In Memory of Claudio Ciborra 1951 - 2005

Tributes to Claudio Ciborra

index to tributes

Page 3

Diego Navarra
Department of Information Systems, LSE
In this unfortunate occasion I would like to evoke some memories regarding the friend and mentor Claudio.

In expressing my condolence and presenting a personal remembering I feel I can only join in the pain of the family, the computer science community and the many friends and colleagues. Claudio was a star of the academic community as much as he was for his students. We all know Claudio was as much knowledgeable about science as much he was about the latest trends, keeping always our attention by being able to quote Martin Heiddegger as well as Ms Dynamite. In doing so I feel necessary to somehow put into brackets the persona of Information Systems Giant Claudio, and after putting aside this image, to contemplate what is left as a personal legacy to me.

He has had a deep and long lasting impact as a mentor, a leader, a supporter during difficult times or simply, but perhaps above all, a friend. On other more academic and scientific occasions I hope to be able to contribute to the collective endeavours aimed at assessing and further developing Claudio’s scientific legacy. Claudio’s advice has always been critical and straightforward, perhaps sometimes too critical. But most of all I remember his deep sense of aesthetics, his enjoyable knowledge of countries, wines, people all over the world, with a special leaning for kayaking in the Norwegian fjords! A very attentive listener of music, but above all of people. I still remember him in that very mode: light, gentle, and deeply caring.

Antonio Cordella
Department of Information Systems, LSE
Claudio has been my Maestro, the person who introduced me to the information system discipline, made me love it, and who supported the development of my intellectual knowledge while challenging the rigour and relevance of my work all the time. Being close to him it has sometimes been difficult to accept his critique. Yet we have always known that his comments were only mediated by his intellectual rigour and personal concern, and that's why we always looked up to him as a Maestro and not just a senior colleague.

As in his academic life, Claudio was very demanding in his friendships. But again this attitude was contributing to the making of the very deep and profound friendship that has linked us over the years. Thanks Claudio for all what you have given us along these years. Ciao…..

Mike Cushman
Department of Information Systems, LSE
Claudio taught us many things; one was the importance of moods. He identified panic and boredom as the moods that were the enemies of learning, but he did not discuss panic much – I suspect because he had little, if any, personal experience of panic. He talked far more about boredom and it always seemed he saw boredom as the ultimate threat. He combated it by ceaseless intellectual enquiry; an energetic, but always subtle, engagement with music and art; and a restless enjoyment of all the good things of life – food, parties, sport and dancing.
To work with Claudio was to have the best dragged out of you always. To be in his company was to be filled with humour, curiosity and, not infrequently anger, but the humour and curiosity stayed and the anger passed. We, in IS at LSE, are left not only with his books and papers to read and reread like everyone else, but a working environment that is designed, from his imagination, to a quality not matched in any other university I’ve visited. Every morning we can walk into our offices and say “Thank you, Claudio”.

Danilo Piaggesi
Sustainable Development Department, Inter-American Development Bank
I had the pleasure to meet Claudio in the preparation of the study we are funding at present .about building trust through e-governmenet projects. What really struck me was his being very easy, despite his academic record, in approaching me; he had that kind of "sprezzatura" in managing his profession that is typical of endowed human beings who do not need to show off their capacities. Even during his most desperate moments, he remained committed to his academic engagement and let the study flow effortlessly, as if everything were normal...

Ad maiora

Zaheeruddin Asif
Temple University, USA
On behalf of student community I would like express my deep sorrow and sense of loss over untimely demise of a shining beacon of our field.

Edward Durkee
I was a student of Claudio's at Theseus in the early 90s. He was, and continued to be for me, a beacon of laughter and the absurd within the heartless land of IT. His demands upon his students to understand the social and human dimensions of the technological changes that were occuring around us was instrumental to our greater understanding of each other and the impact that we could have in the world. The world is a darker place with his loss.

Fernando Ilharco
Catholic University of Portugal, Lisbon
I am deeply sad with this shocking news. On behalf of Portuguese colleagues of mine, students of my campus and myself, I express our deepest sorrow over this untimely loss. Claudio was unique and one of those people we can say that changed our field of research and others as well. I met Claudio back in 1998, at the LSE; he was then visiting professor and I was PhD student. With him I shared the passion for phenomenological approaches to ICT. Today, I remember his superior talent, originality, dedication, friendship, and the novel and challenging ways in which he contributed to our field of research. We all owe him a lot. These are very sad days. May his soul rest in peace.

Joan Greenbaum
City University of New York
Claudio revolves in my mind as a whirl of energy. He was always in motion--dancing, swimming, thinking, talking. Claudio made new ideas and new projects fun; not just the academic challenge, but the intellectual pursuit of the truly curious. Thank goodness he was with us all for the time we had.

