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  • Inside NFTs: the concept taking the art world by storm

    Inside NFTs: the concept taking the art world by storm

    Thomas Flynn

    For most people in the UK, the letters NFT used to refer to the National Film Theatre on the South Bank of the Thames. Now they stand for something entirely different — so-called Non-Fungible Tokens.

    If that term means almost nothing to you, don’t worry. You are not alone. However, you may be interested to learn that NFTs are currently taking the art world by storm (as well as the music and sports industries) and are very likely to remain an important concept in the future right across commerce and culture. 

    So let’s try and explain.

    Fungibility is a term from economics, but stay with me for a moment. A five or ten-pound note, or a dollar bill, are fungible. A painting by Banksy is non-fungible. So if I lend you a fiver, when you give it back to me a week later I won’t mind if the five-pound note you give me isn’t the same five-pound note I gave you a week ago. As long as it’s a legitimate five pound note, I’ll be happy.

    However, if I lend you my Banksy painting and a year later you give me back a different Banksy painting, I might not be too happy. That’s because unlike paper money or metal coins, paintings are Non-Fungible. 

    Three or four years ago, the only people who were familiar with Non-Fungible Tokens were people from the tech world of computers and so-called crypto-currencies (digital money). And that’s another concept that’s making a big impact. 

    In essence, a Non-Fungible Token is simply a piece of computer code — a string of alphanumeric symbols (known as a ‘hash’) of the kind that sits invisibly behind a computer image such as a JPEG, a Gif or a TIFF. 

    In the ‘real’ world, if I buy a painting at an auction or from an art gallery, I can walk away with the painting after paying for it. I now own it. Unlike a ten-pound note, that painting is a unique object that belongs to me and to me only, until I decide to sell it. 

    Yet only a few weeks ago, a JPEG of a computerised work of graphic art by an artist who goes by the name of Beeple, was sold for $69.3 million dollars at Christie’s auction house in New York. The person who bought it didn’t buy the graphic art; they bought the algorithmic code that sits behind the image on the computer. That computer code is the NFT. It means that the person who bought the NFT of Beeple’s work of art is the sole owner of it. The NFT guarantees their ownership, now and forever, or until they decide to sell it. 

    The actual computer graphic (or in the case of sports memorabilia, a baseball card, for example) is a separate thing from its NFT. You can find a JPEG of Beeple’s actual work of art on the web right now if you bother to Google it. The work is called Everydays: The First 5,000 Days. You can even download it onto your computer if you wish, but you won’t own it in any meaningful sense. The true owner of it is the person who bought the NFT of it — the computer code, or hash. In the case of the Beeple, that person happens to be Vignesh Sundaresan, a Singapore-based blockchain entrepreneur and investor who goes by the name of Metakovan (pseudonyms are all the rage in the tech world.) As it turned out, he’d been prepared to pay even more than $69.3 million, so that perhaps indicates how seriously he takes this new NFT ‘revolution’ as he calls it. 

    It doesn’t end there. Metakovan’s NFT of Beeple’s Everydays was immediately uploaded onto a computer platform called the Ethereum Blockchain. This is another tech concept that is promising to change commerce and culture in a very significant way. The Blockchain is a decentralised, distributed, peer-to-peer (person-to-person) network, a digital ledger that records transactions. It means that any data (such as NFTs, or cryptocurrencies) can be sent from one individual to anyone else in the network, bypassing intermediaries like banks.  

    Once an NFT is uploaded to the Ethereum Blockchain it cannot be changed. It contains what computer scientists call ‘metadata’ — which means that embedded in the code is everything relating to that object or work of art, including its name, its size, its owner, its ownership history, location, etc. It essentially guarantees the authenticity of the object (and in the case of the Beeple, Metakovan’s ownership of it). This means that nobody can dispute Metakovan’s ownership. If he ever decides to sell it, the new owner’s details will also be uploaded as another block on the Ethereum Blockchain. You can add blocks to the Blockchain but you can’t change blocks that have been previously uploaded. 

    If you’re still with me, let’s touch on one or two other issues here. 

    Ownership history and authenticity are two of the most important concepts in establishing the value of any work of art. The Blockchain promises to make that process easier and more transparent. It means that if an artist creates a digital work of art and ‘mints’ it onto an NFT platform (a site called Nifty Gateway is one of the most popular), it can be bought as an NFT which is then uploaded onto the Blockchain, thereby guaranteeing the work’s authenticity and the buyer’s rightful ownership of it. What’s more, if they wish, the artist can arrange for a so-called ‘smart contract’ to be written into the NFT on the Ethereum Blockchain so that if the work is ever re-sold, the artist will be guaranteed a percentage of any subsequent sale price.  

    Now, there are a few problems here that are yet to be overcome. First of all, we are already hearing of some people ‘minting’ NFTs of works of art they neither created nor own. This is a breach of copyright law. The legal world has not yet caught up with the implications of these new technological innovations. 

