I first met Michael in Prague in 2010 … we may have shared approximate time space coordinates before that time, but I was too scared to talk to him. Which of course was silly - Michael was the opposite of unapproachable though I thought it best to listen to him - mostly because he had the knack of making me think every time he spoke.

Once I did speak to him, it was inevitably just short phrases, in between other people speaking or along purely technical lines - we may have never had a proper ‘deep’ conversation. Which is to my deep regret … though I lived vicariously via others conversation with him and reading the copious public online discussion/papers/etc.

Finally at some point, perhaps this was Prague 2012, during some group pub philosophical session I may have made a passing reference to James Joyce … I begrudge no one for not having read Joyce and have no idea if Michael ever had (he probably did) … though when mentioned I did see a twinkle in Michael’s eyes (with matching expression) and I saw how this serious, responsible giant thinker could be equally quite unserious … of course others were more familiar with Michael’s playful side - but at that very moment (in a dark, loud Prague pub) Joyce’s quote - “Irresponsibility is part of the pleasure of all art; it is the part the schools cannot recognise.” popped and started in my mind about him.

For me - Michael had that kind of positive ‘irresponsibility’ - he was also a deeply technical craftsmen, always ‘sharpening the tool’, academic rigorous in specification as well as an artist urging us on to think more deeply - he encouraged agitation of ideas (never to cause churn or discomfort) but to help bump us out of local maxima/minima to help navigate to calmer waters.

The man had deep scholarship but also had something very special that no book or school could teach. He will be missed.

Just hearing any of his end note speeches, one could clearly see he had a extraordinary understanding of storytelling and a poet musician cadence in delivery. His reference to Komensky, in his 2012 XML Prague end note, now makes me think that Komensky finally has someone worthy to debate with on how to teach us humans how to be better people.

Lastly, in 2016 I went to Balisage for the first/last time … unfortunately I was a little ill (international travel, sleep deprivation, etc etc) and was less engaged but Micheal's endnote synthesised the conference into a single thread … making everyone feel that we were pulling together towards a better common future.

While everything changes (technologies, life ...) - the threads that Michael weaved are still there, tightly bound.

Please pass along Gabi and mine deep sympathies to his wife and family - Michael was a good citizen of the many communities he was a member of as well as a good man.

Jim Fuller