ItsDevelopmental - content + technology + people

Car hire: the one way rip-off

Been meaning to post this for a while - excuse the ranty nature. A few weeks ago I had to take a big tent from Croydon to Bath. For some stupid reason I defaulted to thinking car hire would be the cheapest and easiest option. It was neither.

At the time of booking with Alamo I did not recall seeing any charges presented to me on the booking pages. However, I have just retried the same booking and the site now tells me there is an additional £39 charge for taking the car one way.

So, booked the car at £37 thinking that was it for charges, had a 45 minute journey to an industrial estate (not near public transport - told you it wasn't easy) to pick up the car. Once there, was told of the £39 one way charge and then took the damage waiver charge of £15 (why can't it be included?). Total fee £90.

Young family and old parents: the caring challenge

OK, I haven't become the full time carer that some people are but the events of the last few days have given me a glimpse of how things might develop over the coming months and years.

A week last Sunday was the last day of paternity leave - we had a baby girl. Whilst driving to Oxford to see my sister-in-law's baby - a boy who had been born that day (yes, our family is populating the world at speed :-))- I received a call from my brother informing me that my mother had suffered a mild stroke.

I was surprised at how upset I got on hearing this - despite the fact I was told mum got to hospital quickly and was OK. She has since been making a good recovery and is now back at home.

However, she was in hospital for a week which meant I stayed with my father and took him to hospital in the evening. I work away from home and our office is close to where my mum and dad live so helping out was easy to do.

My mum is in her late 70s and my father in his early 80s - they had us two boys late in their life (I'm in my late 30s and brother early 40s).

Video: the social media revolution

Definition of a meme

Taken from Wikipedia:

The term "Internet meme" refers to a catchphrase or concept that spreads rapidly from person to person via the internet, largely through email, blogs, forums, social networking sites, and instant messaging. The term derives from the original concept of memes, although it has come to refer to a much more narrowly defined category of cultural information. Examples include Rickrolling, lolcats, "Leave Britney Alone", Keyboard Cat and "All your base are belong to us".

Video: Seth Godin talks at Google in 2006

Old but gold . . .

Presentation: social media one year on

Props to @adders for pointing to this, which he posted here. Had to post as well :-)

What the F**K is Social Media: One Year Later

View more documents from Marta Kagan.

Presentation: culture at Netflix

Culture

View more presentations from reed2001.

On a break for paternity leave

Wow, at last I remembered by password and am able to post something. I am on week three of a month off work for maternity leave. We have a beautiful baby girl and we are all well, so all good.

It is absolutely fantastic that I am able to take so much time off at this life changing time. Got a few posts stored up in my head so will start to write them!

Making money from social media

Good post from Karl Schneider on the huge opportunities in social media. Note: the same rules do not apply so be prepared to engage as your brand is/will get talked about and in ways you may not like.

Video: a novel way of promoting unions