Monday, July 30, 2012

Electric cars: How many miles will kill 'range anxiety'?

Most electric car charges last longer than 95 percent of the trips made in the US, but 'range anxiety' is still a major drawback for many potential electric car buyers. How many miles will it take to curb that fear?

By Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield,?Guest blogger / July 29, 2012

A Nissan Leaf is charged during a demo at the first ever quick charge electric vehicle charging station in the state of Texas in this 2011 file photo. One major drawback for electric cars is 'range anxiety' ? the fear that a car's charge won't last an entire trip.

Solt/TheDallas Morning News/AP/File

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Range anxiety, or the fear that an electric car will run out of charge before you reach your destination. is a real and present fear for many first-time electric car drivers and buyers.?

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Even though research clearly shows that present electric cars can satisfy the requirements of 95 percent of all trips made in the U.S., many car buyers say electric cars need to travel further per charge before they?ll consider buying one.

Of course, not everyone who thinks electric cars need to travel further per charge actually needs the extra range, but how many miles are enough to kill electric car range anxiety for good??

120 miles?

At the recent Plug-In 2012 conference in San Antonio, many experts there admitted that a target range of 120 miles per charge would be more than enough to eliminate range anxiety in most drivers.?

At highway speeds, that equates to around two hours of driving, more than enough to cover even the most extreme of daily commutes without requiring a mid-day charge.?

With direct-current fast charging technology, a battery pack that large could easily be recharged in under an hour at a rest stop, theoretically making a 240-mile trip easily possible in one morning.?

While that?s still a little short for the most intrepid of long-distance drivers, a 240-mile trip in five hours is about the limit of most what most drivers -- especially with young children or pets -- can handle.?

Within reasonable costs

Current electric cars, like the 2012 Nissan Leaf, manage an EPA-rated 73 miles per charge.?

With battery technology improving, building an electric car with a range of 120 miles per charge within the next few years seems technologically feasible.?

More importantly, with electric car battery prices already dropping faster than analysts previously predicted they would, a larger capacity battery pack capable of 120 miles of range per charge is much more likely than it was even two years ago.?

Will 120 miles be enough?

Talk to most current electric car drivers, and they?ll tell you that their car?s range per charge is more than adequate for everyday driving.?

In fact, some advocates joke that the range of their electric car is ?always enough?, because they modify their driving styles to match the type of trip they are making.?

However, there?s a risk that, like computer hard drives, the more you have, the more you want.?

As of yet, most electric cars cannot compete with most gasoline cars on range. The only one that can -- the 2012 Tesla Model S -- is prohibitively expensive for most Americans.?

More range, or something else?

?Do electric cars need longer ranges, or do car buyers need to be shown how electric cars already satisfy most of their driving needs??Are more rapid direct current charging solutions needed instead of expensive, heavy, large capacity battery packs??

Or should automakers follow the lead of Tesla Motors, Mitsubishi, and Coda automotive, by offering a range of battery packs to consumers when they buy an electric car?

The Christian Science Monitor has assembled a diverse group of the best auto bloggers out there. Our guest bloggers are not employed or directed by the Monitor and the views expressed are the bloggers' own, as is responsibility for the content of their blogs. To contact us about a blogger,?click here.?To add or view a comment on a guest blog, please go to the blogger's own site by clicking on the link in the blog description box above.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/aR9lARENT4Y/Electric-cars-How-many-miles-will-kill-range-anxiety

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Friday, July 27, 2012

New data pricing from Verizon, AT&T may complicate family life

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Arguments around U.S. family dinner tables may soon go from who talked too much on the phone this month to who used up the family's Internet service.

Thanks to new metered pricing plans for Internet access unveiled by top U.S. cellular providers Verizon Wireless and AT&T Inc families will be able to share a single data allowance for multiple devices. A drawback is the higher price of data in these plans.

The companies say the new plans are designed to help consumers save money and simplify their lives. Consumer advocates worry that they will instead make managing the family wireless plan more complicated than ever.

"I think what you'll see is a set of consumers that overbuy and you'll see consumers that don't buy enough and get charged overage," said John Breyault, National Consumers League vice president of public policy. Breyault added that consumers "are not that great at estimating their usage."

