Subject: RE: Outlawing PowerPoint (Was: a suggestion....)

From: "Spencer Dawkins" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1998 08:16:49 -0500

My impression was that the format Vern and Scott used for RUTS and PILC last
week was very effective for BOFs that are trying to do the "unified field
theory" thing.

This involved presenters that had something like five minutes and a
strongly-suggested format of three slides and one subject area. This allowed
the audience to soak up lots of experience in a short period of time
(honestly, how many of us have significant experience with ALL the protocols
that were presented in RUTS?)

I like the "polite fiction" that we participate as individuals. Compared to
other standards organizations I've attended, there is significantly less
pressure on us to come up with "corporate positions" on a topic before we
discuss it at IETF, and more pressure to listen to competing proposals and
steal the best parts of each.

The one part of the PowerPoint era I like is the practice of putting author
and presenter names on the first slide. Especially in RUTS and PILC, where
we had the goal of bringing together communities of interest that haven't
worked closely together in the past, it is very helpful to get exact names,
including spellings, and e-mail addresses, for follow-up after the
face-to-face sessions. There's usually at least one person in each BOF/WG
that I attend that I never hear a full name for. Sometimes I can get them
off the agendas on the net, but sometimes I end up doing name resolution via
e-mail to WG chairs!

Spencer

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From: Tony Hain <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1998 07:40:10 -0800

Brian Carpenter wrote:
		I know one company whose revenue would be hurt by a ban on
PPT :)

That would be the manufacturer of transparency stock for the printer. 

There were several people who complained about the lack of projection
equipment in each room. While this would have saved on slide stock, it would
lead to more content free presentations. I don't recall who it was that
pointed out that the ability to mark up the slides during the meeting
actually lead to better interaction and more work getting done.

=======================================================
Tony Hain			[email-masked]
<mailto:[email-masked]>

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From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1998 08:56:10 -0800

I believe that WG chairs should avoid company logos on their
own lides.  Otherwise, all that I would ask is a little subtlety.
You don't have to bang us over the head with your logos.
Subtlety may require some to replace their company's standard
logos with something a bit less, uh, aggressive.

Bob Braden

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From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1998 08:56:10 -0800

Bob Braden