Information is too important to be shared via plain text.

The written word was never created to present, persuade, or perform. Text was originally devised as a supplement for memory – a means of keeping records or transcribing stories and ideas.

All of us at one time or another have been told our attempts to make a written case for something have fallen short. Everyone who’s ever pitched an idea can trade stories about the projects or proposals that should have been supported, if only your audience had been able to better understand your write up.

From time immemorial human beings have shared information, traded tips, and passed on knowledge not in text – but in presentations, lectures, discussions, and meetings. The text-only world of emails and memos steals away our best tool for communicating – speech.

Since the advent of the printing press, the convenience and reliability of the written word have trumped the persuasive power of presentation. But of late, a new technology has stepped in to unseat print as a simpler, more memorable, more engaging, more human way to share information: video.

Armed with simple, high-quality video cameras on every smartphone, tablet, and laptop, and the ability to share recordings made easy and accessible systems with platforms like Vine, YouTube, and organizational video content management systems like Panopto, more and more of us are stepping away from the old-fashioned plain text email and sharing ideas the way people were really meant to – making a real presentation, mixing speech and imagery, sharing written text to reinforce points, and recording it all with video so that it can be reviewed, replayed, searched, and shared.

This week we saw more educational and entertaining recordings among the latest presentations shared online with Panopto. And in the spirit of passing it on, these are just a few of the ideas shared this week with Panopto’s video recording software.

How Old Is Human Violence?

Join Siniša Malešević of University College in Dublin for this guest recorded lecture on the history of human violence. Malešević looks into sociology and the prehistoric record to ask the question of whether humans are any more violent than other animals, and what the foundations of human violence are built upon. It’s a fascinating look into some of the most essential components of the human experience.

 

Duke University ElectionsLive — International Relations and Foreign Policy

Duke University continues its ElectionsLive series this week, with an in-depth analysis of how international politics, national security, and foreign policy will shape the upcoming US midterm elections. This recorded webcast brings together experts from Washington DC and on the Duke Campus in North Carolina, and covers in detail just what impact America’s foreign relations may have on its 2014 elections.

 

Quality Strategies for Business

Join the Robert Gordon University Aberdeen Business School for this seminar on quality strategies for business. In this presentation video, you’ll learn more about quality strategy — first, with a case study in implementing a quality strategy at Scotland’s National Health Services organization, then with a dive into the evolution of quality management as a function and the origins of quality as a management science.

  

MongoDB In Context

Carnegie Mellon’s Seven Databases in Seven Weeks series also continued this week, with a fascinating look into MongoDB. Join MongoDB Tech Lead Andrew Morrow as he presents to the class on how this database system trades off a variety of traditional architecture structures in order to improve scalability, flexibility, and performance. It’s a great example of just how well a presentation can bring complex information to life in a way technical writing alone simply can’t.

 

2+2=5: The University and the Secular Crisis

Sit in with De Montfort University’s newest Professor of Education and Technology, Richard Hall, for this webcast of his professorial inaugural address. Hall doesn’t shy away from the biggest ideas, asking how the university experience contributes to the excesses of capitalism, and whether the university can be reimagined to participate in the world in a more pro-social way.

 

Machine Learning: Structured Output Prediction

Join the class at Cornell University and get to know more about machine learning. In this recorded lecture on structured output prediction, the students learn about Bayes Rule, named entity identification and recognition, and natural language parsing. The entire semester of Machine Learning lectures is available as part of Cornell’s video library — it’s an excellent resource for any STEM flipped classroom.

 

 

Try It For Yourself!

Panopto makes it easy for anyone, anywhere to record presentations and share them online, both as live streaming webcasts and recorded on-demand video. To see how Panopto can help you share your ideas, contact our team for a free trial today.