Mark Stair, Chief Executive of High 5 Software, a Seattle-based business software supplier, is a Verizon Wireless customer but is holding off on moving his family of five to the new plan because it would increase his monthly bill by about $80 to $280.

Once it becomes necessary for all his children to have smartphones, Stair said he will likely move to Verizon's 6 gigabytes plan and tell everyone to stay within 1 gigabyte each.

"Maybe anyone above 1 gigabyte has to do extra chores or pick up dog doodoo for a month," said Stair.

REPLACING WI-FI WITH CELLULAR

Verizon and AT&T are hoping the shared data plans encourage customers to add devices like the Apple Inc iPad to the cellular network because the new plans eliminate the need for multiple data subscriptions. Right now, many consumers forgo tablets like the iPad that feature cellular links and instead opt for cheaper ones that have only Wi-Fi, a short-range technology used in many homes, so they can avoid paying another monthly data fee on top of their smartphone bill.

But the downside of the new plans is that the fees charged per gigabyte are much higher. Some Verizon Wireless customers could end up paying five times as much as they do now for data service. Under the new shared data plan, one gigabyte of data will cost $50 per month and can be shared among up to 10 devices. The company charged $50 for five gigabytes of data under its old plan, which did not allow for shared data.

AT&T's new plan, which will be available in late August, quadruples the price for one gigabyte to $40 from $10.

While the ability to share gigabytes among multiple devices could save money for some - particularly in families where some people use less data and talk more on the phone - the higher per gigabyte price will upset others.

"For a significant number of subscribers it's going to be unacceptable," said CCS Insight analyst John Jackson. "Its hard to imagine the average consumer saying this is the thing I've been waiting for."

VOICE PRICE IS LESS IMPORTANT

Verizon and AT&T are offering unlimited text messaging and voice calls as a way to lure consumers to adopt the new shared data plans. The trouble is that many people are making fewer phone calls these days.

Katherine Finnegan, a mother of three based on Omaha, Nebraska, said her teenage children communicate a lot with services like Twitter and Facebook. As a result, she is sticking with her Sprint Nextel service, which limits voice usage but allows for unlimited data.

"Data would be the thing we'd be looking for the best deal on," said Finnegan, who signed up her family for unlimited texting services a while ago after she received a few big bills because her children went over their usage limits.

With unlimited text and voice becoming standard in the shared plan, CCS Insight's Jackson said disputes over big bills will center more on Internet usage.

"The argument around the dinner table will shift from who hogged up all the texts or the minutes to who hogged all the gigabytes," Jackson said.

To help parents, both AT&T and Verizon Wireless can send alerts warning them that the family is nearing its monthly data limit. Parents who pay an extra monthly fee to Verizon Wireless can set data allowances per device and have the option to block data from certain phones once the limit is reached.

AT&T's shared plan will not immediately allow parents to set specific data limits for individual devices in August but it will eventually offer this service.

Both companies also have online calculators aimed at helping customers predict their data needs. For example, AT&T says 30 minutes of daily video streaming would use 1.76 gigabytes of your monthly allowance, or 4.5 gigabytes if it's high definition video.

EXPLODING USAGE

There's a simple reason behind Verizon's and AT&T's move to higher data prices: consumers are sharply increasing their usage of wireless data services.

AT&T Chief Executive Randall Stephenson recently told an investor conference that he expects mobile data usage to increase by 75 percent in each of the next five years.

In the meantime analysts expect home Internet providers--whether it be cable or telephone companies -- to move toward metered pricing away from flat monthly fees for unlimited usage.

If this happens there may come a point where some heavy users of data services end up having both their cellular and home Internet allowance run out before the end of the month.

"It is a legitimate cause for concern," said CCS Insight's Jackson, adding that people will likely have to spend a much higher portion of their earnings on Internet services in future.

