In the early days of blogging there were just a few of us who blogged about VoIP and other such telecom topics. Russell Shaw was one of them, and he was very good at it. A good-natured and knowledgeable fellow, Shaw had a Rolodex that was thicker than those of most reporters. His ability to sniff out stories long before everyone else and then offer succinct analysis around the news made Shaw a natural blogger.
This past Thursday night, in town for eComm, Shaw went to sleep in his hotel room in San Jose and never woke up. Shaw wrote a VoIP blog and BlackBerry Blog for ZDNet. He had been suffering from a cold and had been traveling across the country attending several events.
I am going to miss Russell, especially his emails, in which he shared some industry tidbit or another. Shaw had helped me out when we launched IPNetworked, our failed experiment that eventually led to a more focused NewTeeVee. His passing reminds us of the fragility of life, and how quickly it can all be gone. First Marc Orchant passing on and now Russ…it has been a tough and somber weekend.
More @ Andy Abramson, Dan Farber, Ken Camp and Jim Courtney.
7 trackbacks so far
7:10 AM PT
[...] you'll be missed by many. Bookmarking:These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can [...]
12:09 PM PT
[...] quickly reacted to news of Shaw’s death. Om Malik, the former Business 2.0 who now heads his own blogging network, remembered how Shaw helped when he [...]
7:05 PM PT
[...] VIEW ORIGINAL ARTICLE Add to del.icio.us • Digg this! [...]
1:22 PM PT
[...] Over the weekend I learned about passing of Russell Shaw. I didn’t know him personally but I blogged with him at Mobile Messaging 2.0 for a while and ran into his posts on VoIP every once in a while. A prolific blogger, loved by his friends and colleagues, it was sad and shocking to learn about his passing. May his soul rest in peace. [...]
1:50 PM PT
[...] death spread. Shaw was ZD Net’s resident IP and Blackberry blogger and according to Gigaom died in his sleep in his hotel room in San Jose Thursday evening where he was covering the eComm [...]
2:18 PM PT
[...] 2: Om Malik has his thoughts as does Larry Dignan of [...]
10:33 PM PT
[...] R.I.P. for tech journalist Russel Shaw. [...]
9 comments so far
7:16 AM PT
Any foul play expected?
9:28 AM PT
Oh geez, I always enjoyed his commentary about Skype even when I thought he was off-base. He’ll definitely be missed.
9:43 AM PT
@ Rajeev,
Not that i know off.
@ Alex,
Amen to that. But if he was off base, it was mostly because he saw the good in everything.
9:48 AM PT
Om - That’s a nice note. Russ and I were good pals. We’d meet for a beer or dinner as often as you do with a good friend who is as busy as anyone in your life. But Russ was a special breed. He was one of the nicest folks you will ever meet. One of my best memories of Russ is traveling with him to Gnomedex on the train. Russ loved trains! He was like a kid on that train. Russ had a tremendous work ethic. He loved what he did. He told me he’d wake at 4 a.m. and work until 10. He’d take a two hour nap and then work into the night. Quite a pace. But he really kicked into gear in the past year. He was doing as well as he had ever done. He had met Ellen, a wonderful woman. He was losing weight, getting healthy. I just expected that I’d see him soon. I think I am still in shock that he is gone. Rest in peace, Russ. We miss ya.
Rajeev - There have been no reports of foul play.
3:15 PM PT
RIP Russell Shaw, he has passed the baton to others to continue. Thanks for helping many.
10:18 PM PT
Russell was so smart and talented- he always kept me on my toes, but played fair. When he opened up, he was even a sweetie. He is loved and missed by many. Such a shock when bad things happen to good people.
12:51 AM PT
What a shocker. Russel was one of my favorite writers, all meat, no fluff in his writings.
A nice guy, we will miss him!
8:14 AM PT
I had the honor of meeting Russel last August at Gnomedex in Seattle. He and I spent quite of bit of time together and I was instantly touched by his genuine nature.
It was a great experience to meet him after reading his blog for such a long time.
I’m sad he won’t be at Gnomedex once again.
-Jason
5:34 AM PT
RIP my friend. Such a great loss.
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