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MasterView International
Creating and Managing Effective PowerPoint Presentations
For International Audiences
May 15th, 2003 Issue #16
___________________________________________________________
In this issue:
MasterView International is published by:
IKONOS New Media
Executive Editor: Luigi Canali De Rossi
***************************************************************
Available now!
Robin Good's Official Guide to
SOHO Web Conferencing and Live Presentation Tools
Robin Good's Official Guide to SOHO Web Conferencing and Live
Presentation Tools provides professionals, organizations,
schools and universities with up-to-date insider information on
cost-effective, affordable tools to conduct online meetings,
live presentations, and distance training classes.
Researched, written and prepared over a course of 6 months,
this report brings into focus a new emerging market niche,
populated by professionals and small to medium organizations
wanting to communicate, train and collaborate online without
having to incur the expenses and headaches of enterprise Web
conferencing systems like WebEx, Placeware or Centra.
The report includes detailed reviews of 18 Web conferencing and
live presentation tools that have been extensively tested
during a six-month research period.
Report Fact Sheet:
* 15+3 Reviews of Conferencing Tools
* 14 Feature Comparison Tables
* 2003 International Vendor Directory
* 500+ pages
* 650+ color screenshots
* 400+ links to Web pages
Cost:
* Individual review € 12.95
* Two reviews € 19.95
* Three reviews € 25.95
* Full Guide price is € 99.00
Full guide buyers also get the following three
additional bonuses at no extra-cost:
1) 5 distribution licenses
2) one Robin Good's PowerPoint XP Manual
3) one personal one-on-one online consulting session
with Robin Good
Robin Good's Official Guide to Web Conferencing and Live
Presentations Tools can be purchased online at:
http://www.masternewmedia.org/reports/webconferencing/
A FREE Evaluation Report to taste the level of detail provided
in this Guide is accessible at:
http://www.masternewmedia.org/reports/webconferencing/
evaluation.htm
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Editor's View
The news are on!
At MasterView (http://masterview.ikonosnewmedia.com/) an up-to-
date newsfeed has been inaugurated today to provide fresh short
reports and updates on issues, tools, resources and ideas to
help you become more effective in delivering your presentations
to your classroom or stakeholders audience.
You can access the MasterView news in several ways:
a) on-site by accessing http://masterview.ikonosnewmedia.com/
b) through any newsreader by accessing our XML/RDF feed at:
http://masterview.ikonosnewmedia.com/index.rdf
c) though a free news tracker service like "Watchthatpage"
(http://www.watchthatpage.com/) or "ChangeDetect"
(http://www.changedetect.com/).
d) by dropping a personal request via email at
Luigi.Canali#ikonosnewmedia.com which will allow you to
receive every new post directly in your email as soon as it
is published.
If you are into making an impression on your audiences, either
in your presentations or on your web site, you may want to give
a look at an interesting new technology I am showcasing on
MasterView home page at: http://masterview.ikonosnewmedia.com/
I am also honoured to take on-board the valuable work of Juan C.
Dürsteler (http://www.infovis.net/) and Geetesh Bajaj
(http://www.indezine.com/) that will be sharing and contributing
their great content, reviews and articles from this issue on.
Dr Dürsteler work and interest focus on Information
Visualisation in general and very specifically in the way the
presentation of information influences its understanding. He has
written extensively on Information Design topics and I will be
republishing some of his work that most relates to presentation
and design of quantitative displays (information graphics such
as tables, diagrams, statistical graphs, maps, etc.).
Mr Bajaj, is a Microsoft PowerPoint MVP (Most Valuable
Professional) and a contributing editor for Presentations
magazine. He runs the Indezine.com site which contains over 200
pages of PowerPoint tutorials, articles, reviews.
In this issue Juan Dürsteler and Geetesh Bajaj have contributed
two very good articles that well complement each other in
demonstrating how similar of an approach they take when it
comes to prepare information that must be understood by others.
A must read.
Ask MasterView is also back with a good set of new interesting
questions that some of you have posted for us online. You can
address any presentation or information-design related question
to our team and we will reply to you within 48 hours (ask-
masterview@egroups.com). In exchange we simply ask you to let
us share the newly learned solution with all other MasterView
subscribers.
A new basic PowerPoint manual is now available for "private
label" use and resale. If you want to have an evaluation copy
or are interested in buying or reselling it, please drop me a
line at: PrivateLabelPPTmanual#ikonosnewmedia.com
Have a great show!
Luigi Canali De Rossi
Editor in Chief
MasterView International
Luigi.Canali#ikonosnewmedia.com
********************************************
For PowerPoint-related questions write to
Ask-MasterView Online Helpdesk at:
ask-masterview@egroups.com
For personal feedback, requests, comments,
products or Web sites to review, please
contact directly one of us:
Luigi.Canali#ikonosnewmedia.com
Igor.Raznatovic#ikonosnewmedia.com
Chiara.Monetti#ikonosnewmedia.com
**********************************************
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1) Are Web Conferencing And Live Presentation Tools
Ready For Prime-Time?
A constructive critical commentary of:
"Live Web Interaction: Is It Worth It?"
ZDNet Forums
By Timothy Hickernell
Meta Group
May 1, 2003
http://techupdate.zdnet.com/techupdate/stories/main/0,14179,2913
533,00.html
Though targeted and written primarily for the CRM (Customer
relationship marketing) audience inside corporate and
enterprise US-based companies, this overview provides ample
opportunity to analyze complementary viewpoints and to expose
the inconsistencies of some industry myths while providing a
more comprehensive review of what the state-of-the-art Web
conferencing tools can offer.
