Rob J Glover
Thirty something going on almost Forty, 'digital type' person but old enough to remember typewriters. Often accused of being a ‘hipster’, not sure what that means. Definitely confused and always curious. Busy trying to unlearn my entire education and become more child-like full of wonder.
I do stuff, I talk about stuff but I feel doing is more important than talking about doing so I try very hard to shut up and get on with stuff. I like the word stuff.
Asked what I do for a living often. Always struggle to answer that. I make it up as I go along. Boring question anyway.
Been thinking about getting a business card for three years now. Will probably get one with my name on it – could be useful.
Twitter - updates and shares- Personal Blog - thoughts & general stuff
- LinkedIn - professional profile & work history
- Instagram - random pictures
- Exeter Social Media - a personal project
- Contact Me
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Tweets
- RT @GeneratorHub: pictures from last nights @CorkscrewHub pitch night on our FB page http://t.co/vyZS5GmM0T while you're there you can 'Lik…
- Great work from the @CorkscrewHub guys from Sweden, Germany, France, Spain, Netherlands & Ireland @GeneratorHub pitch night done, now pizza!
- Last one! Photo Bomb! Gaming, Photo, Travel App from Ireland http://t.co/DfrwYP7ToU @CorkscrewHub @GeneratorHub
- Resurrect App - bring history to life. Another great idea from Sweden @CorkscrewHub @GeneratorHub http://t.co/h7y6GEjhzB
- Always so impressed how well our European friends speak English! Better than my French, German, Dutch & Swedish!!
- 'Salad on Wheels' serving the stressed people of Frankfurt http://t.co/FPKkm1vjWC @CorkscrewHub @GeneratorHub
- Next up Sweden and 'keep sake' visualise your achievement http://t.co/Bagb35iRdH pitch night @CorkscrewHub @GeneratorHub
- RT @GeneratorHub: If your interest has been peeked by @robjglover tweets on @CorkscrewHub pitch night, get in touch if you'd like to come t…
- Back in the room with a LED touch table idea http://t.co/AZOAQAqwTt @CorkscrewHub pitch night @GeneratorHub
- Really great half to the @CorkscrewHub pitch night. New business ideas from across Europe here in #exeter @GeneratorHub
- Nice closing line: "your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to ask me a question" @CorkscrewHub @GeneratorHub
- Next up CovertOps: city of spies http://t.co/9he5E8SBIK espionage theme city tours in France @CorkscrewHub @GeneratorHub
- Question from audience: "what's to stop it becoming a brothel?"!!! @CorkscrewHub @GeneratorHub
- Hangover Hotels http://t.co/vJ5Vs9GUr9 audience already interested @CorkscrewHub @GeneratorHub from the Irish (of course!)
- Off to @GeneratorHub to be in the @CorkscrewHub 'pitch night' audience
- @mistergough put X Jam Gov on http://t.co/pSWgh2Ulir :)
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Posts
- Mar 01, 13
As part of the Animated Exeter Festival I and 3 friends played ‘Timewinders’ created by Slingshot Effect a pervasive game specialist from Bristol. The game was aimed at a family audience, although we were all hairy adults (sorry Kelda) and the premiss was that bits of Exeter’s timestream was thrown out of sync either into the future or the past by the evil Benthos (booo!) and it was our job to restore the time line with our time stream stabiliser. What this actually meant was we went around key points in the city centre trying to complete various challenges.
I was little worried before hand that the event might be too child focussed but the guys at Slingshot did and excellent job of balancing the game so that adults and kids would enjoy it. The games were an audio-visual treat and some were quite challenging, especially because it was against the clock (think low budget Crystal Maze). Although that might have something to do with us being slow-witted adults!
I loved the blend of clever technology and actors keeping the story narrative going. The only thing missing in my opinion was the Social sharing aspect (but hey that’s my bag so I would pick up on that) but overall it was a well thought-out game that was throughly enjoyable, shame it only lasted for an hour, I could have played all day.
