Nick Givotovsky, Internet Identity Trailblazer, Dies at Age 44
Nick Givotovsky, a Connecticut based internet consultant and long time contributor to the digital identity community, died in an accident at his home on Friday at the age of 44. Givotovsky was an active member of the Data Portability Working Group, was a regular attendee of the Internet Identity Workshops and was Steward for the Identity Futures group in Identity Commons. He is recognized by both communities as a valued, respected and well liked contributor to many important efforts.
Author and consultant Doc Searls writes in a post memorializing Givotovsky that "Every encounter with Nick was engaging and mind-sharpening." London entrepreneur, Ian Henderson, offers the following quote from Givotovsky, exemplifying his contribution to the digital rights conversation.
I believe we need explicit, uniform, enforceable, and yes, universal rights to our own user-related data. Not just for purposes of privacy, but so that individually and collectively we can use our leverage as rightful owners of what are in fact valuable assets to obtain and enforce a much better "digital deal", not just for us, but for others not (yet) directly addressed here, who will have to deal with the consequences of our collective (in)actions.There are indeed technologists fully qualified to architect the infrastructure to enable a better, more equitable, reciprocal, transparent and accountable digital realm, and they have to a large extent already built the tools and system. Now, the application of that prospective infrastructure to systems and services with the potential to change "the digital deal" from the user-centric perspective is what's needed, and I hope, what's next.
Going forward, the formulation, creation and assertion of binding identity rights agreements in the context of "leverage", that in turn drives change enabled in the market by market forces, is the most pragmatic, short path to something better than a-shrug-a-click-and-a-sigh privacy statements.
It's exactly the implementation of such use cases to which I think the most beneficial and productive (though not always the most immediately profitable) effort can, and should be devoted. We all need a better, fairer, more accountable and credible digital deal. If we are to be "digital citizens" should we not also know the real "digital deal"?
Givotovsky leaves behind a wife and two children.
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Marshall I'm so glad you covered this - Nick was a friend and was super influential on me. As I posted to the DPP list, he had a mind of a genius and the heart of a poet.
He will be missed a great deal.
Nick was really amazing - he always was pushing the edge of thinking about identity on the web for people and organizations and what it would mean for society. He challenged us to think far into the future.
The last time I saw him was in Febuary or March - he drove from his farm to Lexington Mass. to spend a day brainstorming with John Kelly and I about ID Futures work. I then saw him again at a meeting in NYC a few days later.
He will be missed a lot.
I met Nick a few years ago at IIW. I knew immediately that this was a very special individual with an incredible mind and as many have mentioned, a heart of gold.
Speaking with him about his love and devotion to his adopted children and family revealed more to me about Nick than any identity conversation would have, although his integrity there, seen through his writings on the subject, were also unquestionable. I'm am shocked and my thoughts and prayers are with his family.
I also met Nick at IIW gatherings but most recently kept in touch with him over the net. He would check in regularly to see how I was doing and what I was up to. He cared deeply about the privacy issues that accompany internet identity frameworks and strove to build a shared understanding of what was the "right thing to do". He was a good man and will be missed.
I am absolutely in shock! Nick was a colleague and an enormous influence on my in my 20s. He was an amazingly brilliant, visionary and tireless person. I was just thinking of him last night. Thank you for carrying this story. Much sympathy to his family.
R.I.P. Nick Givotovsky, Internet Identity Trailblazer http://bit.ly/hy7dR [from http://twitter.com/marshallk/statuses/2534697084]
Posted by: Marshall Kirkpatrick
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July 16, 2009 12:02 PM
Oh, what distressing news!
What a loss!
Nick had as keen a grasp as anyone of the real issues around protection of privacy while living life in the information world. I recall a wonderful conversation with Nick and Owen Davis about bringing authenticity and privacy to child-oriented social networks. A very insightful guy, and lots of fun to klatsch with about not just privacy but his family, his farm and… his tractor