Web conferencing is only at its early stages of its long
development and some of the industry assessments and
expectations may be off the mark by quite a bit.
Timothy Hickernell reports for ZDNet:
"Typical live Web interaction technologies include chat,
instant messaging (IM), video, voice (both voice over IP [VoIP]
and initiation of PSTN callback), co-browsing, application
sharing, and remote control."
There are indeed a few more things that it is wise to account
for, at least in perspective of wanting to properly evaluate
one product or service versus another one. Some features and
facilities that have made their way to many mainstream Web
conferencing tools are:
a) Session recording
b) Polling
c) Feedback facilities
d) Live annotation and markup
e) PowerPoint presentation facilities
f) File sharing/broadcasting
g) Multimedia playback
h) Event management
The list could go on but my insider stand offers me a view that
is ahead of what most people will want or seek by at least one
or two years. So I will limit it to the above.
*Text Chat.*
"Once a darling of the "eCRM" craze, online chat is
experiencing sluggish growth due to an inability to satisfy
inflated expectations among early adopters as well as the
increase in service costs often experienced when it is rolled
out to all customers, for any inquiry. Text chat has a poor
capacity to convey information and has no capacity to detect or
convey human factors (e.g., emotions, buying mood,
satisfaction) without advanced text analysis."
Text chat is here to stay. What is happening is that people are
finally realizing chat's own role and most effective
application. While it is evident that chat proves to be highly
unsuitable for meetings with more than 3-4 people, it is also
not very useful when deep discussions and exchanges have to be
made. On the other hand text chat is absolutely invaluable when
providing a complementary communication tool to provide
detailed spelling of items, URLs, names of files, technical
specs, addresses, or specific step-by-step procedures.
Even during an effective videoconference the complement of text
chat can be invaluable as many times attendees will want to
submit questions on the spur of the moment, even while a
presenter is delivering a short speech, knowing that their
question will be picked up as soon as the presenter will deem
it appropriate. Text chat is also in many cases the only means
to provide instant feedback, uninfluenced by bandwidth
limitations.
This can prove very valuable when the other party with whom you
are Web conferencing is not aware of some technical problem
limiting her communications. Through text chat the other party
can easily prompt the user having difficulty to "turn on the
volume of the speakers", "quite all applications" or whatever
other appropriate action maybe necessary to take.
Finally, nothing could be further from truth when we read "Text
chat has a poor capacity to convey information and has no
capacity to detect or convey human factors (e.g., emotions,
buying mood, satisfaction) without advanced text analysis.".
Primitive text chat solutions may still suffer from such
limitations, but modern day chat facilities have a lot more to
offer in the way of providing the means and ease of use not
only to convey information quite well, but also to express
human emotions and feeling with astounding immediacy and
effectiveness.
For conveying information let me give you a few examples that
explain how text chat facilities can help in this direction.
a) Text formatting. This is a crucial feature which, if well
implemented can significantly facilitate the end user ability
to differentiate and highlight information appropriately.
b) Auto-URL detection. If I type a Web site URL, and email
address or an FTP destination my text is automatically
converted in an "active" clickable link.
c) Pasting images. If I can simply cut and paste small images,
thumbnails or screenshots into a text chat I am further
facilitated in making my information well understood.
d) Links to documents and resources. If inside the text chat
window I can create links to other parts, resources or
documents which are integral part of the live conference I have
another great advantage.
e) Emoticons. Emoticons are small colored graphic icons which
can express feelings, emotions, moods with much simplicity and
extreme immediacy. Yahoo Messenger and other instant messaging
and chat tools have long employed them. Emoticons are invoked
by a text chat user generally through a special key combination
or by direct selection through a visual catalogue. Emoticons
can be static, animated and can even make sounds or pronounce
words.
The use of emoticons provides for an extremely effective and
easy to use approach to express human feelings and emotions in
an online session. The ease of use and immediacy of this
approach allows participants to be able to express and signal
feedback and emotions in a much clearer and more natural way
than if they were provided with full video and audio
conferencing means.
d) Themes. Chat facilities can also benefit from the use of
pre-designed skins, prepared to facilitate and support specific
kinds of tasks or chat sessions. Such themes become therefore
effective task-optimized superinterfaces, that can much better
satisfy and complement the needs of specific online chat
sessions by providing complementary tools, style and custom
layout arrangements.
*Co-Browsing.*
"Co-browsing tools enable one individual (typically a service
agent) to control the Web browser of another individual
(usually a customer). Typically, co-browsing is used with
customers in three situations: guiding customers through
generally available Web content, such as product information;
assisting customers with an online transaction, such as
enrollments or orders; and pushing unique content to the
customer's computer through the browser, such as multimedia
demonstrations."
Fair enough. Those are indeed the most common applications of
co-browsing in a customer service environment. But once you
start looking at other opportunities available to you to
leverage co-browsing, customer service will look like a limited
area of interest for this type of facility.
As marketing will include more and more of educational and
support aspects in its best implementations, you should expect
to see a larger use of co-browsing facilities to educate and
showcase customers and partners about online services use and
operation.
Also referred to as Web-touring, co-browsing has been suffering
by one key technological limitation that has somehow limited
its effective application and acceptance by many users. During
a co-browsing session, while it is possible to navigate
"together" to selected Web pages, it is indeed NOT possible to
scroll and access specific parts of them in any synchronized
way. This does indeed limit severely the ways in which this
technology can be effectively applied.
At least two companies have been challenging this apparently
insurmountable obstacle and have achieved some remarkable
results in the process. One is Groove, a powerful real-time
collaboration tool which does not make use of a Web browser.
