[WSIS CS-Plenary] * APC Tribute to Chris Nicol *

[karen banks]

Dear all on plenary,

With great sadness and heavy of heart, i have to share news that our dear 
sweet friend - chris nicol -  died on August 29th after battling with 
cancer for over a year.

Many of you will not have met chris, some of you have, and those that have 
will know that chris was one of the most deeply committed and passionate 
social activists, who dedicated his life to creating a more just and 
equitable world - and the WSIS Process was one where he fought some tough 
battles working towards achieving that goal, with many of us.

Our tribute to chris is below in english, and i will post spanish and 
portuguese versions in the next messages.

If you feel it appropriate, please share this tribute with your own 
caucuses and working groups.

regards to all
karen banks, on behalf of the APC.

~~~~~

online tribute and other links: http://www.apc.org/english/index.shtml

30 August 2005

To all in the APC community and to our many friends and partners:

TRIBUTE TO OUR FRIEND, COUNCIL AND BOARD MEMBER, CHRIS NICOL

On Monday 29 August 2005 the APC network lost someone who was a colleague, 
a leader and a friend.

Chris Nicol, member of the APC council and also of the APC executive board, 
died in Barcelona after more than a year of struggling against cancer.  For 
much of the time during this battle Chris was winning, continuing to work, 
travel and network when the difficult cycle of surgery and treatment left 
him with any spare time.

Chris was an Australian who had been living in Barcelona for around 25 
years. He also spent time in Nicaragua in the period just after the 
Sandinistas overthrew the Somoza dictatorship.  Chris worked in the British 
Council in Barcelona for many years, he taught English and set down roots 
in Catalunya in many ways - politically, culturally, socially and through 
his long relationship with his partner Chenchy. Chris was also active in 
the Barcelona solidarity movement with the Zapatistas, organising, raising 
funds, helping out where he could. And he loved music, wine, and nature. 
Chris was deeply committed to justice, to humanity.  He was a real activist 
who also threw himself into practical and concrete tasks with energy and 
humour.

Chris became part of the APC community in 1995. His organisation, Pangea, 
was part of an association of Spanish internet activist organisations which 
together applied for APC membership. In 2000 Pangea (www.pangea.org) became 
a member of APC in its own right. Chris was part of Pangea from its first 
days, working sometimes as a volunteer and sometimes as staff, but always 
giving heart and soul to the organisation.

He first attended an APC council meeting in 1997 in South Africa although 
many APC people had already met him by then. Chris was first elected onto 
the APC executive board at the APC council meeting in Uruguay in 2001 and 
at the time of his death he was APC treasurer. He worked tirelessly at a 
recent executive board meeting in South Africa in April even though he had 
only just finished another gruelling round of treatment.

For all of us in APC it is very hard to express how much Chris meant in the 
network. His was always an active voice, supportive and sometimes critical.

He was deeply committed to APC strengthening its advocacy role, to being 
more than a provider of member services. He was one of the first people in 
APC to raise the issue of free software, to start using GNU/Linux on his 
desktop, and to develop projects to support organisations in migrate their 
desktop environments to free and open source software.

Chris made two contributions to APC's work recently which will live on for 
a long time.  He was the editor and compiler of "ICT policy: a beginner's 
handbook" (http://www.apc.org/books) which we published in English in late 
2003 and in Spanish this year.  This book will be updated with a new 
version going online on a wiki so that it can remain a living and growing 
testimony to Chris' work.  And, earlier this year, he drafted the outline 
of a free software initiative for the APC network which we have been 
building on and which will be presented to APC members later this year.

Chris was a permanently engaged member of the APC team participating in the 
World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) process, from its inception 
in 2002 through to the latest PrepCom in Geneva, February 2005, one of his 
last work related trips. In many ways, he was a compass ­ always pointing 
to those actions that were necessary, just and not always easy - whether it 
was in solidarity around redressing unjust distribution of resources, the 
fierce battles around intellectual property and free software, or insisting 
that the APC team met to communicate and strategise regularly in the hustle 
and bustle of the United Nations conferences.

Every moment was precious to Chris, precious in that he felt one should 
never be wasted - whether the moment was spent drafting, lobbying, meeting, 
demonstrating, or talking with friends and colleagues.

Chris was always there, whenever we needed him, and was a constant reminder 
of our message and vision - to create "a world in which all people have 
easy, equal and affordable access to the creative potential of ICTs to 
improve their lives and create more democratic and egalitarian societies" 
(the APC vision).

All of us in the APC community want to share our love and support of Chris 
with his family and his friends, with Chenchy and with Chris' mother and 
sister in Australia, with his colleagues in Pangea.

APC will not forget Chris and will be honouring and remembering Chris Nicol 
through an initiative that will reflect his passion and committment to 
creating a more socially just world, and inspire others to continue the 
battle to do so.

We will share more news about this initiative shortly, but at this time, we 
warmly welcome all of those who knew or knew of Chris and his life work, to 
share messages on the editable website we have created in his honour.

http://actionapps.org/tikiwiki/tiki-index.php?page=APC+messages+to+Chris+Nicol

Association for Progressive Communications members and staff
30 August 2005