The Passion of the PowerPoint. I'm stunned by the passion that PowerPoint (yes, humble PowerPoint!) can arouse! My previous Propaganda, PowerPoint and You inspired Olivia Mitchell to launch a group blogging project. She asked other bloggers to write about what they'd like to see in PowerPoint design in 2009.

To date, Olivia has received over 40 passionate responses from bloggers all over the world! Most are amazing, well-reasoned, and thoughtful. Some are funny, witty, silly. But almost all are passionate!

photo credit: Arbron

Had to grin at Seth Godin's response about my "Propaganda" post. He wrote:

“Simple: she’s wrong. As the first person to speak up and out about single ideas/images and death to bullets, I take this one personally. Resist temptation. Do not backslide!”

How to take things personally. You can take things personally if someone:

• actually names you.
  
• refers to you as a pronoun.
  
• judges you morally!
  

I didn't mention Mr. Godin in my post, so why would he take it personally? Godin is hardly the first person to recognize that propaganda techniques can be effective at persuading! As for my being "wrong" -- about what? Noticing that people seem as irritated with propaganda-heavy presentations as they are with deeply analytical presentations? Posing a few benign "what do you think" and "how about" questions in a blog post?

That brand of "wrong" was pervasive in Amerika for the past 8 years. Hopefully, it's on the way out.

I'll repeat: many people seem bored. In 2008, I was often an audience member where presentation content and design relied almost exclusively on propaganda techniques. It was merely tedious in sales and marketing presentations, but wildly inappropriate for technical training and scientific demonstrations.

The backlash against this approach is palpable. As an audience member, I feel it. I also witness others fidgeting uncomfortably. I hear whispers. I see people shout stuff like -- "Where's the beef? Hasty Generalization! Dicto Simplicter! Ad Nauseum!" and the like -- when they're watching a webinar littered with information-light, carefully-crafted, simple-image PowerPoint slides.

Or irritated. And yes, I read the snarky Tweets in the back channels. And hear the gossip in the hallways and break rooms at conferences. (You can, too.)

That's so 2001. In 2009, you can listen to your audience talk back on social media channels. You can also choose to engage or ignore the rise of an increasingly media-savvy audience. Hopefully, a more dynamic public will start recognizing heavy-handed propaganda techniques -- and start talking about them. People are already pushing back on Twitter, on blogs, at Bar Camps -- how long will it take for the backlash to happen in person at industry conferences, classrooms, and corporate meetings?