This is a highly innovative collaboration tool which sports
some futuristic features. Within high connectivity participants
and with latest generation PCs it does work wonders. Another
interesting newcomer in this arena is PageShare
(http://www.pageshare.com) which provides effective
co-scrolling and co-filling to its standard co-browsing
experience. Though with their idiosyncrasies and limitations
both demonstrate that there is still a lot more to see in this
direction.
*Voice.*
"Despite strong hype about VoIP for use in communicating with
customers, the inability to achieve an acceptable quality of
service, due to the continued dominance of low-capacity dialup
Internet connections, has prevented VoIP from achieving any
real market presence as a customer interaction channel."
Here is the most interesting part of all. While the corporate
market plays down present offerings and patiently awaits a
breakthrough VoIP technology, the solution has silently arrived
behind their backs and is taking the non-corporate marketplace
by storm. While the news can be hardly keep at bay for much
longer, the large enterprise Web conferencing companies have
done indeed a good job at promoting and unmarketing VoIP as a
reliable choice.
VoIP is indeed a powerful reality available to anyone out there.
Long-distance telephone calls can be easily side-stepped even by
users on dial-up lines as slow as 14.4 Kbps! Multiple people can
meet and discuss with near crystal-clear voice quality, and
without the typical annoyance associated with voice conferencing
on the Internet (nothing like what you can do with Yahoo
Messenger or similar technologies).
An aggressive group of small companies has swiftly taken on the
task of integrating and marketing this new breakthrough
technology in several highly cost-effective products now
available online. Companies offering such unique technology
include:
Orbitalk http://www.orbitalk.com
Voxwire http://www.voxwire.com
VCOM Central / ITI Group http://www.itigroup.com
RoomTalk http://www.roomtalk.net
WebConference.com http://www.webconference.com
VoiceCafe http://www.voicecafe.org/
The cost for the above services is extremely affordable and the
integration of the specific voice technology is the key driving
force for all of them.
You have to try this technology to believe it. Then we can talk
again about it.
*Instant Messaging.*
"The strong use of IM by consumers has made it a viable channel
for customer communications that suppliers can expect to be
installed on a customer's computer. However, companies should
avoid using IM as yet another text chat tool, instead focusing
on the presence and location management features of IM."
Right on. Yes, instant messenger tools are most effectively
used to provide presence awareness facilities to dispersed
teams, groups and small networks of professionals and companies
working together. Instant messaging tools, once they start
providing more automatic filtering of contacts and messages, as
well as adding the ability to grant different level of rights
of access to different contacts, are going to become more and
more useful in the worklife of collaborative groups.
*Application Sharing.*
"Similar to Web co-browsing, application sharing tools enable a
service agent to use a software application on the customer's
computer, primarily for software support. Software vendors can
also share their applications with customers as a means of
enabling customers to try software before purchasing. However,
the most popular form of application sharing is sharing an
electronic whiteboard with a customer. Shared whiteboards are
primarily used in customer service to support more technical
and engineering service processes. Through 2005/06, we believe
application sharing and shared whiteboards will have only a
niche role in customer interactions, eventually supplanted by
various Web services (2007)."
Actually I see things moving in a different direction. Software
support, technical assistance and even very effective
demonstrations, tutorials and courses can all be delivered with
an effective application sharing facility. Some even use it to
deliver live PowerPoint presentations with good results.
Few companies have developed application sharing to a level
where it is performing, reliable and easy-to-use. Two names come
to mind first: Linktivity WebDemo and Glance. Both represent
excellent solutions for application sharing though at complete
opposite ends of the spectrum. While WebDemo is a sophisticated,
server-based, somehow complex but uniquely powerful suite of Web
conferencing facilities, Glance is a no-brainer one-click
instant screen-sharing service. Both have tremendous potential
and if you will try them out you will appreciate the higher
technological skills of these companies in bringing out
solutions unmatched by the big Web conferencing "enterprise"
vendors.
Whiteboards per se have no great appeal and a limited set of
applications when offered as such. It is rather the ability to
rapidly create and share screenshots of documents and
applications, that can be annotated and live-marked that is in
great demand from actual users. The ability to refine and
innovate in this area will provide a very interesting new market
for specialized collaboration and remote mentoring tools.
Remote Control.
"Remote control tools - tools that enable a remote party to take
physical control of a user's computer - have traditionally been
used by IT help desks and computer manufacturers. However,
remote control software is becoming very inexpensive, especially
with the inclusion of remote control services in Windows XP."
True. Remote control is becoming more and more accessible. The
critical issue remains the one of making it easy to use. As far
as I am concerned most tools available provided a winded
approach to activate it, and when this feature is integrated in
more complex conferencing systems one can easily get lost in the
multitude of commands and controls available. One-button remote
control facilities are on their way, thanks to good examples
like Glance and great reliable services like GoToMyPC
(http://www.gotomypc.com/) and LoudPC (http://www.loudpc.com/).
My conclusions:
There is a lot going on in the e-conferencing and real-time
collaboration industry.
Very few have a comprehensive vision as most of the industry has
been focussing on the "enterprise" focussed solutions promoted
by WebEx, Placeware, Centra, Raindance, Polycom, HorizonLive and
many others.
A new breed of highly cost-effective conferencing and live
collaboration tools has entered the marketplace and proves to
have competitive facilities and some unique breakthrough features.
To remain competitive vendors will need to study and analyze
with more attention both the marketplace as well as the growing
number of competitors.
Final users of these technologies are bound only to benefit from
this highly dynamic and competitive situation. SOHO conferencing
tools may prove to be very effective solutions for many
professionals and small to medium companies, not just in the US
but in most Internet connected places around the world.
