Orange ran a advertising campaign last year in the UK that took the concept of Ubuntu (I am, because we are) and turned it into a campaign that linked the impact of people we have known on us as individuals.
I mention this, because a friend and mentor who I have known since I was a toddler passed away last night and Guy left more than a couple footprints on my life.
Guy Kewney was one of the UK's leading technology journalists. He started in the trade in the explosive years of personal computing in the late 70s.
I knew him from a different angle, initially as the father of Lucy and Alice whom I knew from a local Children's choir and then as a friend. The Kewney's lived around the corner from us in Finsbury Park, North London. To visit them was to be welcomed into a home bursting with new computers, peripherals and gadgets. It was a struggle to sit for for the carpet of gadgetry that covered every shelf, table and stair in the house.
It was here that Guy introduced me to seminal game Elite [2] on the BBC Micro. It was 1985 and I was was 11 but I remember the surprise of discovering that an adult could be into computer games. When I explained how much I enjoyed the game, he grinned confessing he had spent four months playing Commander Jameson exploring a parallel universe.
Guy, originally from South Africa, was into his sailing and swimming. Aged 8, I was amazed when he responded to my challenge to see who could swim further underwater by doing three full lengths without coming up for air. Guy as ever playful, modest and full of surprises. More recently we got a chance to sail on the West Reservoir in Stoke Newington, Guy reminding me that dingy sailing was sailing at it's purest and most fun.
People sometimes ask me how a graduate in political science got into technology. Well the answer is that the seeds were planted a long time ago - partly by my father but a in a very good part by Guy. Introducing me to WiFi in the early 90's he explained- 'Chris, wireless networking is going change the way we fundamentally use computers. Simply put, insurance claims for laptops being dropped in the bath are going to rise!'
In the last five years, Guy and I met either at my parents' or at a conference. We would talk about the technology industry - me seeking gems of wisdom from someone who had seen it ALL before. Be it discussing Microsoft's DNA or the likely success of WIMAX - Guy had an encyclopaedic knowledge of both technology and the business around it.
I saw him four weeks ago and tried in vain to see if we could sail once more before the cancer that he had fought bravely took him from us. Sadly it was not to be.
Guy - you will be sorely missed by many. I remember you fondly as a wonderfully warm, witty and wise soul with uniquely insightful twist on the world.
Chris, London April 8th 2010
