Death by Powerpoint

Robin Harris's article "Death by Powerpoint" is worth a read, especially if you've ever sat through an uninspiring meeting full of endless slides and bulleted points. Aside from blaming the software for everything from vague military initiatives in Iraq to space shuttle disasters, Harris briefly hits on (well, glazes over...) an important, lousy feature of presentation software: it is for presenting.

Powerpoint (and all like brands of presentation software) is designed for the one-way flow (from the top down) of highly condensed & structured information: it is about hirearchy & control, not about feedback & free exchange of ideas. Presentation software is all about the presenter, not the audience. While there may be times when this format is warranted, presentation software is, generally, overused -- or, rather, used in contexts where another, more interactive method of relaying information would be more productive in terms of audience reception.

Powerpoint is a lot like Web 1.0: all about the one-way flow of information. While that may have been sufficient (Harris would say "No!") when technology offered no alternatives, we now live in a Web 2.0 world. Today's audience (rightfully) expects to be able to discuss & give feedback on information as it is being presented to them; they need to mash it up and make it their own, and this is to the benefit of presenter and audience alike. There are many better ways to present these days than presentation software: even the mere creation of a web site (that can be dynamically marked up and shared) instead of a set of Powerpoint slides is favourable.

The next time you sit down to use traditional presentation software, consider your Web 2.0 options, and the comparative benefits they yield.