As many vendors claim expertise and leadership across the same
number of facilities, it remains vital to be able to personally
test such tools or to rely on qualified reviews that honestly
report about the effectiveness, reliability and value of all of
these tools.
*Want To Find Out More?*
More information on Web conferencing, real-time collaboration,
live presentation and e-conferencing systems can also be found
at these excellent resources:
...............................................................
a) Think of it
http://www.thinkofit.com
Headed by who is probably the world's foremost authority on
conferencing and collaboration software, David R. Woolley,
president of Thinkofit, has been a pioneer in online
conferencing for over 25 years. In 1973 Dr. Woolley created
PLATO Notes, one of the world's first conferencing systems and
the direct progenitor of Lotus Notes, DEC Notes, and many
collaboration systems. While providing of a window of
opportunity to his uniquely qualified consulting services Dr
Woolley provides an outstanding resource of Web conferencing
tools, systems and vendors unmatched by others.
Thinkofit is the reference unbiased reference resource to look
to when searching for Web conferencing vendors and technologies.
Probably the most valuable section on the whole Thinkofit Web
site is what you find at:
http://www.thinkofit.com/webconf/index.htm
Here you find a well organized gateway to a set of nine separate
lists covering all conferencing and forum providers, books,
events and other resources available out there.
The richest section is the one devoted to Real-time Web
conferencing tools at:
http://www.thinkofit.com/webconf/realtime.htm
Dr Woolley dutifully reports about new tools and technologies
released with a frequency of three or four new technologies
every month!
(http://www.thinkofit.com/webconf/realtime.htm#new). Though
there is not normally more than a paragraph of description for
each tool included, it nonetheless provides for the most
exhaustive and up-to-date reference for this technology around.
As all of the above great amount of information is completely
free, Thinkofit provides also a number of professional
consultancy services to help organizations identify, select and
implement effective Web conferencing or real-time collaboration
solutions.
...............................................................
b) ConferZone
http://www.conferzone.com/
ConferZone is an online e-conferencing resource that tracks the
latest technology and trends in the marketplace. ConferZone
provides comprehensive, objective content so businesses can make
educated and sound decisions when purchasing e-conferencing
services or products.
ConferZone.com is a online reference covering Web conferencing,
video conferencing, audio conferencing and collaborative
conferencing. At ConferZone you can find lots of useful
information and resources including:
a) a good free white papers section at:
http://www.conferzone.com/resource/wp.html
b) up-to-date industry news at:
http://www.conferzone.com/resource/articlemain.html
c) e-conferencing events
http://www.conferzone.com/resource/events.html
d) free monthly newsletter
http://www.conferzone.com/services/conferzine.html
e) and a very useful directory of e-conferencing vendors:
http://www.conferzone.com/vendor/index.html
ConferZone provides also a unique online service called
ConferGuide. ConferGuide is a searchable online database of more
than 40 Web conferencing vendors now accessible 24x7x365. For
USD $ 49 you get one month access to an exhaustive directory of
e-conferencing vendors and suppliers, providing all basic
information you may need for each company.
Now in its third edition ConferZone is proud to offer its third
annual ConferGuide 2003, an online guide to Web conferencing
companies. ConferZone publishes the online guide to help
business and meeting professionals streamline their research
processes, while saving valuable company time and resources.
Additionally, the guide assists them in making informed
decisions when implementing e-conferencing solutions.
ConferGuide 2003 features:
* An introduction to Web conferencing
* Current product and pricing information from more than 40 Web
conferencing vendors
* A glossary of industry terms
The guide can be purchased in one-month, six-month and one-year
access increments at $199, $399, and $599, respectively. The
guide can be accessed and searched an unlimited number of times
during the subscription period. ConferGuide 2003 can be
purchased at http://www.conferzone.com, under the "Publications"
section at: http://www.conferzone.com/services/conferguide.html
If you are a Web conferencing vendor and are not currently
included in the ConferGuide 2003, please contact ConferZone at
conferguide@conferzone.com
Founded in 2000, ConferZone is headquartered in Denver, Colorado
and is directed by Stephanie Franks.
...............................................................
c) Web Seminarian
http://www.webseminarian.com/
It is the ONLY Web site and e-mail newsletter focused solely on
Web conferencing. All others include video conferencing,
asynchronous conferencing, and other topics.
* It has a nice and practical section on Tips helping new and
experienced professionals become proficient users of Web
conferencing technologies quickly. Please check it out at:
http://www.webseminarian.com/tips/index.html
* Web Seminarian provides a section on Corporate Customer
Stories that provides insight on how other companies have
solved their training, communication and conferencing goals
through the use of Web conferencing technologies.
http://www.webseminarian.com/stories/index.html
* It contains reviews of many Web conferencing platforms. It
covers WebEx, Avacaster, Genesys, Egenda, Sonexis, HorizonLive,
Pixion, Placeware, MShow, Viavid, Raindance and several other
ones. Check them out at:
http://www.webseminarian.com/reviews/index.html
* It provides up-to-date news from the industry and commentary
on major industry events and issues. Please see:
http://www.webseminarian.com/news/index.html
* It has articles on key topics, such as recent research and the
Microsoft acquisition of PlaceWare.
* It has a companion newsletter that you can freely subscribe to
at: http://www.webseminarian.com/
* It also accepts contributions and articles from readers.
Web Seminarian has a sister company called Obidicut which
identifies specific ways your company can enhance revenue,
marketing, control costs and improve customer satisfaction
through Web conferencing. For more information please see:
http://www.obidicut.net/
...............................................................
d) e-Learning Centre
http://www.e-learningcentre.co.uk/
Efficiently coordinated and managed by Jane Knight the E-
Learning Centre is one of the very best resources for online
tools and resources valuable to the distant communicator and
online trainer. The main focus is on adult e-learning, i.e.
e-learning in the workplace, in Higher Education and in
continuing professional development.
