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What would the web look like today if Bill Gates or Rupert Murdoch had poured their resources into creating the html and http protocols and built the first web browser?  Would their thirst for monetising everything they touched, have meant that the web became another commercial channel? How would we feel if we made a micro-payment to the great god Sky or Microsoft every time we went online?  Instead we should treasure Tim Berners-Lee. He could have been wealthier than Croesus, but chose not to make a penny from his invention. He made his idea available freely, with no patent and no royalties due.  His unselfishness and philanthropy makes Rupert Murdoch seem very small indeed.

Two degrees of separation department.  One of my Quaker friends, Joy Williamson, used to work at Ferranti computers in the 1950s.  I talked to her about the web after Meeting one day.  ‘Oh yes’, she replied casually ‘We knew Conway and Kate [Berners-Lee] very well.  Tim was a delightful baby. I used to bounce him up and down on my knee.’ I almost dropped my coffee cup. I cannot imagine a Knight of the Realm and holder of the Order of Merit being bounced up and down on anyone’s knee today.

I’ve just been to B&Q to buy some replacement blades for a modelling knife. Unable to find any, I ended up having to purchase a new ‘Craft Knife’ pack encapsulated in a teeth grindingly tough plastic blister pack.  It contained three different knife handles (none of which I needed) and 12 blades (11 of which I didn’t need). I mentioned this waste to the cashier and he immediately tannoyed for any available member of staff. Two rapidly appeared and took me back down the aisle. ‘Well’ they said, searching through the blades section, ‘We don’t appear to have any’ (pointing to an empty display peg) ‘but I am sure that we used to stock them’. It reminded me of the great Jack Dee sketch.

In contrast, we had to purchase a couple of new suitcases recently. An online search found that the best offer was at John Lewis ‘Never knowingly undersold’ (well, most of the time). We drove over to the vast temple of consumerism that is Cribbs Causeway and dutifully trotted through to the suitcase department. Although the website said stock was available, the special offer was nowhere to be seen. Feeling slightly frustrated we asked for help and a bright young woman, with an impressive ‘Head of Suitcases’ badge, immediately appeared. ‘But we saw it online and your website said there was stock available and we have just driven thirty-five miles’ we whined rather pitifully. ‘Don’t worry‘ she replied cheerfully, ‘John Lewis is a multi-channel retailer now‘ and took us over to a computer, brought up their website, checked warehouse stock levels in the warehouse and said ‘We can have them delivered to your home on Tuesday for no extra charge, at the same price as you saw on our website‘.

John Lewis were late to the world of e-commerce and launched their website in 2001. The company’s aim was to eventually generate  £100m in online sales. Last year the John Lewis online store turned over £327m, outstripping even their most successful department store  and it is growing at about 30% a year. No wonder their staff proudly talk about John Lewis being a multi-channel retailer.

I am a huge fan of Lee and Sacha leFever’s work at Commoncraft.  Why use lots of talking heads when you can explain technology with a cracking script and some very simple and clear 2-D animation?  They have perfected the use of the sound bite sized video as a powerful educational tool. And I dedicate this film of theirs to the worried couple who approached me after a seminar last year and said ‘We’d love to have a website just like you’ve described, but we’ve been told that the Internet is already full and we’re afraid we have left it too late’.

Fascinating dialogue at NESTA about the future impact of Social Media between newly anointed Twillionaire Stephen Fry, Biz Stone (founder and CEO of Twitter), Reid Hoffman, Founder and Chief Executive of LinkedIn ably chaired by Jonathan Kestenbaum of NESTA. Stephen Fry’s recent spat with a Twitter follower, who found him slightly boring, is forgotten.  Humble memo to Stephen Fry – You can’t have Wildean wit every second of the day, the law of averages means that you are bound to twitter something pretty boring occasionally. Relax and don’t take it so personally.

I recently attended a screening of some animation shorts and discovered the extraordinary work of Len Lye – a New Zealand artist / film-maker who worked his passage to Britain as a coal trimmer on a steam ship in 1926. His talents soon drew him to the attention of the GPO film unit, where his creativity flourished.  This richly imaginative film, set to the music of the Lambeth Walk, pays repeated viewing.  Long before the days of Flash, CGI, Final Cut Pro – this was animation at its most time consuming.  Painting directly onto the film stock.

This has to be one of the finest jazz trios to come out of Hungary (let’s ignore the haircuts and the suits).  The late, great, Aladár Pege on double bass, the brilliant Gusztáv Csík on piano and some impeccably tight drumming from Géza Lakatos Pecek.  They make this Miles Davis classic (wrongly attributed to Charlie Parker) really swing. Fantastic jazz.  Watch the way the classically trained Pege tears through his solo whilst not looking at his bass once.  No wonder he was called the Paginini of the double bass.  In my book he’s right up there with the legendary NHOP.

Last year I had a fantastic opportunity to attend a concert by the Jacques Loussier Trio in St George’s, Bristol. Although the concert had completely sold out, I was lucky enough to buy a cancellation ticket on the day and for the first half of the concert watched the maestro at work from the gallery.  The seat had a poor view and I could only see part of the piano. After the break I talked to one of the ushers and asked if I could stand with them at the back so that I could see all three of them performing.  They said I could, providing I behaved myself. It was an unforgettable concert. I am sure JS himself would have appreciated their blistering interpretation of the presto from his Concerto in D Major for Harpiscord.