So I am just now coming out of the fog of organizng the HBS-MIT Sloan F/OSS Confrence. Its been written about here, here and here. Instead of saying something truly original and insightful about the conference I just have an observation to make about human conditioning.
Majority of conference presenters had powerpoint presentations which we displayed using a gigantic screen and an LCD projector – for the sake of speed I had collected most of the presentations on my laptop. This photo shows you the basic layout. The HBS techno wizards had attached a wireless clicker gizmo to my USB port . This allowed the presenter to move around the room and not be tied to the podium.
Interestingly, every presenter, when they wanted to go to the next slide would point the clicker at the giant white screen and the press the forward button. BUT WAIT!! Its just a giant white screen – made up of some toxic plactic material. There are NO electronics there. The wireless reciever for the clicker was hidden behind my laptop. Good thing – this gizmo had a omni directinal antenna and could pick up clicks from where ever.
However it is interesting to think that most intelligent people