Powerpoint & Information

This is about Information,
and how Powerpoint,
as an example of IT in common use, can be used to provide useful information
- or not.

It's also about how we may have a tendency to rely too much upon IT Itself.

For example, Powerpoint came on to the scene in 1984. Has it helped or has it hindered?

What happens when we're too reliant on Information Technology? What happens when IT becomes an end in itself, rather than a means to an end, albeit a powerful means?

What is or should be the central aim of IT
in this Information Age?
Simple! It's INFORMATION VALUE!

And how might Information Value be defined?
How about this:

• The central aim of Information Technology
  (at least in the business organisation working environment),
  is Information Value, which is:
  
  information for effective knowledge work,
  and/or
  information for customer value (including internal customers),
  and/or
  information for business performance,
  
  - information that's relevant, reliable and rapidly available,
  
  - as, where and how needed.
  

How does our use of Powerpoint, as an example of IT in common use, help in achieving this end-purpose & aim?

One of the next big things in computing will be natural interface with the computer. It's about the human computer interface (HCI). But will advances in HCI help or hinder, or both, or might it depend on how it's used? Will it be like Powerpoint?

When you hear you're about to sit through another Powerpoint presentation do you say something like:
Oh no, not another, boring batch of bullet bits!

The conventional, corporate way of using Powerpoint is to use standard templates complete with bullet point format.

But, as the old saying goes:
A picture (or an image) is worth a thousand words.

And then, as Albert Einstein said:
Make things as simple as possible;
but no more simple than that.

So it's a balance between:
- Information Overload via a batch of boring bullet bits
and/or
- A simplistic set of colourful, image/picture-based slides, like a children's TV programme.

What would Winston Churchill or Abraham Lincoln have thought of Powerpoint, and how might they have used it?