Presentation Software

Prezi

Prezi is one of the newest presentation tools on the market.  Prezi is a free program that anyone can download, along with that it’s one of the first presentation software that uses cloud storage.  Prezi is PowerPoint’s big up and coming competitors although it’s much different.  The program differs from PowerPoint in that it is a web-based program that allows you to create more of a canvas presentation instead of a sequential slide presentation.  It’s a program that’s very non-linear.  It allows you to incorporate not only text and pictures, but videos and other presentation objects.  You can create your presentation online and then download the final product so that you don’t require an internet connection to display the presentation.  Many students and professors can get this application for free and begin using it more than PowerPoint.

Prezi has three types of accounts which help customers select what options they would like.  The Prezi Public, EDU Enjoy and EDU Pro information is in full detail below.

Public: Prezi Public accounts are free for use, and require no annual fee. Each Public account is limited to 100MB of presentation storage space. Public users also have access to the Prezi offline player software, subject to the end user license agreement associated with that software.

EDU Enjoy: This account features 500MB of presentation storage space. Users also have access to the Prezi offline player, subject to the end user license agreement associated with that player. This account is free for anyone with valid education credentials.

EDU Pro: This account features an ample 2GB of presentation storage space. Prezi Pro users also have access to the Prezi Desktop software to allow for the creation and viewing of Prezi presentations offline, and have the option of accessing Prezi securely using secure socket layer (SSL) technology. Must have valid educational credentials. This account is available for $59 per year.

Source: http://libguides.radford.edu/Prezi

Tumblr

Tumblr is a microblogging platform and social networking website created by David Carp.  Tumblr has over 46.2 million blogs and is currently valued at $800 million.  Tumblr is a social website that allows you to post pictures, quotes, websites and much more.  Tumblr beings with you following other blogs or people that you like, based on the content they post. Essentially you go around posting and "reblogging" pictures which than are displayed on your own Tumblr account.  Tumblr is a creative outlet which gives their users the freedom to vent, and it helps me to connect with people who have similar interests to themselves.

Tumblr is a handy marketing tool for businesses. The unique “re-blog” feature ensures that your business’ posts gain maximum traction in the blogosphere. Your followers can simply re-blog your posts on their own Tumblr account which credits back to your business page, thereby increasing the overall number of page views on your blog. It’s not just about the added traffic of re-blogging feature is that your business is credited as the original source of information each time, thereby spreading awareness about your products and services.

           

Along with all the other social networking sites, Tumblr’s main draw is the social aspect of it.  Users can post blogs on their own pages and people can like them and share them, along with liking them people can comment and critique what they write.  Along with posting blog entries many users share photos with their followers.  Many people use Tumblr recreationally as a past time.  They view through there friends and other peoples photos to kill time.

Many celebrities use Tumblr to share their photos too.  The most popular celebrity users are Lady GaGa, Brittany Spears and Zoey Desshchanel.  Tumblr is more commonly used by college and high school studnets and the majority of the entertainment is posted in the form of photos.  Many of the users edit their photos and it draws new users to see the creative and artistic photos.                                                  

Facebook

The technology of the world is expanding each day.  Many people now use their computers to socialize and connect with their friends on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter.  In the past many people communicated in person or over phone which would take much more time, now in the year 2012 you can simultaneously contact your friends in a single second.  This technology has been extremely helpful and has helped evolve the way people communicate, but there are also downsides to it.  Using Facebook or Twitter can be addictive and can take a large amount of time out of your day and can be hard to get away from.  Also social networking is extremely unforgiving as one may post something that can defer a future employer from hiring you.

Facebook is a very helpful tool for businesses to get there ideas out to a large audiences.  If a company would like to put out a public statement or announcement they can put a status update out which all of the people who like their page will see.  Another valuable way to market on Facebook is to by paying for your ad to be shown on the side bar of the browser.

The main driving force behind Facebook is the social aspect.  There are more than 845 million active users.  The majority of the user base is people using the website to converse with friends and share pictures and reconnect with friends.  Lots of my friends like to use Facebooks chat feature as an instant messenger.  It’s a great feature that allows friends to communicate quickly.   

Entertainment is a major component of Facebook.  The way a user interacts with the entertainment aspect is by liking a page.  After liking a page it allows the users to receive updates on their favorite movies and musicians.  Another aspect of Facebooks entertainment is that there are thousands of apps on Facebook.  Many social games such as FarmVille have become extremely popular and have helped draw more users to Facebook.

Many popular news outlets such as ESPN, CNN and the Yankees all put statuses up and keep users updated with up to the minute breaks in news.  These pages are extremely helpful to get messages and news out as quickly as possible.

For recreational purposes Facebook has apps that are games which many people enjoy killing time with.  Also, Facebook allows for users to browse through there friends photos and they can comment on there photos.

Twitter

The technology of the world is expanding each day.  Many people now use their computers to socialize and connect with their friends on social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook.  In the past many people communicated in person or over phone which would take much more time, now in the year 2012 you can simultaneously contact your friends in a single second.  This technology has been extremely helpful and has helped evolve the way people communicate, but there are also downsides to it.  Using Twitter or Facebook can be addictive and can take a large amount of time out of your day and can be hard to get away from.  Also social networking is extremely unforgiving as one may post something that can defer a future employer from hiring you.

Twitter is a very helpful tool for businesses to get there ideas out to a large audiences.  If a company would like to put out a public statement or announcement it could be sent to all of there followers instantly and could create a buzz about one their services or products.  Also, businesses can promote their tweets so they come up at the top of each user’s page. 

The main driving force behind twitter is the social aspect.  There are nearly 250,000,000 Tweets per day and 100,000,000+ active users.  The majority of the user base is people using the website to converse with friends and share pictures.  From my personal experience friends have conversations about sports, school and what’s going on in their personal lives. 

Entertainment is one of the elements that have made Twitter popular.  At first many celebrities and athletes began making Twitter pages and that’s what made other people want to use the service to know what there favorite celebrities were doing.  Along with following celebrities, Twitter is used to keep users up to date with the newest details on concert dates and new movie releases also.

Many popular news outlets such as ABC News, CNN and MSNBC all tweet and keep users updated with up to the minute breaks in news.  Before writing articles on their websites they can put a short 160 character blurb which can get the news out.  For example the New York Yankees just recently put out a tweet that Andy Pettitte will be returning to the Yankees this season.

For recreational purposes twitter has a trending section that shows the hottest topics at the moment.  Many times people like to mess around with the trending topics and make jokes or comments refereeing to them.  Other recreational uses include tweeting friends and striking conversation amongst each other. 

First Post, March 14th

Today is a fantastic day.  It's beautiful outside, and the temperatures nearing seventy degrees, everythings going great!  #yolo