and consummate strategist. Claudio inspired everybody in the group, staff and students, to give of their best. Without exception, we shall all miss him.

Goodbye Claudio – we shall never forget you.

Nikolas Rose
Professor of Sociology, LSE
I will miss Claudio greatly. He was a wise and generous colleague when we were both convenors, and his charm and grace under the pressure of the role was exemplary. His intellectual breadth and rigour made him a great colleague and he opened up real connections with the work of critical social scientists across disciplinary divides. This is a very sad and cruel loss to our LSE community.

Chrisanthi Avgerou
Professor of Information Systems, LSE
Claudio had inspired many of us world wide (in Information Systems) with his innovative thinking about IT and organizations.We had watched him at conferences to defend surprisingly refreshing new ideas. We had witnessed his confrontations with established gurus of business schools - always dressed in impeccable Italian designer style for such performances. He joined the LSE Department of Information Systems in 1998 as a visiting professor for a couple of years before he was appointed to a chair in 2000. The selection committee asked him if he was willing to take convenor’s duties. He answered that he would like to be on the deck, not in the engine room.

He took the convenor’s role from the beginning of his appointment and he steered firmly from the deck, though not out of touch with the engine room. He was an intellectually demanding leader. He expected the LSE team not only to do well in terms of conventional academic performance ratings, but to secure an international reputation of creative, uncompromising thinking. He broke several old conventions. His direct way of letting you know what he thought, and in particular what he didn’t like, was a new and challenging way of communication that often made angry even his closest friends. He loved living in London and made the most of its multiple facets: the avant-garde East End, the Royal Opera, the salsa nightclub at the basement of the LSE. But he wove his life in a network of professional engagements and friends across Europe, hopping from London to Oslo, to Berlin, to Milan, to Barcelona to the USA with equal enthusiasm to give a key note speech or organize a new research agenda, to hear the Berlin Philharmonic, or to take part in swimming races.

Truly intellectual, daring, uncompromising, yet always playful in his work as well as his personal life. He leaves a huge influence in the shaping of a research stream on the social study of IT. He will be missed by friends all over the world.

Kristo Ivanov
Department of Informatics, Umea University
Having had the honour of hosting Claudio and of co-authoring a paper with him I can only confirm the contents of the "In Memory" text. Having grown up in Italy I will also add my experience of being able to share with him his love for Italy and its continental culture, in particular for its mountains which may well represent his love for and commitment to summits of controversial intellectual challenge. As it has been done for a few others that I admire, I wish to suggest that some of his latest and closest institutional colleagues complete their In Memory with the publishing of a bibliography of his works and a summary of the core of his ideas, seen as a contribution to his intellectual efforts.

Tsuyoshi Fukao
Department of Information Systems, LSE
Let me say something to him here. "Claudio, you are always cool, dynamic and thoughtful. You gave us a lot of courage, help and sense of humour. I still cannot imagine the ADMIS without you... Thank you very much and rest in peace.

Jannis Kallinikos
Department of Information Systems, LSE
Claudio had many unique and valuable qualities, both as a person and an academic. Yet I will always remember him as the kind of man that combined intellectual generosity and openness in ways that struck me as highly original. In these rare and valuable human and academic qualities he will always stand as the model to emulate.

Erica Wagner
Cornell University
It goes without saying that Claudio contributed significantly to IS research. In creative and scholarly ways Claudio challenged the dominant IS paradigm and I admire him for that. Most of all though I'll remember dancing with Claudio at IS gatherings and watching him fully enjoy himself. What a smile.

Andrew Wallwork
Department of Information Systems, LSE
My name is Andrew ... I am a current ADMIS student. During my undergraduate studies at Lancaster University I was introduced to some of the work by Claudio Ciborra. I was inspired and enlightened by his way of approaching the field of Information Systems, and indeed he was an influencing factor in why I applied to ADMIS in winter 2004. In fact I never had the honour and pleasure of meeting the Professor, yet I was still proud to be studying in 'his' department. It was clear that he was a greatly respected man among his fellow teaching staff and among the students that knew him. It is with deep regret and sadness that I learn of his passing and I offer my sincerest good will and best wishes to his family and friends. His work will live on and his memory will endure at the LSE. I am sure the he will be remembered among the great academics both past and present, who have attended and worked at this great school.

Eleanor Wynn
Intel
I owe so much to Claudio. He "intervened" in my life by inviting me to speak at an IFIP conference in Riva del Sole, Italy in 1982. At the time, I was unaware that my dissertation was being read in Europe. I did not have a paper to present at the conference. Claudio invited me to just come and the conference would pay my way. After a longish journey by air and rail, and having slept through the day, I arrived at the conference reception. Inside the door were Kristen Nygaard and some other people. I introduced myself and everyone seemed to know of me already. This was a real Cinderella moment for me! Claudio helped me by recognizing what I was trying to do in my work, and I always have used his work as a guiding light. He has made such a deep impression on my thinking that I think I have cited him in every paper. He provided other opportunities, notably the chapter in his book on groupware. Personally I was extremely fond of him. We always took some time to talk at conferences. He visited my humble house in Palo Alto. We listened to Men at Work sing "The Land Down Under", we shopped together at Neiman Marcus. Hanging out with Claudio was such a pleasure, I only wish it could have been all the time. In the last year I discovered what Frank Land mentioned, a development of temper I had not experienced before. But to be honest, I took it like a phenomenon of weather. Nothing could ever cloud the great affection, love and admiration I feel for Claudio. I can't believe I won't see him again.