The E-Learning Centre provides a freely accessible and well
organized database catalogue of all e-Learning related tools
and technologies organized in many useful categories.
For each tool or technology a good description, features and
main characteristics are provided along with Web links and
direct contact information.
Particularly useful is the section on Products and Services
accessible at:
http://www.e-learningcentre.co.uk/eclipse/vendors/index.html
Among other valuable sections and resources you can find on
this site I would highlight:
1) Library: This section contains a very large number of pages
with links to many different articles, white papers, research
reports, journal articles, resource collections, books, etc
http://www.e-learningcentre.co.uk/eclipse/Resources/index.html
2) Showcase: Here you can find very useful links to examples of
interesting online courses, learning materials and other
e-learning solutions for university, school, corporate and
general learners.
http://www.e-learningcentre.co.uk/eclipse/showcase/index.html
3) Events: A month-by-month listing of e-learning conferences
plus links to workshops, courses and seminars in the area of
e-learning.
http://www.e-learningcentre.co.uk/eclipse/conferences/index.html
4) Centres: In this section you can find a number of specialist
"Centres" that aggregate related resources from across the
e-Learning Centre website.
http://www.e-learningcentre.co.uk/services/consultancy.html
5) eCLIPSE: This section is the e-Learning Centre's e-Learning
Intelligence Service: People, Systems and Environments. This
section provides links only to content produced by the
e-Learning Centre.
http://www.e-learningcentre.co.uk/eclipse/Highlights/index.html
6) The E-Learning Centre also offers a unique E-Learning
Directory 2003 covering 150 suppliers of eLearning products and
services operating in 25 different European countries. The
directory is indexed by region, vendor category and industry
classification. This is a high-quality, bound, A4-size document
and updates and new entries are available online for free. The
cost of the directory is € 99.
http://www.elearning-directory.com/
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2) How To Create An Effective Information Graphic
by Juan C. Dürsteler
InfoVis.net
http://www.infovis.net/
To make a good information graphic is not an easy thing. It is
fundamental to know what purpose it serves and to whom it is
addressed, but it's also convenient to follow a coherent process
in order to correctly make it.
In this issue we describe this process.
Recently I had the opportunity to prepare and give a course on
information graphics for a financial entity. The subject of the
course was to explain what you have to take into account when
preparing a graphical presentation, especially when the data is
quantitative.
So the idea wasn't to explain how to make business charts with
Excel or PowerPoint, even though we should use these ubiquitous
tools to build them, but what techniques we should use in order
to make the charts clearer and easier to understand.
Surprisingly enough there is very little literature on the
topic. (At the end of this article you can consult a list of
interesting books). The available books and information can be
divided (in a rough approximation) into two categories.
a) Catalogues of types of graphics and charts commonly used.
b) Information on the theory and aesthetics of quantitative
charts.
It's difficult to distil elementary but general principles that
summarise the best practice in performing business graphics or,
in general, graphic presentations. And this is so for several
reasons.
The audience.
You cannot unlink the charts from the audience they address.
It's quite different making a chart show the evolution of sales
for a meeting of sales people than presenting a marketing
campaign to the board of directors, even though the data can be
the same.
The objective the chart hopes to achieve.
Information graphics can be done for several reasons. Among them
we can highlight the following ones. To transmit or communicate a
message. Sales have improved but we are still behind budget….
To present large amounts of information in a compact and easy to
understand way. A road map is an archetypical example of this
type of objective.
To reveal the data.
Discovering cause-effect relations, knowing what's happening. It
appears that in the business environment people think more about
information graphics in order to show what is already known
rather than discovering what is still unknown.
To periodically monitor the evolution of certain parameters. For
example the evolution of stock exchange, sales, budget…
*The process of making an information graphic*
It appears that the pressure of everyday work and the little
time that we have means that when we are about to perform an
information graphic we adopt the tactics of immediacy. We start
Excel, throw in some data and select a chart type, accepting the
terrible colours that Excel gives us by default.
In order to facilitate the process of creating a chart I've
elaborated the diagram that you can see at:
http://www.infovis.net/E-zine/2002/num_73.htm
The process is divided into three parts:
1) What is it for?
The reason why we make the graphic representation . This
determines the type of data to gather and about which we have
to ask what type it has to be (quantitative, sequential
categorical…) and more importantly: are they relevant for what
we want?
2) How?
In what way we will represent the data. A fundamental aspect of
this section is that information graphics are interesting
because they reveal differences. For this reason refining them
and representing the data derived from their statistical
treatment often reveals aspects that otherwise would result
confusing. Once data is refined we have to choose the most
effective visual metaphor. Sometimes, for a little data, a
table or even a sentence can be clearer that a chart. In
certain occasions changing the colour palette or the type of
chart can clarify the situation enormously.
3) Does it work?
We can obtain a nice and elegant chart but, if it doesn't fit
the goal that we have defined in the first step, we will have
failed. The key resides in revising and experimenting with
what we have done until we find an improvement.
Varying the colours, reducing the saturation of what is less
important and increasing it for the most relevant data,
modifying the typography, the size of fonts, eliminating
everything that doesn't contribute to showing and clarifying
the data (irrelevant grids, redundant data, unnecessary labels)
without losing relevant information sometimes provides
surprisingly improved results.
