humdog is gone

I have stacks of things circling around to be blogged after returning home from New Zealand. But then I read on Jon Lebkowsky’s blog that someone I knew on The Well had died. humdog

Carmen Hermosillo, aka humdog, was one of those people who taught me a lot. In the conversations on the Well she pushed back on my assumptions, and helped me examine online community and online interaction through new eyes. humdog was also an amazing writer and knew so much about so much, that each link would lead me to something new. She catalyzed learning for me.

Here are a few more links about Carmen/humdog

• CARMEN HERMOSILLO: HUMDOG IN MEMORIAM (including comments)
  
• shared memory: humdog
• Remembering Carmen Hermosillo (this one speaks of Carmen’s different view of online communities with links to some of humdog’s writings and how she stirred things up — i.e. triggered our learning)
• Her LinkedIn profile (I loved this ” writer –
  

  blahblah

  (Public Company; Myself Only; Arts and Crafts industry)

  March 1993 — January 2008 (14 years 11 months)

  i am a poet. i hate being forced to create the illusion of an organization just to make linkedin happy, ok?”

With a large and wide network, I fall away from people I know too easily. Carmen was one of them. Is it ever too late to express respect and thanks? To acknowledge our teachers? Better if said while alive, but in honoring her memory, I hope I can continue to be open to and learn from people who see the world through eyes very different from mine, and with such passion.

Later Edit:

Here is a picture of Carmen (I had never seen one) and a capture of her Second Life memorial.

Photo credit:

Uploaded on July 31, 2008
by jmtimages which is in itself an memorial to another flickr member