    Even more importantly, cryptocurrencies — such as Bitcoin and Ether — that underpin the Blockchain consume a staggering amount of energy. Every Bitcoin has to be ‘mined’ using numerous linked computers slaving away together 24/7 to ‘solve’ a complex computer algorithm. This is called ‘Proof of Work’. The ecological impact of this process is jaw-dropping. For example, according to the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance, the amount of electricity consumed by the Bitcoin-mining network in one year could power all the kettles used to boil water in the UK for 29 years, or satisfy the energy needs of the University of Cambridge for 748 years. That surely cannot be acceptable at a moment when global warming is at such a tipping point. 

    The inescapable irony is that many of the young digital artists now exploiting the new NFT craze are of the so-called Generation Z (who constitute a significant percentage of Greta Thunberg’s global following, for example). It’s curious that many of them appear to be turning a blind eye to the catastrophic ecological footprint created by Bitcoin mining.

    Are Non-Fungible Tokens here to stay? The answer is surely yes, in some form or another. What are the barriers to progress? Well, you may have already concluded from the above that these new concepts are a hard thing for those of us unfamiliar with computer science to wrap our brains around. But many people said that about the Internet and the World Wide Web when they emerged in the 1990s. 

    As the late American baseball star Yogi Berra memorably remarked, “Making predictions is tough, particularly about the future.”

    The writer is the co-founder of www.FlynnGiovani.com

  • Lessons from the Etsy Boom

    Lessons from the Etsy Boom

    Patrick Crowder

    While it might not seem like the best time to start a traditional business, smaller non-traditional operations are thriving. Many craft businesses have seen success on websites such as Etsy selling jewellery, wallets, cross-stitches, and of course facemasks.

    Jennifer Brown started her online jewellery business Mezzanine Resin in early February this year. She says the idea came after she was let go from two jobs in 2020.

    “I realised I’d have to rely on myself more for a steady income, rather than a corporation that would drop me at the start of every lockdown,” Brown says. “My mum suggested I start selling my earrings online and it just trickled from there!” 

    Brown’s products – which include small statues, vases, homeware, and all manner of jewellery – are all hand-made from resin one at a time. She says that her designs are “influenced by nature” with “tonnes of stone, forests and minerals” replicated in her products.

    Etsy began seeing major success during the pandemic as artists, hobbyists, sculptors, and seamstresses began selling their handmade goods online. ETSY stock has grown by over 400% since 2020 began, raising from $44 (£31.68) to it’s current price of £188 (£135.35).

    Brown currently sells on Etsy, but she is considering making the switch to Instagram. She already advertises on Instagram and says that her friends and followers have been “intrinsic in helping get the word out” about her brand. She hopes to move into more direct sales once her brand has grown: “I’m waiting for the day that I see someone on the street in my earrings. I hope the business turns from a side hustle to something that I can supply into boutiques.”

    Starting any brand is a daunting task, and Jennifer says that she would not have succeeded without the support she has received.

    “My mum of course inspired it, my grandad pitched in to make me the stands that my pieces hang on in product photos, and my fiancé encouraged me to spend time perfecting my stuff – rather than fretting about money, which was, of course, a luxury not everyone has,” Brown says.

    As lockdowns lift, we will see if the phenomenon of craft-made products lives on. For now, things seem promising.

    Growth in hobby and craft sales are not exclusive to Etsy or Instagram. Hobbycraft, for example, had to close its physical storefronts, but continued to see massive customer demand online. The company saw an 8.9 per cent increase in revenue to £193.6 million, driven by a 19 per cent increase in e-commerce. For Brown, this means increased competition, but she is confident about the future of her business.

    “My friends bought some of my early pieces,” Brown admits. “I’ve told them to hang onto them as they’ll be worth millions in a few years when I’m a big-time designer.”

    Photo credit: Lucielle Jewell on Unsplash

  • Denmark: Europe’s forgotten Covid-19 success story

    Denmark: Europe’s forgotten Covid-19 success story

    Patrick Crowder

    Denmark’s schools reopened on May 6th, alongside other indoor spaces including gyms, theatres, and some music venues.

    Restrictions on basic outdoor gatherings have been raised to allow up to 75 people, but there are no plans to allow large outdoor festivals or concerts with more than 2,000 attendees.

    Denmark’s cautious but fast-moving strategy has allowed them to greatly slow transmission of the virus while still keeping children in schools and the economy running, albeit at reduced capacity.

    Denmark’s primary schools were the first in the world to be reopened on April 15th 2020. By limiting the number of students in class and establishing small bubbles, Denmark’s schools were able to run in-person without causing an increase in Covid-19 cases.

    Students were instructed to wash their hands hourly and could not socialise with any other students outside their four-person playground bubble. Classrooms were split down the middle to help with social distancing, which meant that teachers had to deliver each lesson twice.

    Older primary school children over 14 years’ old were initially not allowed to return in order to keep the number of students on campus low and reduce the risk of spreading the virus. Now they will be able to return to class.

    These re-openings are mostly thanks to Denmark’s December lockdown efforts which allowed the country to avoid a third wave of Covid-19. The country is in some respects ahead of the UK which didn’t lock down over Christmas; the developments will bring home to some the costliness of the government’s policy-making in November and December 2020.

    Alongside social distancing measures and lockdowns, Denmark was the first to integrate a Covid passport system into its reopening strategy.

