RIP Rob Levin AKA 'lilo'

[denny]

I've just got on IRC and found out that Rob Levin, the guy who created Freenode (previously OpenProjects, previously Linpeople), died yesterday of injuries sustained in a road accident last week.

Without the network of people that Rob built up, I literally have no idea where my career would be at this point - the #linpeople community was a massive influence on me while I was still finishing my degree more than seven years ago. Their good example led me to form MK LUG, and before that their help and support made me leap confidently (or at least, with some vague amount of hope that I could survive it) into my first Perl job. For me, the network that is now called Freenode pretty much defines the phrase 'the open source community'.

Rob frequently took time over the years that I've been using the network to pop up in a /msg and ask me how I was doing, just chat about everyday life... I have no idea how many of the users on his network he managed to build a personal relationship with at this kind of level, but he definitely struck me as someone who really cared about what he did and the people he helped by doing it.

I hope that Freenode continues to build on all the work that Rob has been doing over the years. I'm junior staff on the network now myself, so I hope to be part of that process.

My sympathies to all who knew lilo, particularly to those who knew him better than I did, and most of all to his family.

RIP lilo.


http://freenode.net/news.shtml - brief announcement.

http://pastebin.ca/173572 - Q+A session.


Update: http://lilo.freenode.net - online book of condolences

Comments

[hythloday.livejournal.com]

That's really crap, lilo was a really great guy.