The experience got me thinking about augmenting the smart phone quiz and treasure hunts I have done in the past. So watch this space Exeter there might be more pervasiveness coming soon.
- Dec 31, 12
There is a lot of chatter about Apple bringing out the next big thing for TV and changing the market like they did with the iDevices. This is not going to happen.
Look at where they are now. It’s a mess. Over priced content in over bloated software with idiotic rules and restrictions on what you can and can’t do. Fair enough it’s not all Apples fault. The movie industry saw what happened to the music industry and they’re not having any of that!
But seriously Apple, even with unconvinced content creators your experience sucks and you have complete control over that. Case in point, I downloaded the Avengers movie in HD via iTunes which looks great on my Cinema Display, however when I tried to send the audio via AirPlay it wouldn’t work. After some googling I discovered it’s not supported in my version of the OS (only a year old) what was the thinking behind that? Give me HD vision but limit my audio to tiny little built-in speakers! And I don’t think it was an oversight when great lengths have been made to disable third-party work-arounds.
Sure, I can upgrade to the latest OS but what Apple gives with one hand it’s takes with the other and I am loathed to upgrade, although I’m resigned to doing it at some point.
To be fair to Apple some things it does well, as long as you stay within their tight definition of what is acceptable. But over all their movie/TV experience is disjointed, not logical and over priced.
And I don’t think they are the company that will solve this any more. If I were to close my eyes I’d swear Apple is turning into Microsoft, an un-innovative monopolistic behemoth.
Maybe the next generation TV needs to be built by a company that is hungry, innovative and experienced with consumer electronics, Samsung the floor is yours.
- Dec 31, 12
Sat here in a Cafe enjoying a cup of coffee a thought occurs about the TV license. I assume that the Cafe doesn’t have a license to show TV, there are not any TV sets anywhere. But of course there are, many. Every smart phone and tablet can get live TV these days.
By and large that’s not so much of a problem because anyone who has a TV license at home is covered to watch TV on the move. But wait a minute, I don’t. So what’s to stop me from watching live TV in this cafe on my tablet? And who exactly is breaking the Law? I suspect me. But in all honesty how would I get caught?
I should point out at this stage I don’t do this, not because I can’t but because I genuinely want to live my life with out broadcast TV. I also don’t think at the moment this is a huge issue but what if 10% of people become like me and give up the TV license?
Isn’t this going to cause a funding problem when enough people find out how easy it is to get away with watching BBC content for free?
I mention 10% because I think that’s an achievable number and I think that’s all it would take to have a significant effect on the BBCs funds.
I wonder how long the BBC can rely on the honour system to be the guardian of their funds. In the past they relied on the back up of the detector vans and inspectors but its not possible to roam Cafes and the streets trying to catch people illegally viewing TV.
- Dec 15, 12
During the many technical fails recently with the BBC’s iPlayer I have been forced to delve deep into my Mac’s operating system to rescue unnecessarily deleted shows. Thanks to the fabulous Time Machine I have been able to get my downloaded shows back.
The interesting thing I noticed while doing this is that once the shows are restored to the iPlayer the expiration date resets back to 30 days. This got me thinking, this is an easy way of getting around the 30 day limit.
All you need to do once a show has been automatically deleted 7 days after you view it is go into the iPlayer download directory then launch Apple’s Time Machine. As long as it is set up correctly and is backing your files to an external drive then you can browse back in time to view all the previously downloaded shows, when you find the one you’re looking for, click restore and hey presto it pops back into the iPlayer with a new 30 day expiration date.
It’s not only The Doctor that can time travel! (Of course if you Time Machine an episode of Dr Who you might create a paradox and the planet might explode! – I accept no liability if this happens
- Nov 25, 12
A couple of years ago FourSquare was touted as the next big thing, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn were surging forward and the tech community were scanning for the next big thing. Location based services were considered to be the future and FourSquare was battling it out with Gowalla to become poster child. And for a while all was good.
