Managed World

Howdy all, I will be at Tech Ed Developer this week doing several things. First of all, I will be giving two talks: the first on Application Compatibility in Windows Server 2008 outlining the top issues developers need to be aware of when developing for it, and second, a talk on Transactional NTFS as it pertains to Windows Server 2008.

Also, I will be "manning" the Ask The Experts booth for Windows Server 2008. So if you want to chat about Windows Server 2008 (or just say hello), make sure to drop on by (I will have the hours I plan on working the booth posted there at the booth).

Here's a rundown:

• Monday, 3pm - [INF203] WS08 For Developers - App Compat, Tent 1
• Thursday, 4:30pm - [INF307] WS08 For Developers - Transactional NTFS

I'm also hoping to attend some sessions myself. These will mostly be around C++ (TLA323, TLA302, TLA404, etc.).

So, if you're going to be at the conference, please, drop on by the Ask The Experts booth for Windows Server 2008 and say hello!

I think the first time I came across this tip was on Presentation Zen, or it might have been on Creating Passionate Users. I apologize for not giving credit where credit is due. Regardless, if you are a public speaker and you are not subscribed to both of these blogs, you need to be. Go do it now, I'll wait........ Good, let's start.

As part of getting ready for a large internal conference at Microsoft coming up this next week, I've been hearing my fair share of talks lately. One of the first tips I can give you presenters out there: you don't have to prove you deserve to be giving the presentation.

The time for presenting and selling yourself is in order to get the presentation in the first place. Once you have "won" the slot and are giving the presentation, you don't have to sell yourself anymore. If people show up at your talk, you have already won their attention. Now that you have their attention, KEEP IT. There is almost nothing worse than going to a talk and sitting through ten minutes of "ego stroking" at the beginning. Unfortunately, first impressions are big, and if you bore the heck out of your audience for the first 5-10 minutes of your talk, it's going to be really difficult to gain their attention back.

But you may ask: "If I don't talk about why I'm credible in the first five minutes, then how do I do it?" There is one popular saying that applies here: "The proof is in the pudding." Show your credibility on the subject by the content of your content. Now matter how credible you might be in real life, a boring or inaccurate presentation is going to spoil that.

So remember, you deserve to be there because YOU are the one giving the presentation. Forget about the five minute introduction, just dive into the core of the talk and enjoy the ride :).

Well, my trip to Amsterdam is almost over. I was here in Amsterdam to do some training of trainers for an upcoming Longhorn Server event that we (DPE @ Microsoft) will be launching world-wide in the coming months.

I knew there were going to be some "big" types of names here, but I don't think I fully understood what that meant :P. There were several MS Regional Directors at the events, countless MS MVPs, and other highly-respected trainers from all over the globe (about 32 people in total). I'm also proud to say that I finally get to meet Christian Weyer in person (and have a beer (or two (or three (or four))) with him). What a fun gun. And he's just as smart as he seems online. It was a blast chatting about TxF with him on several occasions.

Considering it was the first "major event" I talked at, I thought it went decently well. I tag-teamed with Keith Brown from Pluralsight (another pleasure, that's for sure). I gave four talks in total: High Performance Computing and Compute Cluster Server 2003, Windows Virtualization Roadmap (including Windows Server Virtualization), Transactional NTFS (my favorite, but I'm a little biased), and Terminal Services in Longhorn Server.

I definitely don't know enough about HPC. While I was able to answer some questions, I have a very high-level knowledge of HPC so I wasn't able to answer most of the in-depth questions. Windows Virtualization Roadmap went well. I just love this stuff. I love talking about Ring Compression and the new Virtualization hardware assists that are coming (and the like). I'm hoping to work up some demos before I present this again in Singapore next week. Perhaps some two demos using PowerShell: one using CmdLets to add new virtual machines into Virtual Server, and the other one about building a PS provider that allows you to browse Virtual Server -> Virtual Machine -> Virtual Properties by "dir" and "cd" and the like :).

The Transactional NTFS talk went well, but that was the talk I was least concerned about. Since I have been living in TxF land for a bit now, I'm comfortable talking about all the issues for it. In the future, I want to make some demos that are more sexy for TxF. I'm also thinking about possibly coming up with a demo scenario I can use to help tell the TxF Story. The funny part is that I realized I'm missing some slides. I realize this because there were several questions that came up from the audience that would have been addressed directly by some of the slides I had removed. Oops :).

