for excellence in Australian Web Design
The sudden death of Nigel McFarlane in 2005 left the web development and open source software communities both in Australia and around the world without one of their most well known authors, consultants and pundits.
Although in many ways a very private person, Nigel had a professional and personal network which spanned the globe, and included such online luminaries as the lead engineer for the open source browser FireFox Ben Goodger, and countless others in the Open Source, Web Development and Linux communities. At his passing, many community sites in a number of languages, expressed their sorrow, a testament to Nigel's influence.
A real Melbourne boy, describing the city proudly as "the World's most liveable" Nigel had science degrees from both the University of Melbourne and LaTrobe University. Even when speaking in Sydney, he was always keen to get home as soon as possible, where he would bushwalk and ramble, swim and surf. He was not simply wedded to his computer.
With the growth in importance of the internet, Nigel was one of the first in Australia to overcome our tyranny of distance, which traditionally saw many IT professionals move elsewhere to make their mark. Nigel forged a global reputation from his beloved Melbourne, in a way impossible until the 1990s. Many others have and will follow his lead, but as with much of what he did, here Nigel was a pioneer. Since 1997 Nigel had become increasingly well known and respected in the web development and more recently open source technology communities through the publication of several successful books on Javascript, Mozilla and most recently the increasingly popular free open source browser Firefox. Two earlier books on Javascript, "Instant Javascript" in 1997 and the co-authored "Professional Javascript" in 2001 are still considered by many to be among the best books on the subject, and show Nigel's background in computer science and programming. More recently the benchmark "Rapid Application Development with Mozilla", and "Firefox Hacks" for the prestigious tech publishers O'Reilly carved out a place in the increasingly important open source community.
Nigel's writing extended to the columns "Searching for Substance" for InformIT, and "Mozilla Meanderings" for the Linux Journal TUX as well as articles widely published, online and in print, for such publications as InformIt, DevX, Builder.com, Linux Journal, CNet, The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald. His writing was intelligent, informed, incisive and fair, though no nonsense, and pulled no punches. That a recent piece drew defensive comment from celebrity Microsoft blogger Robert Scoble shows the reach and import of Nigel's writing. I am sure Nigel was proud of that.
Nigel was an entertaining speaker as well as writer. I particularly recall chairing a conference session Nigel presented in late 2004. Often conference goers are anxious to get early places in the meal queue, but though we had gone overtime for lunch, Nigel captivated the room. When offered the opportunity to break, the entire room turned it down, glued as they were to Nigel's presentation.
Generous with his time, energies and knowledge, Nigel contributed to mailing lists, newsgroups and forums, as well as speaking to audiences large and small at conferences and for user groups. His reach went far beyond Australia, as tributes in recent days from developers and members of the open source and web development communities around the world testify.
Nigel's passing was a sad loss for these industries still in their infancy.
With the McFarlane Prize we hope to keep Nigel's memory from dimming in an industry which owed him a great deal.