This is something we at The Conversations Network have wanted to see for a very long time: PowerPoint or Keynote slide presentations online with synchronized audio. The folks over at SlideShare have added this capability to their system, and it’s terrific. They have an excellent editor, written in Flash, that allows you to set the slide-transition points relative to the audio file.
As a test, I uploaded a Keynote file (first converting it to PDF) from a presentation I gave a year ago entitled The Secret Lives of MP3 Files. Next, I uploaded the MP3 audio. Then I used the SlideShare editor to set the transitions. Because I knew the material, I was able to synchronize a 45-minute presentation in slightly less than 45 minutes. Not bad at all. Here’s the resulting presentation:
https://s3.amazonaws.com:443/slideshare/ssplayer.swf?id=85535&doc=the-secret-lives-of-mp3-files1036
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Wowzer! That’s very powerful. I especially love the fact that I can go forward and backward through the presentation, using the slides as a visual indication of where I am in the presentation. I love this format just for the ability to fast forward to meaningful points within the program. I rarely listen to the shows on my PC, but if I did. I could see why I would prefer to do it in this format.
Next — Can it be displayed on an iPod? Blackberry? anything portable that I own or can buy?
I also see adverts in it’s future.
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i like this. It’s been something long in coming and will give Articulate some competition (and expensive option).
Tom
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Thanks for the kind words, guys!
I’ve had about the same results in terms of the amount of time it takes (although for a Larry Lessig style presentation, it takes longer, and for a really spare presentation it might take a bit less time).
I also made a slidecast about how to slidecast. This shows the interface, for people who don’t have slideshare accounts but want to know what the Flash synching app looks like:
http://www.slideshare.net/jboutelle/slidecasting-101
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