(Additional reporting By Yinka Adegoke; Editing by Peter Lauria and Andrew Hay)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/data-pricing-verizon-t-may-complicate-family-life-184559623--sector.html

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Thursday, July 26, 2012

New study associates excess maternal iodine supplementation with congenital hypothyroidism

New study associates excess maternal iodine supplementation with congenital hypothyroidism [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 26-Jul-2012
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Contact: Monica Helton
journal.pediatrics@cchmc.org
513-636-7140
Elsevier Health Sciences

Cincinnati, OH. July 26, 2012 Congenital hypothyroidism is thyroid hormone deficiency at birth that, if left untreated, can lead to neurocognitive impairments in infants and children. Although the World Health Organization recommends 200-300 g of iodine daily during pregnancy for normal fetal thyroid hormone production and neurocognitive development, the US Institute of Medicine considers 1,100 g to be the safe upper limit for daily ingestion. A case series scheduled for publication in The Journal of Pediatrics describes three infants who developed congenital hypothyroidism as a result of excess maternal iodine supplementation.

Kara Connelly, MD, and colleagues from Oregon Health & Science University, Doernbecher Children's Hospital, Boston University School of Medicine, State of Oregon Public Health Laboratory, and Randall Children's Hospital at Legacy Emanuel describe three infants with congenital hypothyroidism whose mothers had taken 12.5 mg of iodine daily, 11 times more than the safe upper limit, while pregnant and/or breastfeeding. Iodine is transferred from the mother to the infant through the placenta or breast milk. The three infants had blood iodine levels 10 times higher than healthy control infants (measured from newborn screening filter paper).

Excess iodine causes the thyroid to temporarily decrease function to protect against hyperthyroidism (Wolff-Chaikoff effect). Adults and older children are able to "escape" from this effect after several days of excess iodine to avoid hypothyroidism. However, the immature thyroid glands of fetuses and newborns have not developed this protective effect and are more susceptible to iodine-induced hypothyroidism. Although infants recover normal thyroid function after acute iodine exposure (e.g., a few days of topical iodine application), continuous excessive iodine exposure to the fetal and neonatal thyroid gland may cause long-term harmful effects on thyroid function.

Sources of iodine include nutritional supplements, prenatal vitamins, and seaweed (kelp). According to Dr. Connelly, "The use of iodine-containing supplements in pregnancy and while breastfeeding is recommended in the United States. However, these cases demonstrate the potential hazard of exceeding the safe upper limit for daily ingestion." Excess iodine ingestion from supplementation is often unrecognized because it is not routine practice to ask mothers of infants with congenital hypothyroidism about nutritional supplements taken during pregnancy. Pregnant or breastfeeding women should discuss the safe dosages of nutritional supplements with their doctors prior to including them in their daily regimen.

###



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?


AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


New study associates excess maternal iodine supplementation with congenital hypothyroidism [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 26-Jul-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Monica Helton
journal.pediatrics@cchmc.org
513-636-7140
Elsevier Health Sciences

Cincinnati, OH. July 26, 2012 Congenital hypothyroidism is thyroid hormone deficiency at birth that, if left untreated, can lead to neurocognitive impairments in infants and children. Although the World Health Organization recommends 200-300 g of iodine daily during pregnancy for normal fetal thyroid hormone production and neurocognitive development, the US Institute of Medicine considers 1,100 g to be the safe upper limit for daily ingestion. A case series scheduled for publication in The Journal of Pediatrics describes three infants who developed congenital hypothyroidism as a result of excess maternal iodine supplementation.

Kara Connelly, MD, and colleagues from Oregon Health & Science University, Doernbecher Children's Hospital, Boston University School of Medicine, State of Oregon Public Health Laboratory, and Randall Children's Hospital at Legacy Emanuel describe three infants with congenital hypothyroidism whose mothers had taken 12.5 mg of iodine daily, 11 times more than the safe upper limit, while pregnant and/or breastfeeding. Iodine is transferred from the mother to the infant through the placenta or breast milk. The three infants had blood iodine levels 10 times higher than healthy control infants (measured from newborn screening filter paper).

Excess iodine causes the thyroid to temporarily decrease function to protect against hyperthyroidism (Wolff-Chaikoff effect). Adults and older children are able to "escape" from this effect after several days of excess iodine to avoid hypothyroidism. However, the immature thyroid glands of fetuses and newborns have not developed this protective effect and are more susceptible to iodine-induced hypothyroidism. Although infants recover normal thyroid function after acute iodine exposure (e.g., a few days of topical iodine application), continuous excessive iodine exposure to the fetal and neonatal thyroid gland may cause long-term harmful effects on thyroid function.