Here in Exeter, my home town in the UK the usage of FourSquare was small but growing and there did seem to be a buzz around it. Sure, there were plenty of skeptics who laughed at the idea of check-ins but after the first time I got a free pint at The Oddfellows bar in the city for becoming mayor I was hooked.
But…
Two years later and nearly all my tech-savvy friends have stopped using it and I rarely use FourSquare’s app or website. What went wrong? Why did FourSquare not become the next big thing nor did any location service?
There are many reasons I’m sure but I’ve always felt that lack of leadership was one of the key problems. Taking Exeter as an example, I mentioned the Oddfellows bar that took an early active lead in offering a free pint to the Foursquare Mayor but they were one of only few places that offered anything in the city. And there was practically no promotion at all, only the adventurous geek really knew that it was out there.
Even tipping my hat to Oddfellows for doing it they only took advantage of the Mayorship system within FourSquare not any of the other options like group check-ins or friend referrals. The problem with the mayorship system is that it could be duped, so it soon lost its value.
The problem was lack of leadership by venues/retailers, at best some made a half-hearted effort whilst most ignored it all together. The public were never going to buy into something if the rewards weren’t there and it seemed the retailers wouldn’t invest time in it if the public weren’t using it. A classic vicious circle.
FourSquare is currently trying to reinvent itself as more of a city guide and I am going to investigate its opportunities in Exeter but I fear it’s time has past and the future is one of terminal decline or acquisition and shutdown like its once rival Gowalla.
Which is a shame because I still feel there are exciting opportunities for venues and retailers in the location reward arena and still I don’t see the big social networks really getting grips with it.
- Nov 23, 12
I’ve been spending a lot of time recently in Coffee Shops. Partly because of the Exeter Free Wifi Directory and partly because I like to catch up on my social media stuff and blog in the ambient surroundings of Coffee Shops.
Starbucks has been in the news recently about its lack of tax contribution in the UK through clever financial schemes and I have read a lot about how this is negatively affecting the brand. That as maybe but I think Starbucks has a bigger problem than tax avoidance. (Because lets face they are no worse than Amazon, Apple, Google et al.)
My problem with Starbucks is their customer experience. For a company that brought back the Coffee Shop to the centre of popular culture now seems to lag far behind the competition in terms of customer experience. And I believe this is far more damaging to their brand.
As the UK’s largest Coffee chain they are being hit hard by competition from all sides. Nationally Caffe Nero is out gunning them on quality (of Coffee and staff training in my opinion) and Costa (the UK’s no.2) is beating them on convenience, you never seem to be further than a few miles from a Costa coffee these days. The are also being hit hard by local independents and regional independents that offer a bespoke ‘local’ experience.
And their answer to this is to offer a mediocre ‘lowest common denominator’ experience, weak coffee, served from ‘McDonalds’ style staff pushing a button on a vending machine. The store in Exeter high street then offers you an uncomfortable ‘airport lounge’ seating round the back of the toilet block with practically no natural light at all.
I’m sorry but if you are asking me for £2+ for a cup of coffee I expect a bit of a show when you make it and a quality ambience when I drink it. If I wanted a ‘McDonalds’ type of experience I’d go to McDonalds and save a quid in the process – and the coffee is just as good in my opinion.
All of this smells of the accountants calling the shots at Starbucks, I’m sure that financially it makes sense offer this kind of experience but somehow I feel Starbucks has lost its soul. The great pioneer is now swimming at the bottom of the coffee pond. Will its brand become so tainted that it sinks with out a trace? I really feel it could do, it will take time but already one of the Starbucks in Exeter has closed – the start of a trend?
One thing the Exeter Free Wifi Directory has told me is that there are some great independents in the city and they are far beyond needing a US corporate giant to show them how to do a Coffee Shop.
- Nov 13, 12
TVCatchUp is an app that streams most TV channels to your phone or tablet with a slight delay. I was wondering as technically this isn’t ‘live’ TV does it fall under the TV license rules?
