Beyond PowerPoint Presentation tools in 2001

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Beyond PowerPoint Presentation tools in 2001

• Andy Breeding
• SLA Boston Chapter
• 20 March 2001

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What Im going to talk about

• Trends and developments in the use of
  presentation tools
• PowerPoint the good, the bad and the ugly
• Remote presentation tools.
• Specific tools WebEx, Brainshark

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Trends

• Presentations are displacing other forms of
  documents.
• The web is making remote presentations easier and
  more acceptable.

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Tool Developments

• Smaller, brighter, higher resolution projectors
  are available.
• Digital cameras are making it easier to
  incorporate photos
• CD burners make it possible to tote really big
  presentations around.
• Higher bandwidth internet connections are making
  streaming audio and video more feasible.
• Macromedias Flash technology has emerged as an
  important presentation technology on the web.
• PowerPoint is the dominant presentation software
  package.

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PowerPoint The Good

• PowerPoints ubiquity makes it a good for
  information sharing.
• Sophisticated presentation functionality.
• Good web integration
• Supports online collaboration through integration
  with NetMeeting
• As a medium for documents it encourages brevity
  and effective presentation of information.

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PowerPoint The Bad

• Its slideshow mentality encourages viewer
  passivity.
• Busy multimedia presentations deflect attention
  from the speaker.
• PowerPoint is not well suited to encouraging
  interaction and discussion
• Sure, meetings are tedious. And anything
  that can jazz em up is welcome. But PowerPoint
  and its cousins seem destined to make meetings
  even more boring.
• -Clifford Stoll

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PowerPoint The Ugly

• The internet allows everyone to be an online
  searcher
• but it doesnt make them good searchers.
• PowerPoint allows everyone to be a media
  professional
• but it doesnt make them good at it..
• Too many options can be a bad thing!
• For compulsive people, the ability to tweak
  everything to the nth degree can be be a huge
  time sink
• Dont ask how much time I spent on this slide!

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Remote Presentation Tools

• What they are used for
• Conference calls
• Analyst briefings
• Remote training
• Sales meetings
• Product announcements
• Online customer support
• Online collaboration

• Features
• Desktop / application sharing
• Collaborative document editing
• Desktop remote control
• Audio / Video sharing
• Chat

• Examples
• Microsoft NetMeeting
• WebEx / Brainshark
• Astound Conference Center
• Placeware

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WebEx Meeting Center

• Web-based interactive meeting service.
• Features include
• Meeting registration and notification
  capabilities
• Online document, application and desktop sharing
• Remote control for online support
• Online session recording and playback
• Online polling, file transfer
• Video / Audio options
• Whiteboard capability / Chat
• Quick plug-in installation is required for full
  functionality

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WebEx usage at Blue Ripple

• Blue Ripple is a 22 person start-up in Cambridge
  focused on building a B2B content distribution
  web service.
• We use WebEx for remote customer presentations,
  demos and online support.
• We purchased a 5 concurrent user license.
• A co-branded meeting center web site has been
  set-up
• http//blueripple.webex.com

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To schedule and/or start a meeting click on the
Create Meeting link
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Then select the teleconference option and date,
time and duration..
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Then attendees, the agenda and meeting options
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Then click on the schedule button for a scheduled
meeting or Start Now to immediately begin a
meeting
Optionally you can require that attendees
register and supply more information.
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Attendee receives e-mail w/access info
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Once youre in a meeting, its easy to invite
others
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The attendee with the green ball next to their
name is the presenter
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If you select application sharing youll be
asked which application
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If you select web page sharing a browser session
will launch
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If you select desktop sharing you will be given
the option of sharing control with other
attendees.
Then your entire desktop will display on their
screens and a small sharing icon with pull down
options will be presented
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Webex Summary

• Pros
• Powerful remote meeting capabilities
• Easy to use
• Limited use is free. Pay per use option is
  available.
• Cons
• Attendees require Web-ex plug-in for full
  functionality
• Mac / Unix users cant host or present

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Brainshark

• Another subscription based web service. It
  focuses more on presentations than on meetings.
• Brainshark allows customers to
• Add synchronized sound tracks to their
  presentations
• Make these presentations available via the web
• Create and manage a searchable repository of
  presentations.
• Requires a current Internet browser and a
  standard audio player plug-in. (either
  RealPlayer or Windows Media Player)

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View Presentation Screen
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Views can submit questions
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Authors can post answers to questions
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Viewers can share the presentation via e-mail
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Create a presentation step 1 Uploading
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Create a presentation step 2 Describing
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More details..
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Create a presentation step 3 Recording Audio
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Once connected you can record, slide by slide
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Brainshark Summary

• Pros
• Makes audio-enriched presentations available on
  the web
• Allows presentations to be managed as a resource
• Easy to use
• Doesnt require any special plug-ins
• Cons
• Any user receiving access has to be set-up first
• Free use limited to 15 day trial

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Thank you

• Questions?
• Andy Breeding
• abreeding_at_blueripple.com