community

Nov 22 2008   11:22AM GMT

IBM White Paper: The Value of Training and the High Cost of Doing Nothing

Posted by: William Peterson
IBM, Training, CIO, IT professional, Enterprise, Learning, Review, Business, community, Solutions, Business presentations, White Paper, Businss Training

Never doubt that IBM’s training is the best business training I’ve ever seen. Recently, IBM published an interesting white paper called “The Value of Training” by consultant David Leaser. It notes that, a company will lose 10 to 30% of its capabilities per year. By year three, an organization has retained only 41% of it original capabilities, dwindling to 24% by year six. Right, that’s the point: it costs more than a better training, if we still do nothing.

When most companies are facing the terrible financial crisis, they cut the budget. Less business trip, less internal expenses, but significantly the staff training should not be ignored.

William Peterson
Presentation Veteran

Sep 14 2008   11:26AM GMT

Look upon the Never Rivalry: Pushing Silverlight to Flash Presentation

Posted by: William Peterson
Web, YouTube, IT professional, RIA, Rich Media, Enterprise, Web 2.0, Technology, Learning, Adobe, Silverlight, Microsoft, Flash, Review, Business, community, Corporate, Online Apps, Flash Video, Webcam, Web Presentation, Business presentations

The NBC’s Olympic Games in Silverlight boomed Microsoft’s rich media technologies a lot, but it still stands outside the stage where Adobe Flash dances. Microsoft is not the god, neither is Adobe. Actually Silverlight did well in many specifications as newly developed kit for the Web, while Flash seemed old and out of some emerging developments. To fight the mainstream, let’s look around what Silverlight.

In the developer Niraj Swaminarayan’s Silverligh vs. Flash - An Analysis Report, we can see that some parts are not that crucial for most Web developers. So I take my hands to the opinion that, the so-called rivalry is really not that important like lots of observers said. YouTube can be a Silverlight based video sharing community as well as Flash offers.

I’m concerning about the impact on my favorite Webcasting industry where the Silverlight platform could not step in currently. If Silverlight lives better and better as expected, what’s the critical issues we’ll face when replacing with Silverlight? The IT infrastractures for a business do not require the value of emerging technologies. That’s why Windows Vista could not become the mainstream with its 2 years’ experiences. Certainly it’s not a bad idea to take Silverlight presentation in the future.

William Peterson
Presentation Veteran

Sep 6 2008   7:43AM GMT

The Mashup Show in Social Web Presentations 2.0

Posted by: William Peterson
Web, IT professional, RIA, Rich Media, Web 2.0, Technology, PowerPoint, Learning, Review, Business, community, Online Apps, Webcam, Web Presentation, Slidecast, SlideShare, Business presentations

Yep, you can see that I’m really hooked by that kinda video presentation services in the Social Web 2.0 times. Hot star Ominisio married Google, and old Zentation continued his beta as semi-pro. They don’t just bet on the mashup of video and slides, as they really want to engage a stage of our social Web. More than sharing all on Web apps, the mashup culture is one big point in Web 2.0 community life. So as to my personal interests in presentations, I can’t ignore the dying of PowerPoint and the power of Web 2.0. The module of Ominisio shock’d me on the development of presentations. Now the traditional presentation gradually become a part of the lifetime show, not only among slides and words.

Above all, I admit that the video content enrich’d the plain slides as expantory, but some skills are necessary as the catchwords “Content is King”. To show the best presentation, we need exceptional ideas, and some practice knowledge about Instructional Design. That’s the real mashup in the better Social Web Presentation 2.0. We learn from others in social community, so the winner presentations from SlideShare’s recent The World’s Best Presentation Contest could be good examples.

William Peterson
Presentation Veteran

Aug 30 2008   12:25AM GMT

Kick Off the Keynote: Brief Launch, Rich Presentation

Posted by: William Peterson
IT professional, Technology, PowerPoint, Learning, Keynote, Business, community, PowerPoint 2007, Tips, Solutions, Web Presentation, Business presentations

Okay that a lot of my friends ever complained that their audience were so unprofessional when they addressed something logical and theoretical. The fact is, your presentation is so good, without the best approach to audience’s logic.

Like Mark Twain said, “I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.” If we’re not the presentation expert, or need presentations to keep walking, we might ignore the true feelings from potential audience when planning the keynote. long or short is not the important elements in the planning. When the part with complicated theory comes, just enrich the experiences, such as playing relaxing background music, or throwing out the key sentences like thundering.

Your presentation can be as long as it should be, but it can not be poorly developed without brief launching and rich contents. The starting part couldn’t be tedious, as well as the main contents couldn’t be too simple without your professional insight. There’s no requirement to make everyone a presentation expert, so that’s why I usually recommend such improvements on PowerPoint 2007 to level up our efficiency at work.

We don’t blame the logic of audience, because everyone can master presentations like a pro.

My Past Posts about PowerPoint 2007:
Quick Tips to Enhance Your Presentation in PowerPoint 2007
The Presentation Outlook: Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 Review with Recommendations

William Peterson
Presentation Veteran