No. 48

January 22, 2003

Technology:

Microsoft Producer 1.1

I don't know if this is supposed to be a secret or what, but I found out about this very useful add-on to Microsoft PowerPoint 2002 mere days ago and only by accident. I was watching a well done "show-and-tell" about some software, when, at the end of the multimedia stream I got a glimpse of a logo "Created with Microsoft Producer for PowerPoint 2002"

I never heard of this application, and so I started looking for it. Thanks to Google I didn't have to spend a lot of time searching. (Oddly, trying to locate any information about it on Microsoft Office site by browsing in places you'd expect to find this thing requires a lot of patience. That's why I thought it might be a secret...) I promptly downloaded and installed this free application, and, after creating two 40-minute presentations with it, I have only good things to say:

  • It is intuitive and easy to learn. After spending a few minutes watching an instructional video (created in Producer, of course) I knew more than I needed to know to start making my first presentation.
  • It is flexible. I thought I would never get to say this about a Microsoft product, but this one doesn't actually have any of this annoying second-guessing and automatic task completion so prevalent in tools created by Microsoft. ("Let me indent this paragraph for you, because I'm sure you wanted to.") This tool lets you drag-and-drop images onto a timeline and they will end up where YOU want them to be.
  • The download site states clearly that this add-on requires PowerPoint 2002 (part of Office MX). I'm not sure what this requirement means. I do have PP 2002 on my machine and I haven't tried installing MS Producer on a computer without it, but I created my first two presentations without ever using PowerPoint in the process... In fact, the tool seems to install and run as a standalone, allowing you to use images, audio files, video clips, HTML pages - none of which have to come from PowerPoint...
  • The final multimedia can be exported for playback in several modes, from local (e.g. from a CD-ROM) to online, with various bandwidth requirements.

MS Producer does not really break any new ground as far as community technology and groupware are concerned, but it is a useful and economical (well, how can you not like "free"?) tool for creating and publishing online multimedia for training, demonstration, archiving, coursework, etc. Yes, we're all a bit tired of boring speakers with their monotonous PowerPoint slides, so the prospect of having them recorded as boring talking heads with monotonous gif images for on-demand viewing doesn't seem all that exciting. This, however, will not be solved by a software, will it?

Microsoft Producer 1.1 for PowerPoint MX:

Initiative [1]:

Beaumont Foundation of America

  • From the site: "The Beaumont Foundation of America grants Toshiba branded equipment to support digital inclusion for underserved individuals. The Foundation will grant $350 million over 5 years in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The Foundation has three distinct grant programs:
    • Community Grants of technology equipment to community-based organizations
    • Education Grants of technology equipment for schools
    • Individual Grants of technology equipment directly to individuals"
  • [For eligibility requirements and other information please visit the foundation's site.]

Initiative [2]:

Open Source vs. Proprietary Software in Africa

  • From the press release: "Bridges.org, an international (...) NGO based in Cape Town, South Africa, in collaboration with SchoolNet Africa (...) launched (...) a study comparing the use of open source and proprietary software in an African context [in order to] bring unbiased information to a polarised debate that is often marked by unsubstantiated arguments. (...) The two-year-long study will examine the implications of the choice between open source and proprietary software in an African context by investigating the practical issues facing existing computer laboratories in South Africa and Namibia. In addition it will provide a detailed study of the policy environment and the factors that influence related policy-making processes, again focusing on the policy-level debate and choices made and compare them to similar policies in other countries, as appropriate. "

Online reading [1]:

  • In-Room Chat as a Social Tool
    • By Clay Shirky. OpenP2P.com, December 2002
    • Highly recommended article describing a very interesting experiment (of the "why didn't I think of it before" kind) of using online chat as a supplement to an in-person meeting. Well balanced, too, in that it gives an account of some positive social dynamics that developed as a result, but also warns of the potential pitfalls in applying this approach to meetings of different kind and size.

Online reading [2]:

  • The Usability of Open Source Software
    • By David M. Nichols and Michael B. Twidale. First Monday, Vol. 8, no.1, January 2003
    • Abstract: "Open source communities have successfully developed a great deal of software although most computer users only use proprietary applications. The usability of open source software is often regarded as one reason for this limited distribution. In this paper we review the existing evidence of the usability of open source software and discuss how the characteristics of open source development influence usability. We describe how existing human-computer interaction techniques can be used to leverage distributed networked communities, of developers and users, to address issues of usability."

She said, he said:

"Much of what passes for collaboration and groupware today is little more than glorified e-mail". -- Russell Kay


© 2003 Vlad Wielbut and the Alliance for Community Technology