SecondLife.com is an online 3D society. Those who join SecondLife wander about as cartoon characters (called avatars). Your cartoon self can meet friends -- who are also cartoons. Your animated persona can socialize, go to church, attend business meetings: and wonder-of-wonders -- view commercials and ads. It's just like real life -- except you can fly. (And grow a tail, if you want one.)

Some hipster silicon valley corporations (and even a few Grand Rapids furniture companies!) are keen on SecondLife. Some are busy sponsoring trade shows and handing out electronic swag to cartoon attendees. Others are leasing meeting space, buying islands, and of course, hawking products with cheesy stand up PowerPoint-like presentations.

There's charm in cheese! At this stage of development, cheesiness is to be expected. And Second Life can be an awful lot of fun. It reminds me of PowerPoint presentations in the early nineties. Perhaps SecondLife will have an evolution similar to PowerPoint. Remember:

• Back in the early 90's, we used to stand and deliver PowerPoint presentations on a large screen in front of a live audience. We could over-used bullets, animations, builds, and transitions. We could be as cheesy as we wanted to be! And if we felt like sharing the content, we might distribute disks or paper handouts after the show.
• By the late 1990's, people were sick of cheesy gimmicks. Top presenters focused more on classic story telling and simpler design. Audiences started demanding electronic handouts -- CDs, mostly. Presentations designed to be disposable were starting to live outside of the meeting room or training room. They started to take on a "second life".
• In the early 2000's, folks started emailing and downloading PowerPoint presentations from the internet. Because these slides were out of context of the intended presentation, they often did more to confuse than to enlighten. "Death by PowerPoint" became a business catchphrase.
• Today, presenters are using social media to share presentations. Beyond designing presentations for a classic, one-time, "stand-and-deliver" in a real world with a 30 foot screen, designers also develop presentations that communicate in a 340x240 pixel world.

By 2008, PowerPoint has (at least) five lives. Sometimes, we design and deliver with just one life in mind. But with the power of social media and internet proliferation, your PowerPoint presentation can take on a life of its own -- often far beyond its intended purpose and audience.

1. First Life: Live, in-person presentation.
2. Second Life: Paper handouts.
3. Third Life: Diskette, CD, and DVD handouts.
4. Fourth Life: Email attachments and PowerPoint downloads.
5. Fifth Life: Social media sharing of presentations.

I've found that my secondary audience has a much (much) bigger impact than my original audience. And as presenters, we need to be aware that our presentations are enjoying a second life in various social media plays. YouTube, Slideshare, Facebook, MySpace -- how well are your PowerPoint presentations communicating in the social media landscape?

Because chances are, that's where your presentations are living now!

How else have your PowerPoint presentations taken on a life of their own?