Reading the online forums and the TV license website it appears to meet the condition ‘as show on TV’ so although not technically ‘live’ it is broadcast in a linear fashion like TV not in a non-linear ‘catch-up’ TV service where you choose the order in which you view content.
So TVCatchUp is caught by the Law and a TV license is required to use it. Of course it begs the question how would you get caught using this service? But I’ll leave that debate for another blog post. But for the time being…
Bye bye TVCatchUp. Press and hold. Delete. Are you sure? Yes.
- Nov 13, 12
One of the first things I did when switching to consuming content on demand is investigate the BBC’s iPlayer, I’d used the streaming service before and was aware of the download software but never tried it.
After downloading and installing it I was pleased to see that not only could I download and keep BBC content for a month but it had a ‘Series Catch-up’ button which I thought would be great to get a whole series without forgetting a particular episode. Something I might add that I am very lightly to do!
The big bonus for me with the iPlayer was that in the preferences I could specify that series catch-up downloads should only be made after midnight. This is great for me as I have a 60GB download limit on my broadband but anything downloaded between midnight and 8am doesn’t count towards the total.
So off I went and set up iPlayer to download stuff and within a day or two I had over 12GBs of BBC TV goodness to enjoy.
Whilst using the player to watch back some TV when it was convenient (living the dream!) a box popped up to say there was an update and would I like to install. Pre-conditioned to click yes I did so little knowing the consequences.
The next time I went to watch a download up came an error message and it deleted my unwatched program. Over the following days it transpired that all of my downloads won’t work and were promptly deleted. I was furious!
Not only did I not get to see the programs I also couldn’t watch some of them online as they tend to be only available for 7 days after broadcast. And when you’ve recorded a series and then are forced to miss an episode it’s upsetting. Furthermore I was potentially using bandwidth without getting anything in return.
The lesson here is that all this is new technology and the only thing you can rely on is that it will let you down. Eventually the BBC responded online to say that there was a compatibility problem with the latest version of Adobe Air (the cross-platform run time technology that the iPlayer runs on) and they were working to resolve it.
Whilst I bemoan the unreliability of new technology it also came to my rescue a few days later as on a forum I discovered how to uninstall Air and find an older compatible version, re-install and use Apple’s fabulous Time Machine software to restore the deleted programs.
- Nov 10, 12
Within a couple of weeks of moving into my new digs the TV licensing letter pops through the letter box. Not unexpected but it did raise the question since I now don’t have a TV do I need a license?
It would be a good point to mention that my reasons for not having a TV are not at all about saving the license fee. The value of the BBC and the way it’s funded via the TV license fee is another conversation but I’m not worried about paying the £145.50 fee, I’m curious what the rules are, since surely the fee only applies if you have a TV.
Well, not quite.
Reading the letter it makes it clear that if you watch TV on any device including computers, phones or tablets you need a license. So I checked out their website for further guidance and after much searching around didn’t seem to get a straight answer to exactly where law lies in my case. (There was even a link to the official 2003 Communications Act which was unintelligible.)
I was confused. I had read on the iPlayer website that you didn’t need a license to use the catch-up service and the TV licensing website seems rather vague, it seemed I needed a license.
Searching further I came across a really great and clear answer on the Citizens Advice Bureau’s Advice Guide website.
You need a TV Licence to use any television-receiving equipment to watch or record TV programmes as they are being shown on TV. These include programmes on the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, cable and satellite television…
…You don’t need a TV licence if you only ever watch catch-up services, like BBC i-Player, that let you watch programmes after they have been broadcast.
So it’s seems pretty clear to me that if I don’t watch ‘live’ as it was broadcast TV I don’t need a license. As my stated aim was not just to get rid of my TV but also to consume content on demand not as broadcast I think I am exempt.
So the TV licensing authority have been notified, I wait and see what results. (With the clearly made threat of a fine and possible jail if I’m wrong!)
