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<p><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">It saddens me to circulate
this news I have just received about the death of one of our
directors -- Mike Gurstein. Mike was a member of our community
and a board member for many years. Full obit below</font><br>
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<div class="moz-forward-container">Marita<br>
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<th nowrap="nowrap" valign="BASELINE" align="RIGHT">Subject:
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<td>obit</td>
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<th nowrap="nowrap" valign="BASELINE" align="RIGHT">Date: </th>
<td>Sat, 14 Oct 2017 17:30:54 -0400</td>
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<th nowrap="nowrap" valign="BASELINE" align="RIGHT">From: </th>
<td>Glenn McKnight <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:mcknight.glenn@gmail.com"><mcknight.glenn@gmail.com></a></td>
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<th nowrap="nowrap" valign="BASELINE" align="RIGHT">To: </th>
<td>Marita Moll <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:mmoll@ca.inter.net"><mmoll@ca.inter.net></a></td>
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<div>Michael Gurstein </div>
<div>October 2, 1944 - October 8, 2017</div>
<div>Michael Gurstein was born on October 2, 1944 in Edmonton,
Alberta, Canada to Emanuel (Manny) and Sylvia Gurstein. While
still an infant, the family moved to Melfort, Saskatchewan
where Manny grew up and his family still lived. In Mike’s
youth, Manny and Sylvia ran a successful retail store. There,
the family grew with a younger sister, Penny. </div>
<div>Mike excelled at school. He spent his summers working at a
golf club in Waskesiu and graduated from Melfort Composite
Collegiate Institute high school, and then completed an
undergraduate degree in philosophy at the University of
Saskatchewan in Saskatoon. Mike was driven by pragmatism and
curiosity about the wider world that motivated his doctoral
studies in Sociology at the University of Cambridge in the
U.K. While a student, he began his life-long exploration of
the world, with trips through North Africa and a long journey
from Southeast Asia through Afghanistan and Iran and back to
the U.K. </div>
<div>Upon Mike’s return to Canada, he worked in politics and
policy, as a senior civil servant for the Province of British
Columbia under Barrett’s NDP government (1972-4) and for the
Province of Saskatchewan under Blakeney’s NDP Government
(1974-5). While teaching at York University, he ran
unsuccessfully for the NDP in the riding of Parkdale. </div>
<div>Mike moved to Ottawa in the late 1970s where he met his
wife, Fernande Faulkner. Together they had two children,
Rachel (1981) and Marc (1983). He and Fernande established and
ran a management consulting firm, Socioscope, which studied
and guided the social aspects of the introduction of
information communication technology. In Ottawa, Mike also
built and managed a real estate portfolio. In 1992 the family
moved to New York, where Mike and Fernande worked for the
United Nations. </div>
<div>In 1995, Mike became Associate Chair in the Management of
Technological Change at the University College of Cape Breton.
There, he founded the Centre for Community and Enterprise
Networking (C/CEN) as a community based research laboratory
exploring applications of ICT to support social change in one
of Canada's most economically disadvantaged regions. </div>
<div>Grown out of his early experience in rural small town
Saskatchewan and his later experiences in impoverished but
culturally and communally rich Cape Breton, Mike's work
provided the conceptual framing for “community informatics”.
He published the first major work in the field, and introduced
the term "community informatics" into wider usage as referring
to the research and praxis discipline underpinning the social
appropriation of ICT. Within the area of community informatics
a major contribution has been Mike's introduction of the
notion of "effective use" as a critical analytical framework
for assessing technology implementation superseding approaches
based on the more commonly accepted frameworks such as that of
the "digital divide".</div>
<div>In 1999, the family moved to Vancouver to be closer to
Mike’s parents and sister. In 2000, Mike and Fernande returned
to New York, to work at the New Jersey Institute of Technology
and the UN, respectively. Mike returned to Vancouver in 2006
and established the Center for Community Informatics Research
Development and Training (CCIRDT). With this platform, he
traveled the world to consult with governments and civil
society organisations, present at conferences, and conduct
research. </div>
<div>Mike was the founding editor of the Journal of Community
Informatics and was Foundation Chair of the Community
Informatics Research Network. He was at the time of his death
the Executive Director of CCIRDT, and formerly an Adjunct
Professor in the School of Library and Information Studies
Vancouver Canada, and as well as Research Professor at the New
Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark, New Jersey, and
Research Professor at the University of Quebec (Outaouais). He
was also a member of the High Level Panel of Advisers of the
UN's Global Alliance for ICT and Development. He has also
served on the Board of the Global Telecentre Alliance,
Telecommunities Canada, the Pacific Community Networking
Association and the Vancouver Community Net.</div>
<div>In recent years he was active as a commentator, speaker and
essayist/blogger articulating a community informatics
(grassroots ICT user) perspective in the areas of open
government data and internet governance. Through all of his
work, Mike was motivated by his commitment to democratising
access to the tools of information technology and the
advancement of civil society.</div>
<div>Mike passed away peacefully at home on October 8 after a
two year battle with prostate cancer. He is survived by his
wife Fernande, his mother Sylvia, his sister Penny, his
children Rachel and Marc, his step-children Bruno and Nina,
his grandchildren Emmanuelle and Daniel, step grandchildren
Patrick, Emilly, Jessica and Erica, and niece, Natasha.</div>
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<div dir="ltr">Glenn McKnight<br>
<a href="mailto:mcknight.glenn@gmail.com"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">mcknight.glenn@gmail.com</a><br>
skype gmcknight<br>
twitter gmcknight</div>
<div>289-830 6259<br>
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