It seems like powerful presentations aren't done using Powerpoint any more. I don't know, maybe they never were...

Edward Tufte (the original Powerpoint detractor) has a new book out: Beautiful Evidence. An article in the New York Mag (via SVN) introduces Tufte and some of his work. He has lead a crusade against Powerpoint (his essay The Cognitive Style of Powerpoint has a good collection of the worst offenders), and his ideas have been absorbed by many designers around the world.

The new style of "multimedia"¹ presentations move from slide-based to "flow"-based. Two that I have seen recently deserve mention:

"Le Grand Content"
(via Mark Fowler)

Quite funny, answers the questions of the universe with quasi-logic and witticisms:

There are three types of virgins:
a) Virgins by choice
b) Virgins by way of poor social skills
c) People who should be in group B, but who claim otherwise for reasons of prestige

Prometeus - The Media Revolution
(via Nic Wise)

The future of media and information dissemination. A little more serious...

These presentations really engage the user through zooming images, flowcharts and synchronising speech with animations.

I wonder how long before this type of presentation becomes the norm? How long until we see presentation software that supports the creation of them as easily as a standard deck of slides in Powerpoint?

And how long before people realise that although they're more engaging, they're still hiding and distorting the truth, just in different ways?

¹ How weird does it feel to use that word in 2007?