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Turns out I am mistaken (not about the all-male judging panel, that's still in play). But I did not see this rather obvious instruction at Slideshare:
Rashmi at the Slideshare team assures me that you can upload your presentations at Slideshare without entering their presentation contest. Merely uploading doesn't enter your presentation into the contest -- you actually have to follow the above instructions to opt-in.
I tested this by uploading a short presentation that would stand no chance of winning a presentation contest! (Except for maybe in a Sanjaya "Vote for the Worst" kind of way.)
Sure enough, this uploaded presentation about gender bias in technology marketing is definitely not in the running! ;)
That can be a big bandwidth saver. For example, instead of emailing a PowerPoint file, you can upload it to Slideshare and point to the link in your email. Your recipient can choose to view or download your file -- when they are ready. This sure beats clogging up their email inbox with a huge PowerPoint attachment, no?
That's part of the beauty of Slideshare. It lets you share ideas. More easily.
Labels: Blogging, PowerPoint, Presentation
¶ 4/19/2007 09:17:00 AM 0 Comments Links to this post
I like Slideshare, the presentation-sharing Web 2.0 play.
This year, I used it to upload a short, prophetic PowerPoint presentation on New Year's Day. I even felt honored when Slideshare featured my little presentation on their front page under "most popular" on January 2.
But here is something I don't like to see:
Yup, that is an actual screenshot from a contest that Slideshare has been running at its site for a while now. It looks like Slideshare is taking the current Apple approach to marketing: you know, where only the opinions of men seem to matter.
Please note the phrase: "it looks like".
In a design contest, appearance matters!
And social responsibility matters, too. It's a key part of corporate valuation.
Or it should be.
And hey -- it's not like there aren't any women in the fashion or design industries that would make competent judges of a presentation contest. Talented and opinionated women with excellent fashion sense aren't exactly hard to find!
Now, I like the reputations of the fellas you see in the above screenshot, all right. Guy Kawasaki often provides action-provoking insight at his "How to Change the World" blog. Garr Reynolds offers his unique perspective on presentation and design at his Presentation Zen blog. Both men will likely make superb presentation judges.
But Where Are the Women?
The current state of women in technology marketing is decidedly woeful. Let's go on a brief historic journey:
Remember the Macintosh 1984 commercial? A strong, powerful, vibrant woman breaks through a grey, droning, male-dominated environment to make a striking impact on the way we all conduct business. How uplifting! How inspiring!
Now look at how low Apple has sunk. In its current TV advertising campaign, Apple initially casts two white guys to represent competing technologies. Later, the campaign features a woman as a mere peripheral device to hold hands with one of the men. Next, Apple employs a pouty supermodel -- as an example of stellar design from the male-centric, Mac-centric world view.
Exclusion, stereotyping, objectification -- what can women expect next from technology marketing?
Yech.
I don't understand why this marketing approach has yet to receive a far greater public outcry.
The plain white backdrop featured in every "I'm a MAC" ad is a chilling reminder of the pervasive grey that was pre-1984. The very lack of color in current Apple advertising is in itself regressive and highly suspect.
The Danger of Drinking Too Much Apple Juice
Slideshare is a young-ish company. I can forgive it for making rookie blunders with its first online contest. And Slideshare has already publicly apologized at its blog for excluding many people from participating.
Good for Slideshare. As youngsters, they can be forgiven for initially drinking too much apple juice! I hope those in leadership positions at Slideshare will learn that the Apple style may have been cool in the 1980's -- but that was over 20 years ago.
In the 21st century, diversity and respect should be important.
Heck, it should even be cool.
Unfortunately, if you upload a presentation at Slideshare today, your work product is automatically entered in the contest. There is no way to opt out that I can see -- other than to not upload your presentation until after the contest is over.
(Uh-oh! No easy opt-out of a contest with an all-male judging panel: oops again!)
Here's hoping Slideshare much success -- for their next contest!
Labels: Presentation
¶ 4/18/2007 03:30:00 PM 2 Comments Links to this post
For the past three years in March, my friend (and client) Nancy Sweatt of Dolphin Journeys sends me breathtaking pictures from Hawaii. She runs a dolphin and whale touring business in Kona -- and posts some remarkable client photos at her website.