Sources of iodine include nutritional supplements, prenatal vitamins, and seaweed (kelp). According to Dr. Connelly, "The use of iodine-containing supplements in pregnancy and while breastfeeding is recommended in the United States. However, these cases demonstrate the potential hazard of exceeding the safe upper limit for daily ingestion." Excess iodine ingestion from supplementation is often unrecognized because it is not routine practice to ask mothers of infants with congenital hypothyroidism about nutritional supplements taken during pregnancy. Pregnant or breastfeeding women should discuss the safe dosages of nutritional supplements with their doctors prior to including them in their daily regimen.

###



[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-07/ehs-nsa072312.php

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Felix, Seattle beat Yankees, 4-2

By TIM BOOTH

AP Sports Writer

Associated Press Sports

updated 12:30 a.m. ET July 25, 2012

SEATTLE (AP) - Felix Hernandez broke Alex Rodriguez's left hand when he hit him with a pitch in the eighth inning, and the Seattle Mariners' ace picked up his fifth straight win in a 4-2 victory over the New York Yankees on Tuesday night.

Rodriguez was hit with an 88 mph changeup and went down in considerable pain. The Yankees said he has a non-displaced fracture, and there is no timetable for his return. He will remain in Seattle with the team for the series finale Wednesday.

Hernandez (9-5) allowed a home run to Curtis Granderson in the first inning - the first long ball he's allowed in his last eight starts. But Hernandez pitched out of trouble in the later innings to extend his longest win streak since he won nine straight in 2010, his Cy Young season.

Hernandez also hit Derek Jeter and former teammate Ichiro Suzuki in 7 1-3 innings of four-hit ball.

? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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Dodgers land Hanley Ramirez

??HBT: Dodgers swing for the fences in their playoff chase, acquiring former NL Rookie of the Year Hanley Ramirez from the Miami Marlins.

Cardinals blast Kershaw, Dodgers

ST. LOUIS (AP) - Adam Wainwright's first two RBIs of the season helped knock out Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw in the sixth inning in a game that began in 103-degree heat as the St. Louis Cardinals ended Los Angeles' five-game winning streak with an 8-2 victory on Tuesday night.

Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/48312746/ns/sports-baseball/

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Wednesday, July 25, 2012

"Anglo-Saxon" quote overshadows start of Romney tour

LONDON (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney began a foreign tour on Wednesday on the back foot, with his campaign forced to dismiss a report that an adviser accused President Barack Obama of not understanding the shared "Anglo-Saxon heritage" of Britain and the United States.

As Romney arrived in London for a three-day stay, The Daily Telegraph quoted an unnamed Romney campaign adviser as lauding the special relationship between the two countries.

"We are part of an Anglo-Saxon heritage, and he feels that the special relationship is special," the Telegraph quoted the adviser as saying, "The White House didn't fully appreciate the shared history we have."

The Daily Telegraph said the adviser's remarks "may prompt accusations of racial insensitivity."

Romney is in London to attend the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games on Friday, the first leg of a week-long trip that will take him to Israel and Poland as he seeks to burnish his foreign policy credentials and present himself as a viable alternative to the Democratic incumbent.

A Romney spokesperson denied that the Anglo-Saxon comment represented his campaign's thinking.

"It's not true. If anyone said that, they weren't reflecting the views of Governor Romney or anyone inside the campaign," said Romney campaign spokeswoman Amanda Henneberg.

The Obama re-election campaign, which is trying to portray Romney as a foreign policy novice, leaped on the remark by issuing a statement from Vice President Joe Biden, who accused Romney of "playing politics with international diplomacy."

"The comments reported this morning are a disturbing start to a trip designed to demonstrate Governor Romney's readiness to represent the United States on the world's stage. Not surprisingly, this is just another feeble attempt by the Romney campaign to score political points at the expense of this critical partnership. This assertion is beneath a presidential campaign," Biden said.

