Digital Workshop

I have recently been introduced to a site called 'slideshare' http://www.slideshare.net/ where some really excellent presentations are posted and downloadable. The ideas that can be developed from these very professional presentations and modified into Opus presentations are excellent.

What does come out of looking at some really excellent work is that what I call the 'boxiness' of Powerpoint still comes through. To liberate these ideas into Opus could be quite enlightening. I wonder if any users here have considered approaching Slideshare to enable Opus creations to be uploaded, I am sure it could be a great marketing tool for the Opus team.

I am not proposing plagarism but using the site as a source to seed new ideas. I certainly have had many ideas that I will consider including in some way into presentational and even website projects.

Martin

Some interesting thoughts. It seems to me to break down into 2 considerations/issues. (maybe oversimplifying it).

Many many Powerpoint presentations are just mechanisms for TELLING. And that suits well since sometimes people (viewers) do not care to do more than see, read, or review.

Agreed the opportunity and power of Opus (or Flash, or other) is to 'do more'. IMO, to dynamically illustrate things, and also invite or require user interaction... which when creatively done by Opus developer, produces more than a navigable website could deliver. This EFFORT is sometimes 'marginally' more that a PPT, and sometimes/often is 'significantly' more than that PPT page turner. So one has to ask 'what's the return on investment?'.

The bottomline here has got to be: what is the critical mass? How many worthwhile Opus publications will there be in 3 months, 6 months and so on -- to warrant opening-up the site?

Another, albeit alternative, approach would be to do whatever creative Opus expression you want to do. Then export parts of it (page print) to PowerPoint, and add some basic PPT title and text pages there. Include a link or pointer to where the viewer can find the more interactive, full version... whether Opus pub download or a web/flex thing. BTW, you would not be limited to Slideshare site to do something like this. Attract your 'audience' on Knol, YouTube, FixYa, a Blog, ...any place you want. Then offer more.

I wasn't really considering return on investment as I find that generally, I always overspend on my own time - simply because I always want to offer the best possible product that I can.

My experience is that the more I give, business wise, the more return I get and this philosophy, so far has never let me down. I never have a shortage of quality customers!

My view of the 'Slideshare' site is simply as an aid to inspiration, alongside resources such as Mario Pricken's brilliant book 'Creative Advertising' - a thumping good read as well as providing excellent teaching material.

I agree with the comment about page turning - I feel it my duty to fall asleep if I find myself in such a presentation !

I use a very personal choice of CAD, 3D modelling, Graphics and presentational software: TurboCad 16, TruSpace 7.6, XARA Extreme 5 and of course Opus.

So my engineering and presentational output does not fit the 'norm' (AutoCad, 3ds, Photoshop, Illustrator and PPT - all of which I have and can use) and this gives me quite an edge, in speed, quality and 'freshness'.

So Opus (alongside Dreamweaver) for me is primarily a vehicle for assembling the output for easy digestion.

Martin

Any examples of PPTs there you found as springboard?
Got an example of what Opus creation you'd want to leave there (subject, purpose, and style/approach used)?

I don't frequent S'share. Thought I'd visit... found this 'inspiration'
http://www.slideshare.net/Bauer/living- ... el=2477319

Perusing the pool of 'recent additions', I find that most are poorly done even for PPT presentations. They may or may-not be informative (that's life). Thankfully the 'featured presentations' are featured for a reason.

One idea. I saw one slide set that had a youtube video embedded. If you wanted to get 'placed' on SlideShare you could output Opus pub as a 'show' and then either try to embed that running video or... upload it (pub show) to youtube and embed that.


Aahhh! So you're an extruderator?

Hi Lar_123,

May I ask what is an extruderator? Don't think that I would design something like http://www.flickr.com/photos/zen/296130433/ . But I thought that the Garbage Truck idea was great.

I was attracted to Slideshare because I was at a recent MBA Master Class at Bath University and the lecturer posted his slides on Slideshare for us to download, so I view Slideshare more as a tool for general dissemination of practical work than a showcase for 'excellent' presentations.

However, I do think that in aggregate there are a great number of good ideas presented (along with a load of pretty tedious stuff - probably tedious because it does not interest me). By definition an idea is only 'good' if the person understanding it can use it to produce something new (beauty lies in the eye of the beholder, etc).