Her clients often take wonderful pictures from her boat. And they often get some terrific underwater shots, as well. (You can see the whale, underwater, and dolphin photos here.)
Nancy emailed me the picture you see in this post of two dolphins that swam up to her boat. They exhaled simultaneously -- and Nancy somehow got the shot.
Here are the sound effects for my three-step, failing process:
- "Ooooh! There's a whale surfacing! Quick, snap the picture!"
- "Splash!" Whale goes back underwater...
- "Click!" goes Laura's shutter.
Nancy laughed when I told her of my plight. She insists that for every great photo she takes, there are 1,000 stinkers. Same thing for her customers -- lots of pictures of ocean.
So I guess I shouldn't feel so bad. Especially when I can look at Nancy's photos online, and dream that I am swimming among the dolphins, instead of looking at the powdery results of a freak April snowstorm outside my office window!
Might the secret to great action photography be: take a thousand pictures? One of 'em might actually turn out to be worthwhile?
Labels: photography
¶ 4/05/2007 01:18:00 PM 1 Comments Links to this post
It kills people.
Death by PowerPoint.
Death by Bullet Point.
PowerPoint is bad. Very bad.
Could PowerPoint Be... Satan?
You have heard it all before. And today, a news story from the Sydney Morning Herald is making the internet rounds, trotting out the "PowerPoint is bad" theme yet again.
This time, Professor Sweller from the University of New South Wales is using "PowerPoint Bad" as a platform for promoting his old "cognitive load" theory.
Here is the Professor's spin (I paraphrased it considerably):
Your audience learns more when you speak to a compelling graphic than when you read aloud the words on a slide.Huh. How about that.
I guess that's why people like to watch actors act instead of read from their scripts. Or why children who are too young to read like to look at pictures while listening to you read the words aloud.
Anyway, the picture attached to the story is ironic. Professor Sweller is quoted as saying that PowerPoint is a disaster and should be ditched.
The picture?
Professor Sweller is gesturing broadly in front of a projected PowerPoint slide of a bar chart.
Holy Cognitive Dissonance, Professor!
So you see, it's not that PowerPoint is bad. It's more likely that OPP (Other People's PowerPoint) is bad!
That's why other people should stop using PowerPoint.
You? You're terrific. You're good. You can keep using PowerPoint.
And you can use "PowerPoint Bad" as a platform for generating good publicity! People never seem to tire of the old "PowerPoint is Evil" theme.
Actually, PowerPoint is morality-neutral. There is no good or evil when it comes to PowerPoint.
But you know that.
Labels: Presentation
¶ 4/05/2007 10:53:00 AM 1 Comments Links to this post
No fooling! April really is the season for downloading purple PowerPoint backgrounds and templates. It was last year at this time -- and the year before that -- so it must be about time for pastels, purples, passover, and passion all over again. Think spring!
Labels: PowerPoint Background, PowerPoint Templates
¶ 4/01/2007 07:42:00 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
Another reason to download new programs online -- the physical package that contains the PowerPoint 2007 CD is downright peculiar.
It took my aging eyes quite a while to figure out how to bust open the Microsoft Office 2007 Suite. The directions for opening the package are quite clear (see image below):
And by "clear", I literally mean "transparent". The red instructions you see so clearly above are printed on see-through plastic -- and taped over an orange-red background. I also had to peel off yet another gossamer strip not mentioned in the above, um, "instructions".
My recommendation for opening the packaging is to get someone with sharp fingernails to fondle the package to find and peel off the invisible tape -- before you follow the instructions.
But perhaps most amusing part of the package is this gem printed on the side of the box (yellow highlights are mine)
I think the first line basically says, "You have to have internet access to access the internet" -- which is pretty funny in itself. But the highlighted part about the fictitious events is simply gibberish. The fictitious events have no association or connection to --- anything?
What on earth is that supposed to mean? No more Christopher Columbus PowerPoint presentation examples? ;)
Labels: fun
¶ 4/01/2007 06:51:00 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
