In memory of Martin Banks

It is with great sadness that I have to announce the death of Martin Banks, a Bloor Research consultant and associate for many years. His departure was sudden and unexpected – he was commenting on my Facebook posts with his usual wit right up until the end.

He was a columnist on the first PC magazine I worked on and already a “wise elder” in the field. He wrote beautifully and I learned a lot from him about reading between the lines at press conferences and so on as, I suspect, did many others. We co-edited a couple of magazines together and both ended up as consultants at Bloor – although I think that he remained a true journalist longer than I did, in his role at Diginomica, right up to his death.

I’ll always remember his wit and his ability to puncture the bubble of pomposity one sometimes meets in the IT industry. He knew about technology, but he also saw the “big picture”, the social and human impact of technology. At a press conference his questions were often deceptively simple: “I’m a bear of very little brain,” he’d say, “but can you just explain why…” And the speakers would then discover that there was an aspect of the technology they hadn’t really considered, and that they couldn’t really explain why it did what it did.

Not just a great journalist and mentor, he was also an excellent companion, with many interests. Canal boating, morris dancing, folk music, cars and probably many others. Always helpful, never patronizing and with a great sense of humour. He will be sorely missed.