I think, that as most of what I do is for specific clients there would be little that would interest an audience that focusses specifically on Opus as a platform.

So I would only use something like Slideshare if I wished to leave a recored for one of my courses that I run. Mostly on rapid product developement, programme management and marketing, all pretty boring. See www.westmoorproject.co.uk this is a site I use, not pretty, but mainly just for fun.

Martin

Martin,


Well, I thought I made it up. Along the lines of our Governor out here, 'the Terminator' aka Arnold S. 'Extruding', from what I've seen in mechanical CAD, is the process of taking a shaping and pulling in along a dimension or path.

Amazing... that poultry machine is hilarious!.

On the contrary. In itself not boring. And I'm sure you've spiced it up, both from your experience and via your current intentions/interest.

I know a couple people out here who've aimed their consulting at conveying product mgmt methodologies, team/collaboration skills, and of course raise attention on the business drivers for those practices. An emerging area there has been 'distant teams' and global teams/development issues/opportunities.

Well.... 'maybe', if you happen to load us up with 60 running minutes. But there's always an opportunity and interest in the Showcase area to show how Opus is being used, or to highlight particular techniques you've pioneered or creative hurdles you've lept.

I think OpusPro would be well suited to running some limited simulations and also perhaps illustrating 'systems thinking' at work.

The extruderator

You said: I think OpusPro would be well suited to running some limited simulations and also perhaps illustrating 'systems thinking' at work.[/quote]

Well I'm not sure about what you define as " limited" I regualrly create work for The rail network where I include simulations of train movements over various sets of points and other interlocking devices ( from an overhead perspective ) where I combine the power of Opus 6.0 and its wonderful path following abilities along with high res aerial phots and stitch them into a single pic that allows the perception of signal changes, and train movements vith full forward and reverse control of the movements.

Reciently, I took some 30 mins of video footage from the center position up the front of a drivers cab of a train trip - then after I converting it into an mpeg I overlay a pic of the drivers control cab and did a "blue screen " by painting out the windows.

I then Overlay that pic and removed the fluro blue - revealing the footage running behind it. using simple animation for the control movements I've managed full brake and throttle control and even a horn that works which I use as a training tool for Trainers teaching budding train drivers what to do at things like level crossings, or entering tunnels - and what to do if workers are seen near or on various tracks.

Point here is ( and I may be wrong here ) ...but the only limitation is ones system limitation - but most of all its ones imagination.

Hi Viper4054,

Would be great to see a clip from your simulation - it sounds like a great practical example of what Opus can do.

I don't ever think of Opus as limiting any systems thinking. The only caveat I would put on that is that primarily Opus is a presentation medium and therefore the primary limitation is the amount of data that can be assimilated by the audience. I always work on the adage that: “the meaning of my presentation is what you understand it to be!" and therefore only present what the recipient can understand.

I have done similar overlays (of shorter duration) but I tend to use .flv’s packaged into a .swf viewer. Of course the .swf file can then be shown within Opus Flex and then it is suitable for use in a webpage.

Kind regards

Martin

Generally I think of 'simulations' as falling in two camps. Those that iterate through process operations along the lines of the old Stella program. And 'group simulations' that carry out a business or management scenario or case... usually stepped through 'stages' where different clusters or teams of people have worked through a stage of a problem or postulate, and come up with some intermediate input. In either of the two types, the common characteristic is that the simulations are driven by parametric input and can have quite broad variations in the outcomes.

What would I consider a 'limited' simulation in Opus --- an animated illustration. Illustration would obviously have some 'unfolding' of events based on varying inputs, but probably kept within defined boundaries.

So is there an issue? Not really. I just think other tools might be more suited to complex process or group simulations --- only for the reason that there is not a ready-made library of widgets in Opus. True, they could be made (Stella type symbols and business rules). True a group event scenario could be created and hosted using Opus (but survey instruments for input have to be built from the ground up and tracking multiple teams' interaction/responses would require web-database for consolidation etc.).


I tend to agree. That is its forte and its roots. Yet it can be stretched into adjacent application spaces.