    A smartphone app which translates to “MyHealth” (MinSundhed) can be used to access nonessential businesses such as hair salons, restaurants, and museums. The app provides proof that the user has either been vaccinated, had Covid-19 in the past, or had a negative Covid test in the past 72 hours.

    The UK has dropped the idea of using Covid passports for non-essential businesses, reserving the possibility for larger events.

    The re-opening has been agreed upon at the same time that the Danish Health Authority has decided to pull the Johnson and Johnson (J&J) vaccine from circulation over concerns that it causes blood clots. While the risk of a vaccine-related blood clot is low, the Danish Health Authority stated that the “benefits do not outweigh the risk”. They did not rule out using the J&J vaccine at a later date if necessary.

    But the country isn’t ahead by every metric. According to Reuters, Denmark has vaccinated 17.5% of its population, compared to 37.5% in the UK and 44.9% in the US.

    Photo credit: Nick Karvounis on Unsplash

  • The Luthier’s Tale: Inside the Guitar Repair Industry

    The Luthier’s Tale: Inside the Guitar Repair Industry

    Veteran guitar tech John Armitage shares his thoughts about life on tour, professionalism, and getting started in the industry

    The music industry conjures up images of spotlights, adoring fans, and late nights on the tour bus, but behind the scenes there is a world of technicians who keep the show running smoothly.

    John Armitage began repairing guitars in 1978. Since then, the job has taken him all over the world with groups such as Iron Maiden, King Crimson, and the Manic Street Preachers. Now he operates Guitar Hospital, which has workshops in London and Whitstable.

    Armitage got his start in guitar repair at 17 when he saw a problem and took the initiative.

    “I started off as a drum tech for bands, then everyone went to America and didn’t take the drum techs,” Armitage says. “I was playing bass in a band by this point and they said, ‘I’ve got a guitar guy who can’t come’. I said, ‘I can do that’.”

    Armitage also recalls a show in New York where the guitar player requested a new nut – a piece of dense material that the strings rest on at the top of the neck. “I didn’t know what a nut was, but I headed down to Sam Ash (music shop) and said, ‘I need a nut for a Fender Strat’.”

    The man behind the counter asked him, “Do you want pre-cut, bone, carbon, brass, graphite, what gauge do you want it cut to?” Thoroughly confused, Armitage told the guitarist that the store had run out of the part he needed.

    Taking this experience as a sign that he needed to learn more, Armitage took a trip to his local library where his excitement led him to some light crime. 

    “There was this big tome of a book with pictures, a real 70s masterpiece, and I wanted it forever,” Armitage recalls. “So I put it in a garbage bag and threw it out the window. It’s my eternal shame, I stole the best book because I was so eager to learn.”

    Thankfully, there are other ways to enter the world of guitar repair. Schools such as Guildhall and the Totnes School of Guitar Making offer months-long traditional classes, while short workshops are a more cost-effective option.

    Armitage advises people who are interested to “do a short course” to “get a taste” of the work, before committing to a more extensive programme. He also pointed out that business sense is every bit as important as technical skill.

    “Knowing how to repair guitars is 50 per cent of it and knowing how to deal with customers and administrate your business is the other 50 per cent of it,” Armitage says. “I did a business studies course when I was younger which really helped me.”

    Talking about the touring life, Armitage says that it is an incredible opportunity, even if it is not for everyone. “It’s about being constantly relocated, waking up never knowing where you are. It’s more of a young person’s game. It’s brilliant if you can get into it and cope with the constant relocation.”

    A touring guitar technician will have their travel and accommodation paid for and can expect to be paid for every day they are away from home. The demanding, exhausting schedule comes with the benefits of free travel and unforgettable experiences.

    “I have lifelong friends who I met in 1980,” Armitage says. “I met my wife on tour. There’s a whole world out there that you can see for free – but it’s not a vacation.”

    According to Armitage, a good guitar tech on tour with an in-demand group can expect to earn £80,000 to £100,000 a year. If the touring life isn’t for you, base pay starts at about £30,000 a year according to Glassdoor. Armitage says that success in the industry is based on time served and word of mouth.

    A touring technician needs to exude a sense of calm, confident control to be successful, and sometimes even take on the role of a counsellor. “I’ve listened to divorce stories, people going off the rails, you kind of have to be a sounding board,” Armitage says. “Nothing can phase you, no matter how weird the request is. They’ve hired you to take away their stress, not add to it, so you can’t buy into panic.” 

    After years on tour, maintaining and repairing guitars for bands on the go, Armitage decided to open his own repair shop. “I started the Guitar Hospital about 10 or 12 years ago. It was a side hustle then, because I was touring a lot more working for big bands. Gradually I knew I couldn’t do that forever.”

    He describes his current day-to-day work in a peaceful way, saying that now, “It’s just me, a cup of tea, a radio, and a pile of guitars that need attention.” 

    Photo credit: Jonny Swales on Unsplash

  • Sadiq Khan exclusive: ‘My focus is on jobs, jobs, jobs’

    Sadiq Khan exclusive: ‘My focus is on jobs, jobs, jobs’

    In the next in our series on the London mayoral election, Emily Prescott interviews the current mayor Sadiq Khan about education, the economy and his regret at trusting Boris Johnson

    Sadiq Khan has a few regrets. For instance, on the London Mayoral campaign trail a few weeks ago he tried to display his skills by performing bunny hops on a bicycle borrowed from a reporter. “The bike’s too heavy, it’s a nonsense bike,” he sighed as he failed to achieve lift-off. “On reflection, it may have been a mistake,” he concedes now.  

