PPT - Powerful Presentation Techniques

Photo Resources - SnapVillage, PictureNation and PhotoShelter

I haven't posted on low cost online photography sources for awhile.  One of the newer ones is SnapVillage, a microstock photography company owned by privately held Corbis.  They allow the "amateur" photographer to upload images, select their selling price from $1 - $50 and go to town.  The site allows you to search by price, recency, snappyness and relevance.  Here's a fact sheet on the site.

Another photo resource that I've come across is PhotoShelter.  They also offer a marketplace, although their pricing is significantly higher than SnapVillage.  On a less costly note you can buy web quality photos at UK-based PictureNation on a subscription or per image basis.

I'll be adding SnapVillage to version 8 of my resource listing for presenters.  If you have other photography or presentation related resources that you feel should be part of this resource listing send them to me.

Note: this is one of my photographs taken at the Bean in Chicago last summer.

New Article in Wisconsin Technology Network - Big Brother is Watching

I've written a new article in the ongoing series of Buzz Network articles in Wisconsin Technology Network.  The article "Big Brother is Watching; Privacy Barriers are Falling Down" examines some of the recent government and industry intrusions into consumer privacy along with providing suggestions for ways that businesses can avoid problems with their customer's privacy.

AuthorSTREAM joins the online presentation party

Joining the online slide sharing game is AuthorSTREAM.  The service allows you to upload your PowerPoint presentations and share them on blogs, YouTube or your iPod.  Here's one of the presentations on the site that I found with some striking images.

Quotes worth Sharing

"No more than six words on a slide. EVER."

Seth Godin

Private Beta Launch - SlideRocket, web-based presentations

Tech Crunch reported on the private beta launch of SlideRocket "a presentation app that wants to recreate PowerPoint in the browser and take advantage of the web's sharing and mashup capabilities."  SlideRocket is scheduled to launch this summer. 

I took a look at their online demonstration and capability descriptin to see that they are touting a wide range of features and benefits across a wide range of presentation phases including creation, delivery, managment, analysis and community.  In the demo show they reference the following:

• online libraries for styles and presentation assets
• effects, builds, transitions and animations (including several not available in PowerPoint)
• presentation asset tagging, searching and sorting
• hyperlinks within presentations
• stylizeable charts & graphs
• ability to share presentations online

I've submitted a request to be invited to test out the application and once I have more to report I'll do so here at PPT - Powerful Presentation Techniques.

Paul Gibler

1st Day of Spring

Min Daffodil
Originally uploaded by saxonfenken.

With snow still on the ground in Madison, WIsconsin and more snow projected over the next couple of days, it is hard to believe that today is the first day of Spring. I loved this photograph of a daffodil, a flower that to me symbolizes this time of the year, at least in a normal year.

Quotes worth Sharing

"...PowerPoint presentations too often resemble a school play - very loud, very slow and very simple."

Edward Tufte, 2003

PowerPoint Karaoke

The Boston Globe reports on the growing interest in PowerPoint Karaoke, a spoof that originated in Germany a couple of years ago.  The karaoke program works by having a person give a "presentation" from a slide deck that they have never seen before.  In the article, it is suggested that to have your own PowerPoint Karaoke event, all you need to do is the following:

1. find PowerPoint slide decks online (.ppt)
2. download them,
3. serve beer
4. distribute the slide decks to karaoke presenters
5. use a LCD projector to display the slide
6. have the presenter generate a story with the slide deck

I'm game and ready to try it out.

For more tips on PowerPoint Karaoke, see Heathervescent's posting following last year's Barcamp LA.   

Slideshare has created a tool to help you pull together slides from the Slideshare repository.

YouTube Video in PPT

ZDNet UK blogger William Peterson has posted tips on PowerPoint and YouTube in his posting "Live Your YouTube Video in PowerPoint".  The posting compiles various ways to include YouTube video into PowerPoint for when you are connected to the internet or when you are looking to download and convert a YouTube video to a format that is compatible with PowerPoint. 

This is a topic that I've posted other links and resources here at PPT - Powerful Presentation Techniques.

Paul Gibler
the Web Chef

Quotes worth Sharing

"Projected slides should be as visual as possible and support your points, quickly efficiently and powerfully"

Garr Reynolds, presentationzen, 2008