Pecha Kucha: The Cure for Death by Powerpoint

If you've ever been forced to endure an excruciatingly long powerpoint lecture, you'll appreciate PechaKucha, a concept invented in Tokyo in 2003. The idea is simple: share your message with 20 images, shown for 20 seconds each. This forces the presenter to get right to the heart of the message - no fluff allowed. Done correctly, it leaves the audience wanting to know more, without burdening them with information they don't need.

Here's an example of a Pecha Kucha presentation, given in February of 2010:


Jack deBartolo from dvdwht on Vimeo.

PechaKucha for Haiti

How sociable are you?

How do you know if your social media use is getting you anywhere? A company called Inuda has created a website to help you measure your social media visibility, relative to other companies and brands out there. Their website, HowSociable?, can help you track your brand's visibility on more than 20 social media sites including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr.

Just how the scoring works is a bit of a mystery, but there is an interesting discussion of suggestions on the website. Inuda seems open to changing the system and welcomes new ideas for improving score accuracy.

The most memorable campus tour...EVER!

Want to make an unforgettable first impression with your prospective students? Here's a video from the Dartmouth Jack-O-Lantern, tagging along on a once-in-a-college-search campus tour.

Drinkin' Time

Blogging to Connect

In an expanding world of knowledge and ideas, blogging allows for the immediate exchange of information about new and emerging topics. It allows the instant dissemination and consumption of exactly what we want to hear, when we want to hear it. In the new media landscape, blogging is the ultimate marketable product - it simultaneously creates and fulfills a demand for timely access to the information we seek, no matter how obscure the topic. Blogging emphasizes the immediacy that we as consumers and learners demand. Furthermore, if blogs can be considered products to be bought and sold, the consumer is guaranteed satisfaction in every sale. Don’t like the blog? Don’t go back. It’s that easy.

Blogging is also creating a new social outlet in a once-antisocial realm. Particularly for Milennials (the new Generation X), new media is not just a part of their social experience – it almost exclusively dictates their social experience. Quoting a keynote speech by Brad Berens at University of Notre Dame, Millennial Marketing blogs that new media fosters connections instead of isolation. We can connect with people who are interested in the same things we are, share comments, and extend the discussion of topics about which we are passionate. From politics to prom, blogging gives us the information we want while connecting us to others that also want that information.

Perhaps most importantly, blogging test the boundaries of our First Amendment rights. As our Levinson text suggests, there is some debate regarding the journalistic level of blogs, and whether or not what we write is protected by the Constitution. Blogging is creating a new generation of individuals who fight passionately for their freedom of speech, and who pay attention to the rights of others. When we blog, we all have the chance to speak our minds and make our voices heard. Contacting our legislators, creating groundswell and shedding light on injustices happens quickly through blogs.

Whether we write about sports, politics, fashion or philanthropy, we connect with our audience through our blogs. Technology may be changing the face of traditional social interaction, but blogging should be considered a new channel for social interaction – one more immediate than we have ever known.