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RIP Mitch Hedberg

RIP Mitch Hedberg

Mitch passed away a couple of days ago, but I hadn’t had a chance to talk about it yet. He was a fabulous comedian, and I feel sad that I just discovered his stuff months ago. Another brilliant mind gone away due to heroin. How many comedians have we lost to that?

By griffey

Jason Griffey is the Director of Strategic Initiatives at NISO, where he works to identify new areas of the information ecosystem where standards expertise is useful and needed. Prior to joining NISO in 2019, Jason ran his own technology consulting company for libraries, has been both an Affiliate at metaLAB and a Fellow and Affiliate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, and was an academic librarian in roles ranging from reference and instruction to Head of IT at the University of TN at Chattanooga.

Jason has written extensively on technology and libraries, including multiple books and a series of full-periodical issues on technology topics, most recently AI & Machine Learning in Libraries and Library Spaces and Smart Buildings: Technology, Metrics, and Iterative Design from 2018. His newest book, co-authored with Jeffery Pomerantz, will be published by MIT Press in 2024.

He has spoken internationally on topics such as artificial intelligence & machine learning, the future of technology and libraries, decentralization and the Blockchain, privacy, copyright, and intellectual property. A full list of his publications and presentations can be found on his CV.
He is one of eight winners of the Knight Foundation News Challenge for Libraries for the Measure the Future project (http://measurethefuture.net), an open hardware project designed to provide actionable use metrics for library spaces. He is also the creator and director of The LibraryBox Project (http://librarybox.us), an open source portable digital file distribution system.

Jason can be stalked obsessively online, and spends his free time with his daughter Eliza, reading, obsessing over gadgets, and preparing for the inevitable zombie uprising.

2 replies on “RIP Mitch Hedberg”

Maybe we should wait for some official news before concluding that Mitch died from heroin. The Washington Post reports:

Pending the medical examiner’s report, the cause of death appears to be a heart ailment, said his mother, Mary Hedberg. She said that her son, who struggled with drugs and alcohol, was born with a heart defect and frequently was anxious about his condition.

Hedberg said speculation that her son’s death was drug-related was gossip.

Mitch will be missed.

I am enjoying your presentation on blogs and wikis.

i think mitch was an amazing comedian. He was i think the most original comedian that has ever surfaced. He will be deeply missed.

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