Why SlideShare will turn into a major platform for spreading ideas

More and more I come to the realization how online presentation sharing tools such as SlideShare will become one of the main platforms to spread ideas.
  • An image says more than a 1,000 words. Long pieces of text do not work for an impatient Internet audience suffering from information overload. Short blog or Twitter posts cannot capture complex concepts. LOOK AT THIS SHORT POST AND MANY PEOPLE WILL ALREADY DECIDE IT'S TOO LONG TO READ
  • Images are a pain to manage in HTML, especially when you want to add text, shapes, etc. SlideShare makes it easy to put up a sequence of images. Slideshare makes it easy to embed, share this.
  • Presentation Zen ideas about good presentation graphics are spreading into the mainstream: more and more people know how to leverage presentation software correctly
  • SlideShare enables some remote "flow control". People click frantically, but follow the script better than when scrolling down a column of text only eye balling bold words, or abandoning a YouTube (or TED) video mid-way
Remember, a good SlideShare presentation is not the same as a presentation for a live audience. See my earlier post on Not all presentations are "Zen".
  • A SlideShare audience is as impatient as any, but it does not sit in a room where it is impolite to walk away mid-presentation. Every slide should invite watching the next one.
  • People watch SlideShare presentations on a very small screen, like sitting in the back of a huge conference room: large images, big fonts are even more important
  • Animations (not a great idea anyhow) do not work (yet) in SlideShare
  • No presenter. You cannot explain what's in the slides. They have to be crystal clear, messages have to be more explicit/spoon-fed than you would do in a live presentation