November 21, 2006
Where to Start
Sometimes I blog items to make sure I can find them again in the future. In that respect, LawLibTech is my own personal knowledgebase. This item is in that category, and who knows, maybe you'll be interested, too!
If you have a presentation to give in the near future, no matter how mundane or technical, read Where to Start, from Creating Passionate Users.
I especially like #3, "For the love of god, DO NOT start with history!" And let me just say, if you're a vendor, conducting a product demo, don't spend the first 15 minutes of a 30 minute demo talking about your company and how wonderful it is. Spend your allotted time making me care about the product!
September 11, 2005
PowerPoint Alternatives - From Browsers to Blogs, Part I
I guess you could say that most people have a love-hate relationship with PowerPoint. Ever since PowerPoint became the de facto standard in presentation software, presenters have been looking for an alternative. When the web came along, many speakers tried using HTML to compile presentations. For those who were comfortable in HTML, it was an easy way to create the materials to be projected during the presentation, and also made it a simple matter to distribute those materials, complete with live links, for participants to view after the session was over. For those who weren't comfortable in HTML, well, they were out of luck. There were other downsides as well, as Rich Wiggins details in his article "Will the Web Browser Replace Powerpoint?", Internet Outlook, Oct. 1, 1997.
HTML presentations can be useful for presenting with a live, reliable Internet connection so that instead of screenshots, you simply link to the live web sites. But if you decide to incorporate screenshots or downloaded web pages, things quickly get much more complicated.
I have typically used HTML to create a web page to supplement or replace handouts. I like not having to mess with paper, or worry about how many copies to bring. I can also continue to tweak it until the very last minute. But the best thing about HTML handouts is that I can go back and add information on questions that came up during the session, or add new resources I learn about later. Though I must admit, it seems inevitable that attendees are happier if they have paper in hand. Not a problem, I often print the web page to provide them with just that while encouraging them to go to the web page for updated information.
I have used HTML for the presentation itself, but found that it got old fast. Several years ago I used HTML to create PowerPoint like slides, with navigation forward and backward. Why? I still ask myself that question. I suppose I thought it would be a useful format for after the presentation viewing. The problem was, it took a lot more time that I expected.
The fact is, I usually want the security of knowing I have the screenshots saved in my PowerPoint, just in case the Internet connection doesn't function as expected. Though this is much less of a problem than it used to be, I still want the backup. And PowerPoint is particularly quick and easy to use to display screenshots.
But others have stuck with HTML, and are quite content. Jessamyn West still uses HTML as a PowerPoint alternative, and has a template that is available for others to use. You can take a look at any of her presentations to see how this works. It's simple, basic, and creates good post-presentation web pages for later reference.
Still loving PowerPoint regardless of what Edward Tuft and the Washington Post have to say? Then you'll want to bookmark Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell's recent article in Law Practice Today, Powerful Pointers for Presenters", which lists all the web sites you'll ever need to help put together your next presentation.
Coming up...Part II, Using Blogs as Presentation Tools.
Posted by Cindy L. Chick at 03:39 PM | Comments (1)February 29, 2004
Delivering Current Information to Your Organization - Presentation
There are a variety of ways to find and deliver news information to your organization, including tools offered by proprietary services as well as free options on the web. My presentation at the recent SCALL Institute discusses the methods of delivery, vendor tools, web services and a brief introduction to RSS feeds. (Be aware that the presentation is 3 meg in size, and could take some time to download.)
Posted by Cindy L. Chick at 06:10 PM | Comments (0)February 22, 2004
Delivering Current Information to Your Organization - Books & Articles
I will be presenting at the SCALL (Southern California Association of Law Libraries) Institute, Feb. 28th, on the various ways to deliver news and current information. Below is the bibliography for the session which includes selected materials on blogging, RSS, intranets and content licensing. I've included links when the materials are available on the web. Thanks to Marlene Bubrick for making this bibliography presentable.
INTRODUCTION
BOOKS
Cohen, Steven M. Keeping Current: Advanced Internet Strategies to Meet Librarian and Patron Needs. Chicago: American Library Association, 2003.
BLOGS
BOOKS
Blood, Rebecca. The Weblog Handbook: Practical Advice on Creating and Maintaining Your Blog. Cambridge, Mass.: Perseus Publishing, 2002.
Stauffer, Todd. Blog On: Building Online Communities with Web Logs.
Berkeley, Calif.; London: McGraw-Hill Osborne Media, 2002.
Stone, Biz. Blogging: Genius Strategies for Instant Web Content. Boston: New Riders, 2003.
ARTICLES
Huwe, Terence K. Born to Blog. Computers in Libraries, November 2003, at 44.
COPYRIGHT, LICENSING AND PRICING
Alford, Duncan E. Negotiating and Analyzing Electronic License Agreements,
94 Law Library Journal 621(Fall 2002).
White, Martin. Content at What Cost? EContent, August 2002, at 46.
RSS
BOOKS
Moffatt, M. RSS - A Primer for Publishers & Content Providers.
ARTICLES
Special: RSS? What is it? B/ITE - Bulletin of the Information Technology Division of SLA.
Broun, Kevin. Integrating Internet Content, Library Journal, October 15, 2003.
Cohen, Steven M. "The Rss Revolution: Using RSS: An
Explanation and Guide." Information Outlook, December 2002, at 6.
Kennedy, Dennis M. Beating Information Overload with News Aggregators, Law Practice Management (November/December 2003)
Mattison, David. So You Want to Start a Syndicated Revolution: RSS News Blogging for Searchers, Searcher, February 2003, at 38.
Tschabitscher, Heinz. Reading News and Blogs via Really Simple Syndication - Spam Free
INTRANETS
Fichter, Darlene. Blogging Software for Intranet Applications, Online,
January 2003, at 61.
WIRELESS DELIVERY
Steiner, Ina. Serving Up the Wireless Web, Online, September 2001, at 26.
Varnum, Ken. Information @ Your Fingertips, Online, September 2000, at 15.
MISCELLANEOUS
Smith, Steve. Push Back: An Old Technology Teaches Content New Tricks,
EContent, July 2003, at 33.
November 06, 2003
Internet Librarian 2003 - Adobe Acrobat Presentation
I just got back from Internet Librarian 2003 in beautiful Monterey. It was a great conference. More details will follow. In the meantime, here's a link to my presentation and handout on Delivering Research Results Electronically using Adobe Acrobat.
Posted by Cindy L. Chick at 06:35 PM | Comments (1)