    These lighter moments of Boris-esque buffoonery are rare for Khan, and in reality, his regrets are not so quaint — at times he cries and at times he struggles to sleep.  “Every night when I go to bed, I am always reflective on what could have gone better during the day. I don’t ever think I’ve had a perfect day,”  he tells us via email. 

    Khan, who became London’s mayor after a landslide victory over his Conservative opponent Zac Goldsmith in 2016, has had a particularly tough year.  “A big regret I have is trusting the Prime Minister last March when he said he would follow the science in tackling Covid-19. It quite quickly became clear that this was not the case and unfortunately led to many avoidable deaths,” he says. 

    Indeed, more than 14,000 people have died in London hospitals following a positive COVID test. Khan himself has lost friends to the virus, one of whom was just 53 — three years older than the mayor. 

    Throughout the pandemic, Khan has been open about his emotional struggles. He has also openly expressed frustration at being excluded from key decisions by the Government and not being invited to COBRA meetings. His relationship with the prime minister is far from harmonious and we understand he is now off the prime minister’s Christmas list. “This pandemic should have been an opportunity for the Government to see Mayors across the country as its allies rather than adversaries,” he sighs.  

    If only he had more power.  Covid-19 has meant a vast expansion of Government control and cuts to Khan’s budget. “I think Mayors across the country have far too little power compared to our global counterparts,” Khan says, and adds: “For example, the Mayors of New York and Tokyo can spend 50 percent and 70 percent of tax raised in their cities compared with the seven percent I have as Mayor of London.”

    Although London mayors have few formal powers, they have big profiles and large platforms. And Khan is determined to keep whatever power he does have so he is staring down Shaun Bailey, the Tory candidate in what Khan says is a “two-horse race” on May 6.  

    “The Conservative candidate has shown Londoners time and time again that he will not stand up for our city and that he doesn’t share our values when it comes to openness, inclusion and diversity,” he says.  

    “I respect him as an individual,” he insists, but proceeds to say: “He has said terrible things about women, working class communities and multiculturalism… I find his views divisive and offensive.” Even when he’s talking about his rival, Khan has a respectfulness — while his supporters might say this is evidence of his level-headedness, his critics might say it is evidence of his weakness.

    Those who point to Khan’s weaknesses focus on his planned pedestrianisation of Oxford Street, which was vetoed by the Conservative-run Westminster Council, then of course there’s been the severely delayed opening of Crossrail. Meanwhile, his supporters often point to his introduction of the world’s first ultra-low emission zone. A recent report, which does not include falls in pollution after the first Covid-19 lockdown, found there has been a 94 per cent reduction in the number of people living in areas with illegal levels of nitrogen dioxide since Khan became mayor. 

    But if Khan gets elected again, he has a lot to do to revitalise London post-COVID. “I’ll urgently tackle the increase in unemployment with a relentless focus on jobs, revive tourism in central London and support a safe recovery for our hospitality and creative sectors. I am pursuing a vision for a brighter future for London that will make our capital greener, fairer and safer for all, and I will always stand up for our city against the most anti-London government in living memory,” he writes, rather like a press officer.  

    He adds: “I have a plan for supporting more than 170,000 well paid, future-proof jobs in the green economy as well as generating employment by supporting businesses, helping Londoners retrain and banging the drum for investment in our city from around the world.” 

    “My focus is on jobs, jobs, jobs,” he adds, echoing Blair’s infamous “education, education, education” speech. 

    Although running the schools doesn’t fall under the Mayor’s jurisdiction, Khan has been “working hard to close the digital divide across schools in London, allocating £1.5million towards school children accessing the equipment they need to learn throughout the pandemic and beyond.”  

    “I also back making relationships education for primary pupils and relationships and sex education for secondary pupils compulsory to promote learning about positive, healthy relationships of all shapes and sizes and counter unhealthy attitudes and behaviours which can, if left unchecked, evolve into bigotry, discrimination and even violence,” he tells us. 

    While Laurence Fox told FinitoWorld, rather confusingly, that he wanted to “recolonise the curriculum,” Khan is more articulate about how he thinks history classes should deal Britain’s colonial past. He has campaigned for black history to be part of the national curriculum. He explains: “Education has an important role to play in providing a more complete picture of our history and a better understanding of the historic and institutional reasons for racial inequality in Britain.” 

    Khan still lives in Tooting where he grew up on a housing estate. He was the son of a Pakistani immigrant bus driver and a piecework seamstress. He worked as a human rights lawyer before he was elected to parliament in 2005 and became London’s first Muslim MP. He insists he is there to represent all Londoners and to tackle inequality in the capital.

    “If re-elected, I will continue to lobby the government to make these changes to the National Curriculum and give schools the tools and support they need to empower a new generation of Londoners to strive towards a fairer and more equitable city,” he concludes.