Last was the Terminal Services in Longhorn Server talk. Ouch! This talk is nowhere near technical enough, nor developer-oriented enough. It's my own fault though since I "put together" the deck for the Touchdown program. I'm hoping to get a team member back in Redmond to mail the latest LHS build to me in Singapore so I can setup a Virtual Machine in order to write up some demos and show off features like TS-Remote Programs. We'll see how that situation works out.

That's about it. I managed to take some pictures while I was here, so I will try to put them up when I get back to Seattle (or if I can find time while I'm in Singapore).

Yup, I said it. PowerPoint as a teaching tool? It's broken. It's broken badly. And unfortunately, there is a good number of people out there who either don't realize it, or don't care.

First of all, thanks Seth Godin. Seth gave a presentation at GEL 2006 recently (link via PresentationZen, via Chris Sells), where he talked about things that are broken. He mentioned in the video that from now on out, we will start making the same observations and share with him one of his annoyances. Well, he didn't lie. It's only 24 hours later, and I'm starting to think of certain things as "broken".

This concept of "PPT As A Teaching Tool" that people seem to like? Again, it's broken. Now, as a Technical Evangelist, I think education is a big part of our job. We not only need to educate ISVs and other business partners, we need to educate other Microsoft employees, and we need to educate the community. Using PPT as a major "Teaching Tool" though? Broken. Borked. Use the right tool for the right job. If you are wanting to provide "a resource" to educate people though, don't use PowerPoint, please!

Don't get me wrong, I like PowerPoint, and it definitely has its place. But as a major resource for educating people? That is not one of them. In my opinion, PowerPoint is a means to an end, not the end itself. If you really want to educate people, don't give them a PPT deck and send them along their way. Why? Because of a phrase Edward Tufte loves: Information Density.

There is only so much information you can convey in PowerPoint because the information density of the PPT medium is so low. If you _are_ (miraculously) able to cram enough information on a slide to make the information density "almost worth it", then the PPT deck is basically useless for presentations. And if you use the PPT at a presentation that I attend, I may very well walk out the room. If there is a pet peeve that really gets to me, it's presenters that just read their slides for an hour. I'm wanting to attend a presentation, not a live PowerPoint reading. So, speak to ME, not to your slides. Involve, interact, and engage your audience.

As I've been researching various topics getting up to speed here at Microsoft, I've noticed a disturbing trend. I would say that 95% of the PowerPoint decks that I've grabbed from previous events are flooded with information on the deck, and ZERO speaker notes. If I was a speaker wanting to reuse that deck on a technology that I'm not the most familiar with, this would be almost useless for me. We need to change this. In my humble opinion, the majority of content you find when opening a technical PowerPoint deck should be located in the speaker notes, _not_ in the slides themselves.

I'm not here to just ramble though, I also want to brainstorm on ways to fix it. In my role, it is import to be able to educate as efficiently as possible while giving other employees the tools to empower them to do the same. So, if not PowerPoint, then what?

One of the possibilities that I've been dwelling on is the combination of screencasts (or podcasts) and white papers. Rather than simply handing off a PowerPoint deck to you, what would you think if I gave you a White Paper with very deep and rich content for you to use to truly dive into the content with. Then, on top of the White Paper, I give you a Screencast of a "light" PPT deck + a presenter riffing on it, or even just a podcast of a presenter riffing on the content of the White Paper at a higher level. For me, at least, this would be way more valuable in learning new subjects when compared to a bulleted-list via PowerPoint. What about you, though? Would that be a good way for you to learn?

As a side note, when did PPT decks become the replacement for a good white paper. When I'm trying to do research on a topic now, it seems like internet searches are starting to yield more and more power point decks. Well, if I'm digging in deep to do research, I don't want a PowerPoint deck! I want a resource with some meat to it that I can dig into. It goes back to my opinion that a PPT deck is not an end, it's a means to an end.

So, I challenge all of you to challenge yourself the way I'm trying to challenge myself. When you find yourself opening PowerPoint, ask whether it is the right tool for you to be using. And if it is the right tool and you're preparing a presentation, remind yourself that people are going to be there to hear you talk, not to read your slides. Remember, if you write complicated PowerPoint decks, not only are you communicating in a drastically inefficient manner, frankly, you're wasting everyone's time as they can read a heck of a lot faster than you can speak.

Challenge yourself! Improve yourself! I know I'm trying to. And tell you what, I have a LONG LONG way to go before I feel that I can even consider myself "decent" as a presenter and educator.