Presentation Webs

The predominant mode of presentation in most government, business, and academic settings confines itself to limitations originating in the technology of the overhead projector and hand-drawn transparency. Although software applications, such as PowerPoint, have facilitated the creation of such presentation material, and electronic projectors have eliminated the use of a physical medium, format and content of the material presented are dominated by assumptions from the overhead era: that all audience members are viewing the same material at the same time; that they are viewing the material projected at a distance far greater than ordinary reading distance; and that audience members will view material in the order predetermined by the presenter. Our presentation paradigm takes advantage of technology widely available in today's meeting venues: audience members with laptop computers with high-resolution displays, communicating over a high bandwidth network. Electronic presentation materials can be actively navigated by audience members during the presentation, as well as after the presentation ends. The presentation tool will be aware of the presentation's content, allowing purpose-guided navigation and reorganization to produce dynamically determined comparisons of interest.