Every week I get a request for a presentation either I have given or that has been delivered at an event I was helping to facilitate. We usually end up converting the PowerPoint presentation to a PDF file and then posting the PDF. We sometimes post the audio as well, and there may even be people who download both and then attempt to synchronize them using nothing but audio cues. It's hard and sometimes unsatisfying work. I wish we could do better...Poof! Along comes slidecasts from slideshare.net. I found the idea while reading Doug Kaye's blog. He had taken his very geeky, let me repeat, very technical slide show on the Secret Lives of mp3 files and synched up the slide show into a slidecast and posted it online. It looks like this.
As I said in my comments on Doug's blog, this is very powerful. I love the fact that I can go forward and backward through the presentation, using the slides as a visual indication of where I am. I love this format just for the ability to fast forward to meaningful points within the program. I rarely listen to the podcasts on my PC, but if I thought I could watch synced slides at the same time, there are definitely some shows I would save for when I could watch as well as listen.
qv: Slideshare.net