In the end, making a good information graphic consist of
facilitating the understanding of complexity, instead of
complicating what is simple. And this cannot be achieved
without the clear understanding of what goal we pursue, who our
audience is and a good deal of work and reflection.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Commendable bibliography:
Edward Tufte's books:
The Visual Display of Quantitative Information,
http://www.infovis.net/Library/books.htm#VisualDisplay
Visual Explanations
http://www.infovis.net/Library/books.htm#VisualExplanations
Envisioning Information
http://www.infovis.net/Library/books.htm#EnvisioningInformation
Digital Diagrams by Trevor Bounford
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0823015726/infovisnet
Visualising your business by Keith R. Herrmann
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0471371998/infovisnet
*****************
Juan C. Dürsteler, PhD, is based in Spain and holds a degree in
Physics from the Universitat de Barcelona, has devoted his
professional career to the design of new products and the
innovation in the industry. During the last six years Dr
Dürsteler has been especially interested in Human-Computer
Interface and the visual representation of numeric information
coming from Computational Fluid Dynamics simulations,
optimization and other processes related with the design and
manufacture of advanced products, particularly Progressive
Addition Lenses.
More recently his interests have been more focused on
Information Visualisation in general and very specifically in
the way the presentation of information influences in its
understanding.
Dr Dürsteler is strongly interested in discovering the
techniques that allow the person involved in the 'knowledge
crystallization' process to get more than pure data
transmission: a change in its mental state; the understanding.
You can reach Juan Dürsteler at:
http://www.infovis.net
Copyright notice:
"You can freely distribute, re-send, copy or cite the above
article provided that it remains unmodified, it isn't used for
commercial purposes and this copyright note is preserved."
---------------------------------------------------------------
3) Showcase And Demonstrate Software Tools Online
by Luigi Canali De Rossi
IKONOS New Media
Karen Gonzales and her brother Carlos have just finished
developing a new software utility that allows computer users to
create CD-ROMs and mini Web sites from standard PowerPoint
presentations.
Karen has designed and Carlos has published online a small Web
site to promote and sell their new software tool on the
Internet. Together they have been able to integrate quality
content and useful information while providing an easy
procedure for online purchase of the software.
To Carlos surprise, Google has also indexed the Web site and it
is bringing in over 300 qualified new visitors every day.
Karen instead is very concerned about sales, as the initial
weeks have not proven very successful for them. Nonetheless the
product has no competitors on the market and the price is very
competitive, sales lag behind.
Karen and Carlos invest also some money in getting exposure
through a very targeted campaign on Google AdWords and in
distributing an official press release through a professional
PR agency. Following these marketing actions Karen and Carlos
Web site starts to get even more traffic, touching over 600
visitors per day. But, sad to say, the sales remain
dramatically low.
Karen and Carlos decide to consult with an online marketing
expert and have him look at their site and product to suggest a
strategy to improve their selling effectiveness.
Bruce Lojacono, a new media marketing expert from Leicester UK,
reviews with attention Karen and Carlos work and after a few
days calls them back with a strategic solution ready to be
implemented.
Bruce suggests the young brother and sister to offer an
opportunity to their customers to test and try-out their
product before having to make a purchase. Bruce actually
suggests that due to their present limited credibility and
reputation in the market, people were probably highly
suspicious of the quality of the product and would not take the
risk of buying a software tool having read only its feature
list.
In Bruce own terms they need to stick their neck out and
demonstrate to each and every client the quality of their
product and their own credibility and honesty.
Bruce suggests to Karen to set up a virtual space in which she
could demonstrate live the software while talking to the
customer, few would resist the temptation to purchase their
quality tool.
Karen and Carlos set out then to identify a technology that
could match their budget and presentation needs. To their
surprise finding one technology that offers these features
without costing an arm and a leg is not an easy task at all.
Most of the tools that Bruce knows, like WebEx, Placeware,
Centra cost way too much for what Karen and Carlos can ever
afford.
Frustrated and disillusioned Karen and Carlos get back in touch
with Bruce Lojacono to report about their findings. With much
frankness Bruce acknowledges the issue and reports that he
himself has long been unable to find an effective conferencing
tool to work for himself at a reasonable cost.
Just recently though, Bruce has run into a newly published
independent report that identifies 15 live Web conferencing
tools that are extremely cost-effective and that are targeted at
individuals and small companies. He refers Karen and Carlos to
Robin Good's Official Guide to SOHO Web Conferencing and Live
Presentation Tools and incites them to download the Free Access
Kit that allows individuals to try out 16 different systems at
no cost whatsoever.
In a matter of hours Carlos and Karen find a revolutionary tool,
Linktivity WebDemo (http://www.linktivity.com/), that allows
them to demonstrate their software live on the Web, while
providing them with the ability to talk and see their customer
online. The tool, which is very cost-effective also provides a
remote control facility that allows Karen and Carlos' customers
to try out themselves selected functions of the tool during the
demo. They can also annotate and mark different features while
presenting them and the tool offers them the opportunity to
send out documentation and help files instantly while running
the presentation.
Karen and Carlos cannot contain their excitement as now they
can truly interact and show how their software is to any
customer in the world. Price is right and getting up to speed
requires only a matter of minutes.
Do you need the same things Karen and Carlos have been looking
for?
You too, like them, can get today a lot more than you are ready
to bargain for. Together with Linktivity WebDemo a whole new
breed of cost-effective live conferencing tools for individuals
and small companies are available for immediate use. You don't
need WebEx, Centra or Placeware to do the things that Karen and
Carlos need to do.
