The Last Picture Show

The PC revolution brought many changes, but the biggest was distribution of computing power. Personal computers smashed the centralization of mainframe processing and allowed individuals to define when (and where, to the modest extent that PCs were portable) computing would be done.

Yet one application (a tool of the PC era, ironically) follows a centralized model. It requires people to come and meet in a single location, and to wait for a single individual to provide data. It is a mainframe model, with central control over the location and time of processing.

That application is PowerPoint.

Or, more generally, it is presentations.

Presentations are the one application that requires people to come together into a single space, at a specific time, and observe a speaker or group of speakers. The attendees have no control over the flow of information, no control over the timing, and no control over the content. (Although they usually have an idea of the content in advance.)

The presentation is a hold-over from an earlier era, when instructors had information, students desired information, and the technology made mass attendance the most efficient form of distribution. Whether it be a college lecture, a sermon at a religious service, or a review of corporate strategy, the model of "one person speaks and everyone listens" has remained unchanged.

Technology is is a position to change that. We're seeing it with online classes and new tools for presentations. Business meetings can be streamed to PCs and tablets, eliminating the need for employees to travel and meet in a large (probably rented) space. Lectures can be recorded and viewed at the leisure of the student. Sermons can be recorded and provided to those who are unable to attend, perhaps due to infirmities or other commitments.

We don't need presentations on large screens (and on large screens only). We need the information, on a large or small screen.

We don't need presentations in real time (and in real time only). We need information at the right time, with the ability to replay sections to clarify questions.

Look for successors to PowerPoint and its colleagues that combine presentation (video and audio) with time-shifting, multiple devices (PCs, web browsers, and tablets), annotations (written and oral), and indexing for private searches.

I think of the new presentation technologies as an enhanced notebook, one with multimedia capabilities.