The former Massachusetts governor is to meet British Prime Minister David Cameron, Labour Party leader Ed Milliband and other British officials as well as former Prime Minister Tony Blair on Thursday.

While he is not expected to issue any policy pronouncements, all of the meetings will have carefully orchestrated photo opportunities with the aim of showing American voters images of Romney on the world stage.

Romney largely stayed out of sight after his arrival in London but taped an interview with NBC News from the Tower of London. An aide tweeted a picture of him in a vehicle that passed by the House of Parliament.

Obama is trying to head off a strong challenge from Romney in a campaign largely centered on the weak U.S. economy. Romney is taking some risk by spending a week abroad in the heat of a close campaign since any comment he makes could be seen as criticizing the president, which most U.S. politicians are loathe to do once they leave American shores.

To get around that problem, Romney set the stage for his trip with a scathing speech on American soil on Tuesday, accusing the president of mishandling foreign policy hot spots from the Middle East to China and neglecting U.S. allies.

Romney's visit to London is aimed at recalling the role he played in salvaging the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, a key portion of his resume as a businessman who can fix problems.

That part of his biography has come under fire from the Obama campaign, which insists that at that time he was still nominally in control of Bain Capital, a private equity firm that had shipped some U.S. jobs overseas.

(Editing by Alistair Bell and Vicki Allen)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/anglo-saxon-quote-overshadows-start-romney-tour-184504058.html

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4G BlackBerry PlayBook to launch this month despite RIM?s torrid tablet past

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/4g-blackberry-playbook-launch-month-despite-rim-torrid-165003523.html

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NTP settles e-mail patent suit with Google, Apple, Microsoft and others

NTP, which some say held the mobile world hostage with its e-mail patents, has signed an agreement that will let companies including Google, Apple, and Microsoft use its patent for allowing e-mail services on handsets.

The company announced today in a press release that it has reached a mutual resolution with 13 companies, including wireless carriers AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel, and T-Mobile; smartphone manufacturers Apple, HTC, Motorola Mobility, Palm, LG, and Samsung; and e-mail service and software providers Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo.

SOURCE

Source: http://www.wirelessweek.com/News/Feeds/2012/07/wireless-ntp-settles-e-mail-patent-suit-with-google-apple-/

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The Self Insurance Security Fund for Workers' Compensation ...

SISF

The Self Insurance Security Fund has immediate ability once notified that they are responsible to use the employers security deposit for being self insured in order to pay the compensation benefits. Along with the responsibility to pay the compensation, the SISF also gains full rights to act as the insurer and has the same rights as the employer when it comes to dealing with claims. The SISF also has the right to obtain reimbursement for the payments they have made from either the company or any person that should be held accountable for the inability to provide insurance for the injured worker. If qualified, the employer can also elect to use an alternative security system through the SISF called the alternative composite deposit program, which allows them to insure as a collective whole instead of as individuals.

Source: http://the-workers-compensation-attorney.com/insurance-security-fund-workers-compensation

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Europol to lead International Cyber Security Protection Alliance ...

