Why powerpoint is susceptable to abuse, or, Gettysburg Address in PPT

[jack]

http://www.norvig.com/Gettysburg/sld001.htm

[vivid green]
NOT ON AGENDA:

Dedicate
Consecrate
Hallow (in narrow sense)
Add or detract
Note or rememebr what we say

Also see: http://www.sethgodin.com/freeprize/reallybad-1.pdf which is quite funny.

Comments

[edith-the-hutt.livejournal.com]

The first. The point I took from it was that powerpoint was awful and could never be used as a communication aid. (actually I was reading from the wider essay http://www.norvig.com/lancet.html ). Although on re-reading I see there is some room in the argument for simply putting more effort into presentations.

I've read and printed out the second, which seems a bit more sensible but makes certain assumptions (eg: some of us use power point to present a report quite deliberately, try that emotional crap rather than a few solid figures at my department's weekly seminars and a lot of people will not have much time for you...). It made a couple of nice points though.

All in all I think both of these ignore that power point is a tool for a rather specific job. The examples cited (the Appolo 8 decision in the case of the first and the website and the veteran's fund for the second) are examples where a powerpoint presentation is not the best tool (I'd have used a chalkboard, a web browser and an actual veteran for those).

Perhaps what I really don't like about the first is that it ignores that a bad speach can be just as bad as a bad powerpoint presentation, and that simply buchering a good speach by converting it into a bad power point presentation proves nothing other than it's possible to ruin quality.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

You're right, I hadn't read the article, just seen the link. It does look very much it means 'no ppt'. I was careful to put 'succeptable to abuse' not 'bad' in my title.

One thing the second misses, is that their Gettysburg ppt is a bad one, but it COULD be good. IIRC political speeches of that era often were thought out and logically organised, so presenting an outline visually would be a good idea, provided the outline was thought up by, say, a good orator, not someone who's scared that the templates provided have a magical validity and departing from them is bad practice.

[edith-the-hutt.livejournal.com]

Erm, the Gettysburg is the first one isn't it?

But yes I agree. Having said that most of the attack seems to be directed at the template options rather than anything else. But the second spells the problem out in a much more reasoned and sensible tone.