Remembering Yves Epelboin

We are saddened to report that Yves Epelboin, a pioneer in the use of information technology in Higher Education, died on September 2nd at the age of 79. Yves’ interests and expertise encompassed the administrative and management uses of IT, but he maintained a deep interest and focus on the potential of IT to closely support learning, teaching and research.
 

Yves maintained a profound belief in the power of collaboration to deepen understanding and provide Higher Education IT solutions. He was a key actor in establishing EUNIS, the European information systems organisation, participating in its leadership for thirty years, and a founding member and former president of CSIESR, the National Association for Information Systems in HE in France.
 

Yves led the adoption of both uPortal and Sakai at Université Pierre et Marie Curie (UPMC, now part of Sorbonne). He strongly supported collaborative events in support of open software, including a central role in organising the 2008 Paris Sakai Conference. Yves was a strong advocate of the creation of Apereo, drawing together the former Jasig and Sakai Foundations as a focal point for the creation and sustenance of open source software in Higher Education. 
 

We remember the quality of the exchanges with Yves around Higher Education and information technology and his motivation to promote digital services for Higher Education users as well as his work to increase collaboration with international organizations. His analysis, insight, counsel and good humour will be sorely missed. Higher Education collaboration has lost a significant advocate, but we are confident that the seeds Yves helped to plant will continue to flourish into the future. Our thoughts go out to his family.

Alain Mayeur

Ian Dolphin