    He may have failed to achieve lift-off on the bike on Hackney Marshes, but will his message land with Londoners this time? Almost definitely, but will he be able to work with the Prime Minister and implement the changes he talks about? Now that will be harder to get off the ground. 

  • James Daunt: Covid-19 has brought about a ‘permanent elevation’ in the importance of reading

    James Daunt: Covid-19 has brought about a ‘permanent elevation’ in the importance of reading

    Waterstones CEO talks to Georgia Heneage about the threat of Amazon, the pandemic and the future of the high street bookshop

    Despite the number of obstacles which stand in the way of high street bookshops thriving, bookselling giant and CEO of Waterstones James Daunt is infectiously optimistic. His passion for the paperback and belief in the physical experience of standing in a bookstore is compelling, even over Zoom.

    High street retail was stuck in a mire long before the mass closure of shops over the past year. The pandemic has, of course, been the final nail in the coffin for many shops across the country – apart from those like M&S, John Lewis and Next all of which, Daunt points out, have had the resources to pivot online and create “more modern and dynamic” systems. This response has placed further pressure on other businesses reliant on the footfall: “It’s a kind of self-perpetuating domino effect,” Daunt says.

    Bookshops, one might think, have not escaped this vicious cycle. Daunt, 57, points out that they’ve also suffered from the government’s “perverse definition” of what constitutes an ‘essential’ shop, and been in direct competition with those that have been able to stay open and sell books, like WHSmith and supermarkets. Like the majority of other shops, Daunt warned back in January of this year that Waterstones faced closures due to continuously high rent rates.

    But bookshops have also bucked the trend to some extent, both during the pandemic and pre-pandemic in what was sometimes called the slow death of the High Street. Daunt has been highly praised for leading Waterstones during what have been dark days for bookshops. And if the brief periods of reopening in the past year are anything to go by – and Daunt says they’ve been “very busy” during those times – bookstores have a better future than has often been predicted.

    Other kinds of retailers, though, he’s far less optimistic about. “It’s a savage environment,” he says, ever the fierce competitor. “If you’re not on top of your game, then you disappear.”

    Daunt is also keen to point out that this is the unique nature of bookselling. “I think the problem is that other retailers don’t have the same benefits as bookshops. At the end of the day, it’s actually not that much fun to go into a shoe shop or clothes shop. The great thing about a bookshop is that everybody likes being in it, whereas most other shops appeal to a narrow demographic.”

    Despite the looming threat of Amazon on the book world, Waterstones has been “able to prosper” over the past ten years and sales have been gradually increasing. This, says Daunt, is mostly down to the experience created in-store, which remains the main point of differentiation between Waterstones and Amazon, with the latter providing neither customer-facing relations nor a warm “social” environment.

    “Bookshops are nice places,” Daunt continues, “where you can find a book by recommendation or have the serendipity of picking up a book and thinking ‘Oh, I’ll read this’.” And the book you buy is “just better”. “I truly believe that there’s pleasure in walking out of a bookshop with a bag and feeling the weight of the book. You feel kind of virtuous – like you’ve almost read it.”

    If Daunt had to point out the singular most important ingredient of bookshops, it would be the people. If at the start of the 21st century everything was about “cutting costs and getting rid of staff”, the past decade has been marked by reinvesting in the people of the industry. “The personality of your shop is, at the end of the day, embedded in your staff. If you invest in knowledgeable people who care about what they do, you’ll run a much better bookshop: this is what underpins the strength of Waterstones.”

    And of course, this is another differentiator with Amazon, which has, in the past, been criticised for bad customer relations.

    Waterstones dominates a quarter of the book market, and has been able to thrive in recent years. But what of smaller independents, who collectively hold a mere 3 per cent share of the market? “The good ones are actually in a better position than chains like Waterstones,” Daunt says, pointing to the backing such shops receive from their local communities. And again, it’s “survival of the fittest”: “If you’re good enough, and you genuinely create a nice environment, you’ll be fine. The rise of Amazon actually weeded out all the weak ones, and it’s the good ones that remain,” Daunt argues.

    The other tech-oriented threat facing paperbacks is, of course, Ebooks. But if they surged in popularity around 2014, their retreat back into the shadows is testament to the difficulty of actually replicating the feel and texture of a book. “I can’t see how that’s ever going to be replicated in a way that also gives you all the other tangential pleasures that come with owning a book, or having a bookshelf- they are almost a diary of your life,” says Daunt.

    The really powerful new trend permeating the book world is Audiobooks, which has boomed in popularity – especially amongst older readers, with downloads increasing by 42.5 per cent in the first half of 2020 alone. Daunt is now also CEO of Barnes & Noble, which Elliott Advisers bought in 2019 for a reported $683 million, and the firm has started to set its horizons on the medium, with the launch of its Nook 10 HD tablet.

    Even so, Daunt doubts whether Waterstones will be able to follow suit. “The market share is tiny, because at the end of the day Amazon will always undercut. They invest much more, and they’ll always have the advantage of having created the market in the first place. Everybody else is just playing catch up.” He says that unless he can work out some way of “piggy-backing on the Barnes & Noble capability which, with different publishers and associated rights, will be complicated, Waterstones won’t be able to launch an audio subscription service.”