To find out everything about the 15 best conferencing
technologies that can help you succeed in marketing your
software please give a look to: Robin Good's Official Guide to
SOHO Web Conferencing and Live Presentation Tools
http://www.masternewmedia.org/reports/webconferencing/
--------------------------------------------------------------
Freely available to the public is also Robin Good's Access Kit
to FREE Conferencing Try-Outs providing immediate access to
over 174 days of free Web conferencing with the same tools
tested in the Official Guide.
The FREE Access Kit can be downloaded immediately at:
http://www.masternewmedia.org/reports/webconferencing/trial.htm
---------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------
4) 11 Steps To Presentations
(Part 1 of 4)
by Geetesh Bajaj
Indezine.com
http://www.indezine.com/
*Introduction*
"No ripples in ponds
No concepts in mind
Yet presentations aplenty
No threads around
To string the beads
And the audience is sleepy"
I can already hear complaints and cries - 'eleven' steps to a
presentation - surely that's way too many - after all the
wizards get you there with just a few clicks.
True, and these presentation wizards do have their uses - for
instance, you could be creating an occasional presentation, or
you are in a hurry - but then, these presentations have their
disadvantages too - they look 'canned', and they don't awaken
your (latent) talents. Sure, you are more talented than you
think, as you shall soon discover.
I think it's a case of deciding which way to go - since you have
come this far, why not continue for a little longer. You can't
swim until you get your presentation feet wet - so let's dampen
(definitely not the spirits!) them straightaway!
Jump in - now's the time.
Step 1 - Concept
Never attempt a presentation without a concept - it's that
simple.
Backtrack and go to from wherever you came. Alternatively,
elaborate your concept, exchange ideas, look a little further
with your own and other people's perspectives. Take a note book
(loose papers often get lost!) and jot down your ideas before
you forget them. By this time, if you have enough ideas to layer
the whole world with knowledge, it would be a good idea to
decide what's your framework? - what are your limits?
Let me explain how to make it easier - open any window and look
beyond and write - about whatever you see - it's a paradox, no
limits to whatever you're writing about, but you are still
limited by what the window chooses not to reveal - after all
there are no 360 degree views here! The window frames act as a
framework to your story. In the same way, limit your concept to
whatever is relevant to your presentation.
Step 2 - Visualization
You may not be a movie director or editor, but your presentation
still needs a story. Go with your ideas to a calm place, close
your eyes and just concentrate - try visualizing an audience -
what they like and whatever they don't. Now imagine the theme of
your presentation - visualize how you would present it as a
story, how the show would start, continue and end. The beginning
and the end of any presentation is equally important as the body
- so try to weave your start and finish sequences with a little
more impact.
Think about color combinations, animations, transitions and
above all continuity. Read more about colour combinations at:
http://www.indezine.com/ideas/colourcombindex.html.
Try creating a story - a story here does not mean a human story
- it means an end that has a beginning and a subject matter that
is the central theme of your presentation. Be sure that it is
interesting for your audience - just because it seems very good
to you does not automatically relate similarly in the audience's
viewpoint. Above all, respect their time - don't waste this
precious resource when it can be conserved.
Note down your ideas - take them further with your thought
processes - if you think this discussion is a lot of thin air -
then I won't blame you although I will still say that you are
not losing anything by giving this method a try. Concentrate on
creating continuity and keep writing notes - the only part here
you can omit is to close your eyes - but only if it does not
deter your concentration.
Step 3 - Storyboarding
You can download storyboard templates from the Internet or
create your own in a word processor - print a fair amount of
them to make a thin pad which you can staple and keep ready
whenever you need. You can download a sample template at:
http://www.indezine.com/ideas/storybrd.pdf
in Adobe® Acrobat® format - you will need the free Acrobat®
Reader to view and print it - if it's not installed on your
system, you can download it from the Adobe® website
(http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep.html).
Now, make rough sketches in the rectangular slide
representations and jot down your notes in the empty space next
to it. Repeat for every slide.
If you want to read a more detailed article on storyboarding you
can go to Indezine's Presentation Storyboarding page at:
http://www.indezine.com/ideas/storybrd.html.
There's a great storyboarding program called Springboard at:
http://6sys.com/Springboard/index.html, which
is freeware - the only problem is that it is almost useless
without a pen or tablet - if you're going to use it with a
mouse, I doubt how far can you get with it. It allows you to
save your storyboards, as well as export them to a few graphic
formats and HTML as well.
End of Part 1.
Part 2 of "Steps To Presentations" will be published in the
next issue of MasterView (Issue 17 - mid-June 2003).
*************
Geetesh Bajaj is a Microsoft PowerPoint MVP (Most Valuable
Professional) and a contributing editor for Presentations
magazine. He runs the Indezine.com site which contains over 200
pages of PowerPoint tutorials, articles, reviews, etc. He also
runs the Powerpointed.com site (http://www.powerpointed.com/)
that sells PowerPoint templates and other third-party PowerPoint
products.
---------------------------------------------------------------
5) Multi-Image Comes To PowerPoint - Manage Multiple Monitors
And Multiple PowerPoint Presentations Simultaneously
Developed and programmed by Chirag Dalal, PowerShow and
PowerKiosk are two powerful and highly useful PowerPoint add-ins
that allow the delivery of simultaneous presentations on
multiple monitors and more.
PowerShow and PowerKiosk addins introduce powerful presentation
features such as:
1) View the slide show on a monitor while you continue working
on something else on another monitor. You can setup a slide show
to show on a secondary monitor if you have multiple monitor
support. By default, when you are inside PowerPoint, when you
try to do anything else on any other monitor, the slide show
would freeze. PowerShow works around this limitation to enable
you to continue working on a monitor while the slide show runs
on other one.
2) View different presentations on different monitors. By
design, in PowerPoint only one show can be active at any time.