Kyriakos Farmakis
ADMIS 2002/3, Department of Information Systems, LSE
Our memories from him are still alive and will always be, starting from his classic italian accent to his passion and devotion trying to explain difficult constructs and theories (it was the first time I heard about improvisation in IS). I feel lucky that I had the opportunity to be one of his students. We will all miss him.

Grazia Concilio
Politecnico di Bari, Italy
No news could be worse than this... The scientific world has lost a precious mind and human being.

Juhani Iivari
University of Oulu, Finland
Claudio attended a number times the KISS seminar in the northernmost corner of Finnish Lapland. Almost like a typical Finn, he enjoyed the silent solitude of skiing on the rolling mountains around Kilpisjarvi, sauna after skiing, swimming in the ice hole, posing after it, and so on. He was just more extreme than the locals. I always enjoyed his attitude to be against everything, his smart comments, and envied his intelligence and his capability to express his criticism in an irresistible charming Italian (?) way. They were culminations of all the meetings and conferences where I met him. It is pity that the best are taken away first.

David Musson
Editor, Business & Management, Oxford University Press
Claudio was different - provocative, direct, charming, forgiving, intellectually committed; open to new ideas, experiences and challenges...and fun. His loss will be widely felt, and we are proud to have published some of his books, especially the Labyrinths of Information.

Amare Desta
Department of Information Systems, LSE
It is really sad to learn about Claudio's death and would like to express my heart felt sorrow to his family and his friends. Undoubtedly, he is a great loss to LSE and to the IS community.

Let him rest in peace.

David Gautschi
Trenton, Maine
I remember well meeting Claudio at Theseus Institute in the late 80s and early 90s. He had a remarkable ability to think broadly combined with a bright and kind disposition. No wonder he was such an inspiration to his students and to his colleagues. I am saddened to hear of his passing.

Giorgio De Michelis
DISCo, University of Milano
Claudio was a friend, a colleague and a continuous source of new hints and ideas. It is difficult to think that I will not have any more the occasion to discuss and to joke with him.

Every one who had the occasion to read his writings, to listen his talks, to interact/discuss with him in public or in private will miss his brilliant intelligence and his charming presence. His legacy is so rich that we will continue for many years in the future to discuss the many concepts he has brought to our attention: bricolage, care, gestell for understanding the interplay between information systems and organizations.

In Italy this is also a moral debt we must pay him, since Italian Universities were unable to recognize his outstanding merits and to support his research and didn't act so that his studies had followers and developers. We must fill this gap not only for his memory but also, and mainly for the new generations of researchers who still need his mastership.

Spyros Alexandratos
ADMIS 2002/3, Department of Information Systems, LSE
I am truly devastated by the loss of one of the most inspiring professors I have ever had. He will be greatly missed but he will continue to live in our hearts and his writings.

Nigel Hamlin
Theseus MBA (T4 1992/93)
Although it is now almost 12 years since I was at Theseus Institute in France, where Claudio was one of the founding faculty members, the time we all spent working with him was so memorable that I am sure all our recollections are just as immediate as they are for those who have known him more recently. Claudio was one of life's truly original thinkers and was eminently capable of communicating his thoughts - something which is all too rare in management circles, never mind in the arena of management education.

I shall be the poorer for no longer having the possibility of meeting Claudio again - we never did seem to manage to be back at Theseus at the same time, somehow - but I am sure that, wherever Claudio may be now, he wil be earnestly thinking of ways to reorganise things and make it a better place!

Amir Abraham Sternhell,
Theseus MBA (T3 1991/92)
Claudio, fly high my friend, inspire us from your dwellings upstairs, safeguard our faults in our reason and logic, walk us to the garden of knowledge.

Stamatis Poulakidakos
NMIS 2002/3, Department of Media Studies, LSE
I remember my first lessons with Professor Ciborra. Let's say that IS wasn't my favourite field. I remember trying desperately to keep up with his characteristic Italian accent. Although I couldn't understand many things in the beginning, his way of thinking and explaining theories of IS was telling you to insist on trying to "decode" his ideas. Far from that Professor Ciborra with his Italian "tamperamento" was trying to teach us much more than theories and schemas: he was showing us how to think in a whole new way! A way inspired by a very talented, kind and energetic man. We lost a 53 year "young" (and not at all old) man. Farewell Professor Ciborra... You managed to surprise us for one last time with your improvisation...

Silvia Elaluf-Calderwood
Department of Information Systems, LSE
This is a very sad event. As a former student of Professor Ciborra he left a big impression on me. I think all his students, colleagues and people that knew him will always keep a live and intense memory of his intelligence, humour and interest in finding uses for the knowledge he had from his research and as a human being.

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Page last updated 18 February, 2005