    Despite all this, Daunt remains ever-positive regarding the prospects of the book world. “There’s still the majority of people will prefer reading physical books. I think you just leave Mr Bezos to make all his money, and the rest of us can just prosper at what we do.”

    And if recent book-sale figures during the pandemic are anything to go by, appetite for reading is as voracious as it has been – if not more so. Daunt sees this as a pivotal moment for reading – a bit like the inception of the Harry Potter books, which changed many people’s book habits irrevocably and led to a “permanent elevation” of reading. “It may not stay at this level, but I’m optimistic it won’t fall back to the old level. I think there will be a permanent shift upwards.”

    That the majority of soaring book sales during the pandemic were non-fiction titles points to the fact that people are thirsty to learn about the world around them- a world increasingly beset with existential issues and polarised political debate. People are “energized”, says Daunt, “and books play a massive part in that.”

    Though for many the biggest single threat the world faces is climate change, Daunt says racial issues brought to the fore by the Black Lives Matter protests will be what people WILL remember of this year. How does he know this? “Our bestsellers last year were books essentially about race and inequality. And our market share as a bookseller was dramatically higher (up to 60%) on those issue-led books. People wanted to come into a bookshop and find out what works.”

    Reading – and if we take Daunt for his optimistic word – bookshops, too- are a reflection of the interests, passions and problems of an entire society. Daunt puts it simply and exactly: “Books sit at the heart of what matters.”

  • Opinion: it’s time to prepare for the post-Covid reality of hybrid working

    Opinion: it’s time to prepare for the post-Covid reality of hybrid working

    Stuart Thomson

    As we move towards a return of some normality and potentially the end of social distancing, more of us are focusing on a return to the workplace.  We all need to think about what we want from that return and recognise where careers could fall apart.

    While most of us are celebrating being able to return to the office, see colleagues and attend networking events, few of us see ourselves back in the office full time. As employer policies on agile working start to be published, the vast majority are trying to strike a balance between home working and office working.

    But that may not suit everyone, especially those at the start of building their careers.

    The old ways of learning and gaining experiences from a team based in an office have, in effect, been demolished by Covid-19.  The chance of working in a single team or alongside one person who would take responsibility to lead and mentor is much diminished.  These people simply will not be around as much to learn from.

    That is not necessarily all bad, as it could involve being exposed to a wider range of styles to learn from, but it will make it much more difficult to manage.  For those starting out, they must try to grab more control, and responsibility for their own careers from the outset.  We are all just starting to work through the new reality, and no one can claim to have all the answers.

    So, what are some of the questions we should be thinking about?

    Do you have the ability to manage upwardly?  We all need to have a way of making our voices heard and not get left behind. Those in management roles need to be listening and action plans need to be developed as a consequence.

    Are the reporting lines clear?  If you end up in a situation where you work with whoever happens to be in the office that day, do you have a way to manage your time and capture feedback? No one person will see you in the way that would have been the case in the past.

    How is work assigned to you and how do you maintain your visibility?  Being in the office is one thing – people knowing that you are there is another.  However, even when a manager is in the office, they will try to maximise the productivity of their time as they see it.  That could mean spending time with papers they may not otherwise have access to or, more likely, trying to have meetings with those who are around. So, facetime could ironically be even more difficult to achieve.

    There is a clear danger of an inequality emerging in the workplace between those who feel that they have to spend more time in the office and those more established members who see no real reason to be in the office that often.

    I’ve often considered the virtual Covid world to be the easier part of the adaptation in the workplace. More difficult is the more hybrid approach of some in the office and some out.  If we are all virtual that is one thing but how do workplaces cope with a ‘some in, some out’ position?  Again, these pressures will be worse for newer team members.

    If employers are not being clear about any of this then it is all our roles to hold them to account. Ask employers what they are proposing. They should be thinking about your interests and talking to you about their plans.

    The writer is Head of Public Affairs at BDB Pitmans

  • How philanthropy became an industry

    How philanthropy became an industry

    Georgia Heneage

    You may not have heard of him but last week Matt Moulding became Britain’s most generous man.

    The son of a road-surfacer, Moulding is self-made: he left school at 16 to work in a local felt factory but returned to finish A-Levels after being tracked down by his economics teacher, who believed that he had great potential. He then worked for various tech firms before setting up The Hut Group, which floated on the stock exchange last September for £4.5 billion. Moulding has decided to give £100 million pounds of it to a domestic abuse charity -100% of which he could have received in rent payments from the business.

    Such instances of generous philanthropy are not uncommon in an era in which billionaires are multiplying at a staggering rate – most of them tech oligarchs – at the same time as world poverty is soaring and the climate collapsing. Lord Sainsbury, the UK’s second biggest philanthropist, has donated tens of billions in the past decade to the Liberal Democrats, the arts, education and humanitarian sector, and the British Museum – to name a few.

    But as a well-established and well-structured sector, what does charity mean in the modern age?

    To answer this question we might revisit the complex and long-standing origins of ‘philanthropy’. It’s earliest form was almsgiving (giving money to the poor) in the medieval period, which was rooted in religious duty. In the 16th century more secular concepts of charity emerged from the schism between Catholic and Protestant (and their competing notions of what charity should be) during the reformation.