Akhil Kumar
Department of Supply Chain and Information Systems, Penn State University
I am very sorry to hear about the tragic and untimely death of Professor Ciborra. He made important contributions to the IS community, and I will miss him. My sincere and heartfelt condolences go out to his family and friends.

Gerald Grant
Carleton University, Canada
Although I only met Claudio briefly I have been inspired by his work. I am sure his presence in the LSE family will be sorely missed.

Helmut Klaus
Brisbane, Australia
In mid-2004, I was honoured and fortunate to have Claudio as an external examiner of my thesis. Prior to that, his writings had been an inexhaustible source of inspiration and encouragement. Claudio's boldness and rigour with which he has accomplished the retrieval of phenomenology and hermeneutics for the concern with ICT in the lion's den has been supreme and nonpareil. The ensuing exchange of messages between us, cut short too soon, has allowed me to get a glimpse of Claudio's care, his generosity and his charisma. Although I have not been able to meet Claudio personally, he has been truly someone out of whose book I could take a leaf. Despite our ephemeral acquaintance, Claudio has made a great difference in my life. In gratefulness and grief, I want to assure my condolences to Claudio's family and friends and his colleagues at LSE.

Gamel Wiredu
Department of Information Systems, LSE
I was deeply saddened to read about Professor Ciborra's demise this afternoon. My first interaction with Claudio was in late 2001 when I went to introduce myself as he was my personal tutor. As a budding IS student at that time, the few questions and comments he asked/offered during our short discussion initiated my strong admiration for his insightful ideas. Through my readings of his numerous works and my experience of sitting in his lectures and seminars at the LSE, I've learnt a lot from him. I will never forget the critical yet very useful comments he offered about my PhD research during my upgrade presentation in September 2003 because the key contributions of my PhD emanated from those comments. Personally, his brilliance and creativity that have earned him worldwide recognition in the IS and Organisation Science fields has always been my inspiration, and I'll forever live to remember him. While we grieve over his death, I hope we'll be thankful for his life because Claudio lived and dedicated his efforts through extensive research to push forward the knowledge frontiers of IS and Organisation Science. As a true intellectual and scholar, the heavy influence of his ideas goes without saying; and I have no doubt that his ideas will endure in the years to come.

May his soul rest in peace.

Aamer A. Sarfraz
Department of Information Systems, LSE
I will always remain tremendously indebted to Professor Ciborra. I wish I had the opportunity to express my gratitude to him. I will remember him and his family in my prayers.

Richard Potter
Department of Information and Decision Sciences, University of Illinois at Chicago
I mentioned to my colleagues several times that we ought to invite him to Chicago to give us a talk, or at least let him know that he was welcome with us any time he might have a layover at O'Hare. So much for opportunities lost, in part because I think some saw him as a European-style, rather than American-style, researcher, with whatever intellectual baggage and biases that might entail. And, of course, even as the number of his fans grew around here, we thought we had all the time in the world.

I look now on my bookshelf and I see that his books are missing. With other authors, we would likely surmise that the borrower has simply forgotten to return them to me. In Professor Ciborra's case, however, I suspect that the reader was so moved by the work that they find it extraordinarily difficult to part with it.

Luigi d'Alessio
Dear Claudio you have often been in this vulcanic land, perfect place for your vulcanic creativity, you appreciated the Neapolitan way of life, and you always had curiosity for differences in life. I thank you a lot for the wonderful moments we spent together throughout our existential trips.... I'll miss you a lot but I want to live with the longing of meeting you again, ciao Gino

Masao Kakihara
Kwansei Gakuin University, Japan
During my study at the LSE IS Dept. (1999-2003), he was always at the forefront of the Dept. He created many 'innovations' by deconstructing the old conventions not only at the Dept. but the IS research field as a whole. "Social Study of IT (SSIT)" workshops, being held every year since 2001, is one of them and it well contains Claudio's innovative soul. He was a truly intellectual, creative and cool scholar. I still see him in my mind, dancing so happily at the basement bar of the LSE...

Anna Camposampiero
Milano, Italia
un pensiero affettuoso, con molta tristezza.

Brian Corbitt
School of Management, Shinawatra University, Thailand
I recall meeting Claudio on a number of occasions and had the great fortune to debate theory and its role in IS with him. I think one of his greatest delights was when he stood at the opening of ECIS 2003 in Naples in that open forum in the castle.fort by the seaside. He was as proud that night of being Italian as he was of being a giant in IS. I was so influenced by his work as was a special frind and colleague, Dr Mary Sandow-Quirk. Giants have always walked this earth of ours for millenia. Their history is never forgotten.

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Page last updated 24 May, 2005