(pressebox) London and The Hague, 24.07.2012 ? One of the largest international consultations into cybercrime has been launched to help governments, law enforcement and businesses get a head start on cybercriminals.
Called Project 2020, the study by the International Cyber Security Protection Alliance and led by its strategic law enforcement partner Europol will analyse current trends in cybercrime and how they may evolve over the next eight years and beyond.
The Threat
The past two years have seen the industrialisation of cybercrime, where criminals can draw on an entire supporting infrastructure of criminal service providers ? from web hosting to generating credit card verification data. With more information about all of us on the web than ever before, we also have seen a sharp increase of targeted cyber attacks, so-called spearphishing.
?During the past 24 months, critical infrastructure in countries around the world has been under daily cyber attack from both organised criminal networks and state-sponsored entities,? says John Lyons, the Chief Executive of the International Cyber Security Protection Alliance.
Europol expects these threat scenarios to evolve rapidly: Cloud computing services mean that we don?t always know to whom we are entrusting our data. The ?internet of things? could see the hacking of medical devices and key infrastructure components.
?With two-thirds of the world yet to join the internet, we can expect to see new criminals, new victims and new kinds of threats,? says Dr Victoria Baines, Strategic Advisor on Cybercrime at Europol.
The Project
What makes Project 2020 unique is that it will combine the expertise of leading law enforcement agencies with that of the ICSPA?s member companies, organisations and professional communities.
The European Commission recently designated Europol as its information hub on Cybercrime and asked the agency to establish the European Cybercrime Centre (EC3). Also contributing to the study will be the City of London Police and the European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA).
Among the business members joining Project 2020 are payment services firm Visa Europe, the UK?s largest home shopping retailer Shop Direct Group, customer insight and fraud prevention services firm Transactis and logistics company Yodel. They will be joined by seven of the world?s leading cyber security companies: McAfee, CGI Canada, Atos, Cassidian, Digiware, Core Security Technologies and Trend Micro, who have thousands of experts analysing security issues 24/ 7, all of whom will feed their expertise into the study.
Also participating in Project 2020 are experts from two global professional communities ? the International Information System Security Certification Consortium (ISC)2 and the International Association of Public Prosecutors.
?During the past few years increasingly sophisticated and highly targeted cyber attacks have resulted in significant losses ? not only financial but also, potentially even more worryingly, of intellectual property in defence and aerospace, oil and petrochemicals, financial services, manufacturing and pharmaceuticals,? says ICSPA chief executive John Lyons. ?Cybercrime is notoriously difficult to tackle given the international structure and capabilities of some of the criminal networks we see in operation. It used to be inherently difficult to combine international efforts to fight cybercrime; this Project will for the first time, bring together experts globally, with a remit to identify and fix weaknesses in our systems before they come to market.?
Project 2020 is set up as an international effort to provide insight into how cybercrime will develop. The project will deliver information and recommendations that raise awareness amongst governments, businesses and citizens to help them prepare their defences against future threats. The Project will deliver policy briefs and white papers on evolving threat scenarios, and establish a monitoring mechanism to assist organisations that combat cybercrime.
?Cybercrime evolves as quickly as technology, and technology develops so quickly that the unthinkable becomes mainstream before we can imagine. Furthermore, criminals today can still surprise us as they move from region to region around the world. We have the groups around the table who can make sure this will no longer be the case,? says Europol?s Dr. Baines, who will be the Project Director for Project 2020.
T/Cdr Steve Head of the City of London Police explains his Force?s reasons for joining Project 2020: ?Cybercrime is becoming pervasive in society, threatening the technological, financial and social fabric of developed and developing countries. Confronting and combating it now and in the future presents one of the most difficult and important challenges of our time and can only succeed by the international community working as one. Project 2020 is laying down a blueprint for how this can be achieved and the City of London Police is committed to pooling its own expertise with fellow members to create the systems and policies that will significantly enhance cyber security around the world.?
About Europol
Europol is the European law enforcement agency. Our job is to make Europe safer by assisting the Member States of the European Union in their fight against serious international crime and terrorism.
About City of London Police
The world?s leading business and financial centre demands a bespoke police force, which is equipped to protect and support this unique environment, and to meet head-on the policing challenges it represents.
