Thing 13: Everybody’s Talkin’ (podcasts and presentations)

Slideshare

Slideshare makes sense. If a speaker has put a lot of work into making a presentation cogent and stylish, they might as well put it up for other people to admire and use. I’ve found Slideshare pretty useful for finding visual explanations of concepts like linked data. Flicking through a full presentation in five minutes certainly makes me feel mega efficient. Having concepts broken down into bitesize slides is also reassuring.

However, I get the feeling that I’m probably missing a lot of the contextual information and discussion that comes from hearing the presentation too. One solution is to link the slides with an accompanying podcast, but that negates the benefit of being able to rapidly skip through images. Perhaps if I want to put some slides online, I’ll have to reconsider the maxim that less text on slides is good, or adapt the slides between presenting in person and uploading them for others to use independently.

Podcasts

I’ve never really used podcasts, but as someone who hardly listens to the radio, that’s not surprising. The only podcasts I’ve used are Emma Smith’s Approaching Shakespeare lectures at Oxford. Her authoritative talks confirmed my understanding of some of the plays without having to select and delve into a lot of secondary literature, which wasn’t necessary for my purposes.

YouTube

I find watching a video of a talk is much more appealing, if only because I try to be a super productive multi-tasker when listening to podcasts, and consequently focus less. Most of the TED talks I’ve seen have been great examples of short, persuasive presentations. Surprisingly for such a visual medium, most don’t have a lot of pyrotechnics on the screen behind. They’re masterclasses in engaging public speaking. I particularly like Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s TEDx talk on feminism.

I also know that I’m more likely to browse for other things through YouTube’s suggested videos than I would be to trawl through Slideshare or iTunes. Whether that will make someone who’s adverse to public speaking  choose this medium is another matter. I imagine this will a concern for many others who want to be in a profession which is increasingly involved in online outreach.