re:member: The Passing of Peter Kruse

June 1st saw the passing of psychologist, businessman and network researcher Peter Kruse, at the age of 60.

Intelligent networks and their behaviours were the focus of his scientific work. His research included the interplay between society and the internet, particularly on how the internet's political and social aspects affect our society and why they polarise it so strongly.

Five years later, Peter Kruse's talk at re:publica2010, on how the networked society can revolutionise societies and economies, remains in the top 3 most popular #rp talks. See video below (in German)

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryiuuUKQJy0]

Through system theory approaches, he highlighted how the internet has created space for new power relationships, resulting in ever more people wanting to take part in societal processes. ACTA protests and the Arab Spring are two examples of how Kruse's 2010 assessments became manifest.

Peter Kruse was considered an “internet guru”, visionary and speaker, who engaged his audience with humour, intelligence and optimism.

He was also the founder of Nextpractice, a consultancy firm which bases its approach on self-organisation and chaos theory. The company's website states that the professor had big plans for the next years and our cheeky introductory remark at #rp10: “The Internet's Muse – Peter Kruse” lingers sadly today.

His constant inspiration will be sorely missed.

photo creadit top image: re:publica/Daniel Seifert (CC BY-SA 2.0)