PowerShow/PowerKiosk work around this limitation to enable you
to view all the shows simultaneously. All shows started by
PowerShow/PowerKiosk remain active at all times.
3) View shows in Wide Format - shows can span across multiple
monitors all the way up to all available monitors you have
connected. Normally slide shows are configured for a 4:3
(Width:Height) ratio since normal monitors have that ratio. For
a slide show to span multiple monitors, you must be able to
control such dimensions flexibly. For example a show in Wide
Format could be set at viewing ratios of 8:3, 4:1, 16:3
(Width:Height). PowerShow View and PowerKiosk allow you to do
just that.
4) View presentation and notes on separate monitors - keep notes
in sync with the slide show. In addition to running multiple
shows simultaneously, PowerShow/PowerKiosk offer you to view the
notes for the shows on a different monitor. This feature enables
you to have the notes view visible to the presenter and the
slide show view to be visible to the audience.
PowerShow/PowerKiosk keep notes synchronized with the currently
showing slide.
5) View shows on multiple panels arranged in matrix (box)
layout. Multi-panel systems are usually arranged in matrix
layouts to collectively form a big screen. PowerShow and
PowerKiosk support such configurations to enable you to span a
PowerPoint slide show across the width and height of the layout
you have created.
6) Run multiple shows simultaneously.
7) Run multiple videos simultaneously.
8) Control multiple shows from a single terminal. PowerShow
(only) introduces Session Controller that enables you to
control all the slide shows started in a PowerShow Session.
For more information and a screenshot of the session controller
please see:
http://officerone.tripod.com/powershow/ powershow_session_controller.html
9) Work across multiple monitors. PowerShow/PowerKiosk support
all the monitors that are connected to the system. The default
PowerShow/PowerKiosk Session Settings dialog box enables you to
configure 7 items in the session. It also provides the Add More
Rows button that enables you to add additional items if needed.
*System Requirements*
PowerShow works with Microsoft PowerPoint 2000 and PowerPoint XP
on Windows 98, Windows Me, Windows 2000 and Windows XP.
Download a trial version at:
http://officeone.mvps.org/powershow/powershow_download.html (921 KB)
The trial edition allows you to use PowerShow for 10 days after
which you will have to purchase the retail edition to continue
using it.
PowerKiosk works with Microsoft PowerPoint 97 on Windows 98, Me,
2000 and XP. Download the addin and install it in your
PowerPoint environment.
Download a trial version at:
http://officerone.tripod.com/powerkiosk/ powerkiosk_download.html (832 KB)
The trial edition allows you to use PowerShow for 10 days after
which you will have to purchase the retail edition to continue
using it.
A full commercial license of either product costs USD $ 79.95.
---------------------------------------------------------------
6) How To Manage Your Organization PowerPoint Presentation
Resources In A Distributed And Effective Way
Presentation Librarian
http://www.accent-technologies.com/presentationlibrarian/
[***] = must have
Online Service + Server-based system
Presentation Librarian™ is a presentation management tool
designed to automate the storage and retrieval of PowerPoint®
slides. Presentation Librarian allows its users to access and
retrieve slides and media elements 24-hours a day, seven days a
week from anywhere in the world.
Librarian is available in four editions, each focused on making
existing presentation materials readily available to the
presenters and communication officers in your organization for
fast creation of new presentations.
1) The Workgroup Edition is designed for departments or
workgroups that need fast access to shared PowerPoint
presentation materials via their local area network/Intranet
(inside the organization).
2) The CD-ROM Edition is a solution for providing traveling
presenters full support without the need for network or Internet
access. The CD-ROM creates a dic-based library of all resources
for presentations that the traveling presenter may need and
provides an easy way to access and manage them.
3) The Enterprise Edition is a great solution for organizations
that want to improve the accessibility and quality of their
presentation materials. The Enterprise Edition allows the
creation of an online Web resource that makes all slides in the
organization's library available to presenters via a standard
Web browser.
4) Presentation Librarian ASP Solution (hosted by the vendor)
combines an advanced data management system with a user-friendly
interface for carrying out effective Web-based presentation
asset management presentation asset management. The ASP Solution
offers all the features and benefits of a robust Web-based
solution without the costs and IT requirements associated with
implementing a server-based solution inside the organization.
Presentation Librarian recently expanded the range of file
formats it can work with to include the following:
Presentations
PPT
Documents
PDF
Word (DOC)
Excel (XLS)
RTF
Text (TXT)
Images and MultiMedia
JPG AVI MP3
PNG WMV WAV
GIF MOV SWF (Flash)
WMF QT TIF
RAS MPG PCT
PCX PSD
To access an online demo and to understand which version may
work best for your specific needs, please see:
http://www.accent-technologies.com/demos/index.asp
Demo Enterprise edition
http://www.accent-technologies.com/demos/demoinfoform.asp?
prespow=enterprise
A one page product overview document is available at:
http://www.accent-technologies.com/printable.asp
From here you can further access a free online version of
Presentation Librarian Enterprise or download a demo of the:
---------------------------------------------------------------
PowerSearch plug-in
The PowerSearch plug-in is a very effective small utility
devoted to one simple but highly critical task. The PowerSearch
utility allows in fact searching for individual slides available
on your local hard disk, or LAN server, according to your
selected words.
The PowerSearch plug-in rapidly searches the path you indicate
and brings back in a PowerPoint Slide Sorter view all of the
slides that match your query, that is all of the slides that
contain the text you have indicated.
The newly found slides are assembled into one temporary
presentation in which you can select or delete what you don't
need. PowerSearch takes care also of placing a small but highly
useful information box ( |