About (ISC)?
(ISC)? is the largest not-for-profit membership body of certified information security professionals worldwide, with over 86,000 members in more than 135 countries. Globally recognized as the Gold Standard, (ISC)? issues the Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP?) and related concentrations, as well as the Certified Secure Software Lifecycle Professional (CSSLP?), Certified Authorization Professional (CAP?), and Systems Security Certified Practitioner (SSCP?) credentials to qualifying candidates. (ISC)??s certifications are among the first information technology credentials to meet the stringent requirements of ISO/IEC Standard 17024, a global benchmark for assessing and certifying personnel. (ISC)? also offers education programs and services based on its CBK?, a compendium of information security topics. More information is available at www.isc2.org
About the International Association of Prosecutors
The International Association of Prosecutors (IAP) is the only worldwide association of prosecutors and counts over 147 organisational members and 1,500 individual members. It was set up in 1995 under the auspices of the United Nations in Vienna and is committed to improving international cooperation between prosecutors in order to combat transnational crime ? as well as asserting the rule of law, compliance with human rights and ensuring minimum standards for prosecutors on fairness independence and impartiality. The Global Prosecutors E-Crime Network (GPEN) is one of the IAP?s specialist networks aimed at prosecutors dealing with cybercrime. Find out about the IAP and becoming a member on its website: www.iap-association.org.
About Singapore?s Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA)
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) in Singapore comprises of 7 Departments and 2 Statutory Boards, focused on the shared goal of ensuring the security and welfare of Singapore and her people. The departments under MHA include, the Singapore Police Force, Internal Security Department, Singapore Civil Defence Force, Immigrations and Checkpoints Authority, Singapore Prison Service, Central Narcotics Bureau, Home Team Academy, Casino Regulation Authority and Singapore Cooperation of Rehabilitative Enterprises.
Hord Tipton, the Executive Director of (ISC)2 says: ?We applaud this opportunity to not only facilitate consultation but also improve policy development around the world. We will be encouraging contributions from the breadth of our membership who come from government and private business, and will be able to provide insight from the coalface of current practice in the field. The coalition of the international professional communities represented, business leaders and law enforcement at play here is the kind of fighting power we need to secure a healthy future in the digital age.?
?Cybercriminals are by nature difficult to police given the trans-national efforts they undertake to evade detection?, comments Anthony O?Mara, Global Head of Business Operations, Trend Micro. ?We?re very pleased to be an active member of the ICSPA working with Europol, governments, industry and business sharing a common goal of sharing knowledge, skills and resources and meeting our company?s vision of a World Safe for Exchanging Digital Information. Project 2020 shows that the ICSPA is not just a talking shop, but will challenge business to recognise the need to share beyond their company borders?
Nicholas Cowdery AM QC, former Director of Public Prosecutions of New South Wales, Australia and Chair of the Global Prosecutors E-crime Network (GPEN) says: ?The continuing evolution of cybercrime requires prosecutors around the world to keep pace with criminal initiatives and law enforcement responses, so as to be able effectively to bring offenders to justice. The GPEN platform enables IAP prosecutors around the world to share information and experience, keep abreast of developments and access legal tools for use in prosecutions.?
Elizabeth Howe OBE, General Counsel of the International Association of Prosecutors and a Chief Crown Prosecutor of England and Wales adds: ?The IAP is the only worldwide organisation of prosecutors and the association between GPEN and ICSPA will enable us to develop constructive relationships with the IT industry and other law enforcement agencies in the cyber crime field.?
Notes to Editors:
The ICSPA
The International Cyber Security Protection Alliance (ICSPA) is a business led, not-for-profit organisation. The ICSPA (www.icspa.org) chaired by the Rt Hon David Blunkett MP, a Member of the UK Parliament and previous UK Home Secretary, celebrated its first anniversary just this July. Its mission is to enhance the online safety and security of business communities, by helping to deliver resources and expertise from the private sector to support both domestic and international law enforcement agencies and governments in their task of reducing harm from cybercrime. Project 2020 shows how much progress the Alliance has made during its first 12 months. The ICSPA has been growing its membership, started work on its first international assignment in Ghana with the Commonwealth Secretariat?s ICT Foundation, Comnet, and ? later this year ? will conduct a Cybercrime Study in Canada in conjunction with the Canadian Government and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
For more information visit www.icspa.org

