Anti-PowerPoint Party In Switzerland Tries To Ban Software

One political party in Switzerland thinks PowerPoint presentations are actually costing the country billions of dollars.

The Anti-PowerPoint Party wants to ban the software from being used in Switzerland. It even compares PowerPoint to a disease.

From Geekosystem:

The Anti-PowerPoint Party claims that the use of the presentation software costs the Swiss economy approximately 2.1 billion Swiss Francs a year (US $2.5billion). They base their calculation on reportedly unverified assumptions about the number of employees that attend PowerPoint presentations weekly, and the assumption that these presentations hold no value for 85% of attendees thus costing companies money from the loss of productive work hours.

Anyone in Switzerland can call for a referendum on nearly anything, as long as they obtain 100,000 voter signatures. But the Anti-PowerPoint party remains far from that goal, with just 245 members, according to PCWorld.

The party is free to join, but members must buy, "The PowerPoint Fallacy," written by Anti-PowerPoint founder Matthias Poehm.

The author admits his party is a platform to sell his book, but insists, "it doesn't end there."

"This issue will be raised in the awareness of the all people who still don't know that there is an alternative to PowerPoint and with this alternative you, provably, achieve three to five times more effect and excitement with the audience than with the PowerPoint," Poehm said. "We want ... that pupils in schools are not punished by a mark reduction if they don't use PowerPoint."

WATCH:

Comments

[Presentista]

08:24 PM on 07/06/2011

Part of the problem is the slide metaphor- it goes back to the 1940's when slide overheads were created.

We are working hard to give people a tool that helps them shape their story and then tell it in a more visually engaging way- 3D, zooming, you name it.

You can check out our manifesto at: http://presentista.com

Alex
Founder, Presentista

[WordToYoMomma]

04:44 PM on 07/06/2011

After they win this, they need to propose a global U.N. Resolution!

[bryanzth]

02:06 PM on 07/06/2011

Also, let me submit that beyond PowerPoint, there are logics that are assumed to be right but are actually culturally based, like PowerPoint. Linda W. L. Young's "Crosstalk and Culture in Sino-American Communication" gives the example of business meetings that present persuasive arguments. Asian (Hong Kong) speakers give the reasons and background first, then make the assertion. This is because the Asian/Chinese speaker respects the listener and would not make a bold unfounded assertion without first preparing the ground. In effect, in some meetings, once the background has been provided, many Asian/Chinese listeners don't need the assertion. Contrast that with the Western (PowerPoint) presentation that gives the assertion first (title) and then goes on to provide background. Asian listeners would be annoyed and insulted that a person would make an assertion without preparing the way. Or in the case of composition, Asian writers complain about topic sentences saying, why should I say the same thing twice (well, their last statement is a western "topic" sentence).

As such for Asian computer users, at first I suggested that they put only bullet points first and then on the last slide have the title. But by now, they have "bought" the PowerPoint way of thinking and now are "westernized".

Any replies? Read her book, Crosstalk and Culture in Sino-American Communication, by Linda W. L. Young. My eyes were opened!

BZ.

[bryanzth]

01:57 PM on 07/06/2011

Two people to listen to about this situation:

Edward Tufte: Beautiful Evidence (Highlights)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Th_1azZA2OY

Bob Lutz: Car Guys vs. Bean Counters: The Battle for the Soul of American Business
http://www.amazon.com/Car-Guys-vs-Bean-Counters/dp/1591844002/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1309974994&sr=8-1

I think that we really don't know how business has been changed in its thought process by view graphs and powerpoint.

BZ.

[matt grainger]

11:37 AM on 07/06/2011

What about keynote?

[NHBill]

10:28 AM on 07/06/2011

Watch one of Steve Jobs' pitches to see the proper way to use presentation software.

[onethousandand1]

01:23 AM on 07/06/2011

Could not agree more..Check out the free eBook Eliminate Death by PowerPoint http://www.onethousandandone.com.au/latest-posts/who-wants-to-be-a-better-presenter/

[Christopher Koulouris]

09:04 PM on 07/05/2011

Marshall McLuhan said that the medium is the message.  Now does it not follow that political parties can organize around a platform that makes the banning that cold medium as uninformative, tedious, and unproductive a top priority?  The Luddites did it; why can’t Switzerland?

In other words, is it not refreshing to see this sort of earnest rancor towards something so banal?

http://scallywagandvagabond.com/2011/07/switzerland-has-an-anti-powerpoint-political-party/

[llibsetag]

04:52 PM on 07/05/2011

"Let's schedule a meeting to form a committee of the non efficiency of meetings to productivity ratio within our corporation!" "All in favor for scheduling a meeting to discuss the redundancy of meetings meeting?"

P.S.: Alternative to PowerPoint? Use Keynote software by Apple as it is WAY better & can import & export to PP if you must use that software.

[AndrewLainton]

04:35 PM on 07/05/2011

There is no requirement to buy the book

[jgeurian21]

04:06 PM on 07/05/2011

"they base their calculation on reportedly unverified assumptions about the number of employees that attend PowerPoint presentations weekly, and the assumption that these presentations hold no value for 85% of attendees "

Seems more like a management issue than a PowerPoint issue. Why not bad pointless meetings? But then again this guy is just trying to sell books. Amazing what lengths Huff will go to lampoon MS.

[RevSpaminator]

03:35 PM on 07/05/2011

Now THIS is a political movement we should all be behind. When it comes to dangerous narcotics, heroin has nothing on PowerPoint's ability to put an entire audience into a deep coma.

[nishioka]

08:39 PM on 07/05/2011

The worst are college students who put entire paragraphs into their Powerpoint slides and read verbatim. You think we have it bad now, wait 5 or 10 years for the current crop of Einsteins to get jobs and start adding even more crappy Powerpoints to the business world. Hello catatonia!