A lateral thought: after three decades of evolution in communication technology, what about the technology advances for one-on-one and one-to-many communication between individuals?
According to acclaimed information visualization scholar, Edward Tufte, one step backward may have been the widespread popularity of PowerPoint presentations.
Is Tufte a curmudgeon -- or just persistent and unwavering in his belief that the fundamentals behind information display should not bend to the tools employed?
In my blog post, "The End of Powerpoint", I reflect on a day I spent at one of Tufte's classes, and what it taught me about communication, teaching, and journalism. Tufte's work on the topic suggests that we may have something to learn from journalists when it comes to communicating among ourselves. A small excerpt from my post:
"I believe [Tufte's] respect for these media organizations above others comes from the unique challenge they face: to take something inherently complex — such as a scientific discovery or result of research — and present it to an audience who might have limited understanding. These organizations also operate under the constraint of limited space — often devoting only a single page to a complex topic. Tufte’s point, here, is that if the journalists at Nature can condense an important scientific discovery into a page of information and have it still be readable and comprehensible, then you have no excuse for giving one-hour-long PowerPoint presentations that convey nothing of substance."
Continue reading "The End of Powerpoint"...