    Then, at the beginning of the 17th century, Elizabeth I introduced a law making charities more accountable, after which the first legal definition of charities was created. This went on to form the basis of UK charity law.

    The sector became much more systematic around the late 18th century, when modern concepts of corporations as standalone legal units began taking shape, and philanthropists pooled resources and combined their efforts.

    Then, of course, came the Victorian age, where philanthropy sky-rocketed: the industrial revolution and the ubiquity of manufacturing jobs brought about increased poverty, and this led to more state involvement in welfare issues. With the onset of liberal politics and the Labour movement in the 20th century, philanthropy was brought under the bureaucratic wing of the government.

    So where does this leave us now? Today philanthropy is so widespread that quite apart from roles within the charities themselves, ancillary jobs have grown up around the industry. Lawyers might specialise in charities. Bates Wells is arguably preeminent in the area, with Farrer & Co. another revered firm which offers opportunities. Banks and investment firms have professionals dedicated to advising clients on the ‘giving’ aspect of their portfolios. The charities themselves are more and more run like businesses, meaning that they require advice on a whole range of issues from HR and tech, to transactional activity and litigation aspects.

    In 2021, the cultural prevalence of identity politics and human rights issues has fostered renewed interest in philanthropy. And Covid-19 has, as ever, made its mark in this sector too: charitable actions during the pandemic – such as the late captain Captain Sir Tom Moore’s charity walk or the countless other marathons people did in their back gardens – may be an indicator of a population shaken into giving back to the community and helping others during a collective crisis.

    The figures certainly show this: according to a 2020 report by Charities Aid Foundation (CAF), though less face-to-face interactions during Covid meant physical fundraising declined, large and sustained “cashless” donations and general trust in charities increased.

    Between January and June 2020, the public donated a total of £5.4 billion to charity – an increase of £800 million compared to the same period in 2019. And the charity sector may be one of the few positive instances of digitalization; research shows that social media is the biggest inspirer of donations and emails the biggest format of donating.

    Yet a cursory glance over the history of philanthropy is enough to see how it has gradually changed from well-meaning charitable acts of well-endowed individuals to an industrialised sector; and how, in some instances, it’s been enveloped by the competitive wing of capitalism.

    There has been a worrying number of cases of corruption and misspend funds in the charity sector, which has given rise to nicknaming some large charities “briefcase NGOs”- where the funding system is warped so that money goes directly into the pockets of those who run the organisation. As one Guardian article suggests, many NGOs start out with “noble intentions” – intentions which are soon corrupted by international funding agencies which “dictate” the terms and cause the NGOs to realign their priorities with those of the patrons.

    It is proving difficult for charities to maintain integrity in the brittle and competitive world of NGOs; yet as the faultlines between the rich and poor widen, and the environmental crisis we face grows nearer, philanthropy’s role will become ever more necessary. Individual endowments – such as those given by the likes of Moulding, Lord Sainsbury and Bill Gates – are diamonds in the rough. But for ordinary people who want to give back and whose pockets are not so heavy, the path needs to become more transparent.

  • Opinion: It’s time to try the four-day working week

    Opinion: It’s time to try the four-day working week

    Patrick Crowder

    Nicola Sturgeon has promised a four-day work week for Scotland if the Scottish National Party is re-elected in May. This announcement came alongside promises of increased NHS funding, free dentistry, and another referendum on Scottish independence. 

    The pandemic has raised questions about the need for the traditional office, as well as concerns about a healthy work-life balance. 

    The SNP manifesto, which was published yesterday, states that “Covid-19 changed the way we work almost overnight,” and that the party wants “to do more to support people (to) achieve a healthy work-life balance.”

    According to his spokesperson, Boris Johnson currently “has no plans” to introduce a decreased work week in the UK. 

    Looking to history, the four-day week follows a trend in decreasing hours which dates back to the industrial revolution. Before the 1920s, workers often laboured for over 70 hours a week. Henry Ford’s introduction of the 40-hour, five-day work week at his factories laid the foundation for the schedule we operate on today. 

    With so many people now working from home, many have noticed that their jobs take significantly less time than their traditional hours allowed for. This does not necessarily mean that people waste time at work purposefully, but instead it could point to increased productivity in a less stressful environment.

    A 2013 Stanford study showed that productivity at a Chinese travel agency rose by 13% when employees were allowed to work from home at least one day a week. Through employee satisfaction surveys, that same study also showed that employees were happier when they worked from home. Even if Britain is not ready to take Fridays off completely, this shows that productivity can be increased with just one fewer day in the office.

    Spain recently became the latest country to trial the four-day working week. Companies which take part will operate on 32 hours a week and receive funding from the government to avoid lowering employees’ wages. If Spain’s experiment proves effective, it will force other countries to reconsider their own working practices going forward.

    Spain will spend about £44 million on the program, while the SNP promises to “establish a £10 million fund to allow companies to pilot and explore the benefits of a four-day working week.”

    The shift towards a four-day work week differs from the “compressed” work schedule already offered by some employers across the UK. Rather than decrease hours with no pay cut, a compressed schedule redistributes normal hours across fewer days. 