But wait a minute. What if I did watch live TV on my phone or tablet, how would they know? More to the point how would I prove that I don’t? What happens if I accidentally touch the ‘live’ button on all the BBC’s websites and apps? This is getting even more confusing!
What is clear is that here is a system that is not adapting well to a changing world. If more and more people make the same decision as me will it make us all criminals and won’t it cause a funding problem for the BBC?
This is an intriguing situation spiced with a little bit of danger (for me)! Am I a pioneer in this emerging digital age or a dirty little criminal dodging the law and cheating the BBC?
The adventure continues…
- Nov 01, 12
I recently moved house and decided to leave an old friend behind. Someone who I grew up with, have laughed and cried with. Someone who has educated me, thrilled me, frightened me and yes mainly entertained me. Of course its my TV. And no, it’s not really a someone its a thing, a blinking box of metal, glass and plastic. But this thing has probably consumed more of my life that most other things with the exception of sleep, work and education.
But for the past few years I have found less and less time to let this thing into my life and so when I moved it stayed. Goodbye old friend.
I’m not saying that the content on TV is not worth watching (though some of it…) it’s just I no longer want or need to watch it when someone else dictates and I don’t need to sit there passively consuming it. The content can come to me whenever I want, wherever I am and I can interact with it.
Well that’s the theory.
So now that its gone and I am living the digital dream I intend to blog about my experiences.
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Info
- Summary
All things Web related.
I help businesses and organisations make the most of the opportunities available to them online. From Websites to Social Media and everything in between.
Find me helping businesses in and around Exeter at West Quarter Studio a full service design/print/web/marketing studio based in Exeter.
Find me building a community around the innovative new co-work space, The Generator in Dix's field Exeter.
Find me helping ambitious companies & organisations across the UK to build and manage their Brand Communities with my boutique digital agency rocketman.
My specialties: Brand Communities, Service Design, Marketing & PR, Social Media, Graphic Design, Web Design & Development, Open Source Content Management Systems, Joomla!, Wordpress, Google, SEO, SEM, SMO
Experience- Jan 2013 - PresentWeb & Marketing Manager / West Quarter Studio
Help small and medium sized businesses in and around Exeter with their Web and Marketing needs
- Nov 2012 - PresentCommunity Manager / The Generator Work Hub
An innovative space in Exeter for Freelancers, Businesses, Social Eneterprises to cowork. I'm currently building a community around this space. Get in touch if you'd like to know more.
- Jun 2010 - PresentFounder & CEO / Rocketman
I build and manage Brand Communities
- Feb 2012 - Aug 2012Marketing Manager / Event Decor8
Marketing Manager for Event Decor8 offering exciting franchise opportunities across the UK for people to run their own exciting creative business.
- Jan 2011 - Mar 2011Lead Organiser / Exeter Twestival
Exeter Twestival was on Thursday 24th March. Raising money for local Charity Exeter Leukaemia Fund (E.L.F.) find out more at http://exeter.twestival.com/
- Jan 2009 - Jan 2010Online Business Manager / Uzanda Ltd
Developing and managing Company's online Strategy and Managing Web Sites and Social Media.
- Sept 1999 - Mar 2008Marketing Director / Sonic Entertainment Ltd
Day to day Marketing and PR strategy and implementation.
Education-
1997 - 1999Marjons, PlymouthBA(Hons) 2:1 in Information Technology with Public Relations
Additional Information-
Websites:
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Interests:Outdoor stuff in the South West and beyond; Walking, Hiking, Treks, Wild Camping, Canoeing, Kayaking, Surfing, Cycling, Climbing, Caving. Arts, Design, Film, New and Old Media, General Business News and Events. Retail and Entertainment sectors.
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Photos
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Exeter Social Media - a personal project
Exeter Social Media
This is a personal project to connect, share and support social media stuff in Exeter, UK.
There is the Exeter Social Media blog where I talk about stuff thats interesting in the city and there is the Exeter Free Wifi Drectory that has a growing list of reviews of places in the city that you can get free wifi to work or meet.
