Bear Flag Republic Radio Weblog

Point, Click & Wow!: A Quick Guide to Brilliant Laptop Presentations.

"Point, Click & Wow! is comprehensive, practical and full of examples as well as stories and observations contributed by over a hundred other presentation experts. Here is a comment that I agree with thoroughly: 'The average presenter flashes PowerPoint on the screen and then delivers a message. That's not good enough. The new generation of audiences grew up watching MTV, eating Taco Bell, and using the Playstation as entertainment and a way to sleep. They will be BORED with headers, bullets, text, and corner graphics. Keep them interested with DV clips, gif animations, and interesting sounds. BUT don't put them there just because you can--make them fit with the message....'

The book is reasonably priced at $19.95. Caveat: Some online vendors are still marketing the first edition. Make sure you get the more current New and Revised Edition, Second edition, 2002.

I find it remarkable that our culture is saturated with visual forms of communication (TV, movies, videos, computer games and graphics in print) yet most people are "visually illiterate" and visual communication is rarely taught in school. Point, Click & Wow! is valuable because it bundles the entire presentation process, including graphics, into a simple step by step procedure...." [LLRX.com]

If we don't buy this book at work, I'm going to get it for myself. I'm torn on the whole Powerpoint issue because on the one hand, the kinds of talks I give require good, well-paced visuals in order to avoid glazed looks. On the other hand, most of my audience isn't ready for all of the bells and whistles mentioned above.

Although I don't have a compatible handheld, I think using a PDA with Margi would be a wonderful way to prove the technology and show its potential.

[The Shifted Librarian]
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Tomorrow or later today I'm going to write a piece about the role software magazines used to play and can play again, whether they are done formally by the print world, at IDG or what used to be Ziff-Davis (where is it now) or where ever. They used to run reviews of categories of software. At its peak, Michael Miller's InfoWorld had formal per-category reviewer guidelines. These reviews provided structure to competition. When done thoughtfully by people who cared about the categories they were covering, they helped everyone compete, and helped software move forward. We got one of those kinds of reviews on Friday, in WebMonkey's survey of weblog tools. I've already read the review three times, and I'll read it three more times. All of a sudden I have a much better idea of what my competition is doing and of course they have a better idea of what I'm doing. Ms Shulevitz and others (like JD Lasica) argue against a point that I don't make. I say if the pros won't do it, let's do it for ourselves. That doesn't say they can't do it. But in technology, the confusion of the dotcom years left a wrecked landscape, not just in the industry, but in journalism too. If we want to move forward, let's move forward. I welcome the WebMoneky survey. To get back on track, they should do it again in six months after the market reshapes because of their review. And again and again. We're lucky we have a category that's moving. That can be a bootstrap for more movement in more categories. For the last few years the pros just wrote about battles to the death. A category-level review celebrates competition. A big difference in philosophy.  [Scripting News]
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