    A 2018 study into the causes of work impairment conducted at an Australian mining company found that stress was a major cause of lack of productivity. Out of 893 employees, 375 reported that they felt stressed at work, and over 20% of stressed employees reported that they needed to take at least one day off work in the past month. 

    Criticisms of the compressed schedule include increased stress, rushed work, and increased pressure from employers to complete the same volume of work in a shorter time period. We know that employees work more productively in lower stress environments, so it is important to make sure that efforts to free people from the five-day week are not counterproductive.

    The foundation of our working schedule has remained essentially stagnant for 100 years. As times change with automation, faster computing, and the ability to work from home, it is time to establish a new standard of work which will benefit both employer and employee.

    The success or failure of this new model will fundamentally change the way we think about work, and soon the Friday productivity slump may be a thing of the past.

    —————————————————————————————————————-

    Australian mining study: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6339264/

    Stanford work from home study: https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/faculty-research/working-papers/does-working-home-work-evidence-chinese-experiment

    Photo credit:  Krisztina Papp on Unsplash

  • Chuks Iloegbunam: Letter from Nigeria

    Chuks Iloegbunam: Letter from Nigeria

    Without a significant move by the UK government, Africa’s most populous country will implode, writes Chuks Iloegbunam 

    Thanks to social media, news of the massacre of peaceful protesters in Lekki, Lagos, rapidly spread throughout the world. How did it happen that, in apparently democratic Nigeria, soldiers opened fire on their fellow citizens peacefully protesting systemic police brutality by waving the Nigerian flag and singing the national anthem? 

    Lekki needs to be put in context. Even in colonial Nigeria, massacres were commonplace. When the civil war came in 1967, it accentuated the devaluation of human life. At the war’s end in 1970, millions lay dead, finished off by indiscriminate bombing and strafing, as well as starvation and protein malnutrition. 

    It is a country which doesn’t look after its young. Youth unemployment stands at 13.9 million according to the Nigerian National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), which also states that the Nigerian youth population eligible for work is a staggering 40 million. 

    Insecurity caused by Boko Haram terrorists, Fulani herdsmen terrorists and Niger Delta militants are often cited as reasons for this, but a sizeable portion of the unemployed are also unemployable due to the lack of basic skills. The country lacks the sort of social security taken for granted in Britain and elsewhere in Europe and North America. There are no unemployment benefits. As a matter of fact, the employed are often owed unpaid salaries for upwards of ten months, even years. 

    The government also has a history of keeping this state of affairs in position – and again it does so with violence. On February 1, 1971, Kunle Adepeju, an undergraduate of the University of Ibadan was killed during a students’ demonstration against poor catering services. The Police claimed that a stray bullet from one of its guns had felled Adepeju. The nation was scandalised. The university was shut down and a board of inquiry instituted to determine what truly happened.  

    Many other examples might be cited – from the Bakalori massacrre on 28th April 1980 to the destruction of Odi on November 20th 1999. It is a long and melancholy history of government suppression.  

    Today, Nigeria boasts about 172 tertiary institutions, annually churning out tens of thousands of young men and women with little hope of employment. Only unserious societies remain blissfully uncaring about the place and disposition of alienated youths about half of whom have been trained in the sciences and have at their fingertips the knowhow to upset the applecart. 

    Graduates with intent to do business or go into manufacturing are hampered by lack of funds. The government has not created any new industries in the last five years. It has not paid any attention to setting up new refineries. 

    The national currency, the Naira, has continued to plummet in value. There was a time when the naira was superior to both the dollar and the pound sterling. But $1 today exchanges for anything between N400 and N450. 

    The displacement of whole populations that end up across Nigerian borders, or inside Internally Displaced People’s (IDPs) camps mean a devaluation of farming, grave loss to incomes and hikes in food prices. 

    But the world is changing – and Nigeria with it.  In 2015, earthmoving equipment was used to dig mass graves into which hundreds of slain Shiites were buried. But video clips of the dastardly act are in existence. Now, nearly everyone wields the immense power that is the cell phone. For this, grotesqueries like Lekki rebuff concealment. In real time, the massacre was filmed and transmitted across the globe. Official denials that it happened have been quite thoroughly discredited through credible investigations by various standards-setting organisations, including CNN. 

    Bizarrely, the authorities are hounding those thought to have led the #endSARS demonstrations, instead of addressing their grievances. They are confiscating passports, freezing bank accounts and shoving into detention people guilty only of participating in peaceful demonstrations. In this regard, informed Nigerians cannot get over Britain’s taciturnity in relation to a country it colonised and in which it still wields incomparable influence. In fact, repeated Downing Street administrations are seen as complicit in Nigeria’s determined abysmal plunge.  

    This complicity may explain why the International Criminal Court (ICC) which indicted al-Bashir has not considered a similar action on certain Nigerians whose wantonness makes the former Sudanese dictator to look like a Sunday school teacher. That is why British opinion influencers with conscience must look beyond Whitehall and systematically mobilise voices to interrogate Nigeria before it implodes. 

    Iloegbunam is a Nigerian journalist and novelist. 

    Photo credit: Joshua Oluwagbemiga on Unsplash