I just got back from day one of World Business Forum 2011 in New York City and found out that Apple co-founder Steve Jobs has died at the age of 56.
I didn’t find out from TV or radio, I didn’t read the newspaper (happened just a few hours ago so it will have to wait until tomorrow’s edition), nobody called me to let me know…
I found out instead via Facebook from my friends. This “finding out about major events such as the death of someone famous” from my social media circles, is becoming more and more common (news agencies know this and they’re struggling to keep up with the whole “real time web” phenomenon.)
After leaving comments tonight on several posts by friends of mine sharing the news, I left my own personal post where I could help “spread further the story” while sharing my own sense of loss with my friends around the world.
It’s amazing how social media enables this collective sense of loss and grieving while giving people a channel to express their emotions.
Steve Jobs is known to have said that one of his goals in life was to “put a dent in the universe.”
Today, the entire world is having to deal with his loss and accepting that the future will simply not be the same without Steve’s vision and innovation… With that kind of an impact on humanity, I say he definitely achieved that goal.
Rest in Peace Steve Jobs (1955-2011)
George, I found out from Twitter.
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I was yesterday at World Business Forum in New York City with 30 top Bloggers and we were discussing how each of us found out about Steve’s death on the night of October 5th. In practically all cases it was either Twitter or Facebook…
Something I found extremely sad is that multiple times on during Day 1 of WBF11 (Oct. 5th), many of the speakers spoke about Steve Jobs and his incredible contribution as an Innovator… None of us on stage or in the audience had any idea that Steve would die later that day.