Everyone complains about PowerPoint, but, much like with the weather, no one ever does anything about it.
Make that almost no one.
In Switzerland, the fledgling Anti-PowerPoint Party has issued a call to arms of sorts that not only threatens to banish PowerPoint (and its ilk) but populate the Swiss government with like-minded anti-presentation-software zealots. From an IDG News Service story on our site:
According to the APPP, the use of presentation software costs the Swiss economy ($2.5 billion) annually, while across the whole of Europe, presentation software causes an economic loss of ($160 billion). APPP bases its calculations on unverified assumptions about the number of employees attending presentations each week, and supposes that 85 percent of those employees see no purpose in the presentations.
Switzerland's democratic system is famously participative, with citizens able to call for a nationwide referendum on almost any subject if they can obtain the signatures of 100,000 voters. The APPP is seeking support for a national referendum to ban the use of PowerPoint and other presentation software in presentations throughout Switzerland. It also plans to present candidates for national elections in October.
Party founder and president Matthias Poehm is also hawking a book that disparages - you guessed it, PowerPoint - but political movements are historically born of self-interest, if not necessarily such peculiar ones.
Enmity toward PowerPoint has been around about as long as PowerPoint (1987), as evidenced by any Google search on "PowerPoint sucks," or "I hate PowerPoint," or "PowerPoint must die".
InFocus Labs recently conducted a "What not to Present" contest that solicited examples of the worst PowerPoint has to offer. You can see the results here.