Autor:
TREND MICRO Deutschland GmbH

http://www.pressebox.de/pressefach/trend-micro-deutschland-gmbh

Quelle: http://www.pressebox.de/pressemeldungen/trend-micro-deutschland-gmbh/boxid/526194

Source: http://www.worldpresse.net/internet-ecommerce/europol-to-lead-international-cyber-security-protection-alliance-consultation-into-the-future-of-cybercrime/

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Using Visual Aids Effectively In Internet Marketing | TheBitBot.Com ...

The purpose of this discussion is to provide basic, comprehensive information to assist you in developing effective presentations. The use of visual aids, coupled with good public speaking skills, work hand-in-hand to create effective presentations. Your speaking style and stage presence are personal talents that you can refine with much practice and experience. Each aspect of effective presentations, however, could not be detailed in this discussion. Instead, much emphasis is given to visual aids which are essential to all successful presentations.

DESIGNING THE PRESENTATION

There is no secret to developing an effective presentation. Establishing your objectives, planning and organizing your material, and using appropriate visual aids are the essential ingredients. The recipe for effective presentations calls for all three ingredients, and you must use them in the order in which they are presented here. By establishing your objectives first, you can prepare material that supports each objective. The use of visual aids will move you further along toward your objectives by illustrating and emphasizing your ideas more effectively than words alone. Let?s begin, then, at the beginning: As you start to design your presentation, you must ask yourself, ?What do I want to accomplish by making this presentation??

Establishing the Objectives

For any successful presentation, you must know your objectives. It is these objectives that drive your presentation and move the audience to your end goals. Your end goals may be that the attendees take a particular action, adopt a new perspective, or respond to facts and information. Establishing these goals requires careful planning. The key to designing your presentation is determining these objectives. After all, they become the foundation upon which your content, organization, and visual aids are built.

Establishing the objectives for your presentation requires an analysis of your own goals, as well as your audience?s needs and expectations. By considering the nature of your audience, you can more easily determine what you will present and how you will present it. An audience analysis will enable you to:

  • Select appropriate points of emphasis in your presentation
  • Develop a useful level of detail
  • Choose and prepare appropriate visual aids
  • Create a tone that is sensitive to your audience?s circumstance

Your presentation will ideally form a bridge between something you have and your audience wants. Let the audience analysis influence the form of information presented so you can create this bridge.

Planning and Organizing Your Material

When you have determined the characteristics of your audience, then you are ready to plan and organize your material. The tips listed below will assist you in tailoring your approach accordingly. Keep in mind that the use of visual aids will help to produce effective one-way or two-way communication. Many factors are involved in choosing these visual aids, and the type of interaction you want to develop with the audience will influence your choice.

Planning Your Material

  • Do not wait to prepare your presentation while on you way to the training session. You cannot do your best at presenting or persuading by ?winging it.?
  • At a minimum, prepare an outline of goals, major issues to be discussed, and information to be presented to support main themes.
  • Limit content to your major point and no more than five key supporting points.
  • Analyze your audience. Prepare your content considering such things as whether they are likely to be friendly or unfriendly, lay or technical in their background, and whether they want only to listen or to respond and contribute.
  • Select appropriate visual aids and a presentation style that will be effective in the physical setting for your training session.

Organizing Your Material

When organizing your material, consider an ?old chestnut? of public speaking ? ?Tell ?em what you?re going to tell ?em; tell ?em; and tell ?em what you told ?em.? This recommendation:

  • Recognizes the importance of reinforcement in adult learning
  • Completes the communication for the listener
  • Informs people who arrive late of what they missed
  • Recognizes the importance of organization, highlighting, and summarizing main points for the audience
  • Serves to clarify main themes for the audience at the end of the presentation

Using Visual Aids

Visual aids help your presentation make things happen. Visual aids help you reach your objectives by providing emphasis to whatever is being said. Clear pictures multiply the audience?s level of understanding of the material presented, and they should be used to reinforce your message, clarify points, and create excitement.

Visual aids involve your audience and require a change from one activity to another: from hearing to seeing. When you use visual aids, their use tends to encourage gestures and movement on your part. This extra movement reinforces the control that you, the speaker, need over the presentation. The use of visual aids, then, are mutually beneficial to the audience and you.

Visual aids add impact and interest to a presentation. They enable you to appeal to more than one sense at the same time, thereby increasing the audience?s understanding and retention level. With pictures, the concepts or ideas you present are no longer simply words ? but words plus images. The chart below cites the effectiveness of visual aids on audience retention.

People tend to eye-minded, and the impacts visual aids bring to a presentation are, indeed, significant. The studies, below, reveal interesting statistics that support these findings:

  • In many studies, experimental psychologists and educators have found that retention of information three days after a meeting or other event is six times greater when information is presented by visual and oral means than when the information is presented by the spoken word alone.
  • Studies by educational researchers suggest that approximately 83% of human learning occurs visually, and the remaining 17% through the other senses ? 11% through hearing, 3.5% through smell, 1% through taste, and 1.5% through touch.
  • The studies suggest that three days after an event, people retain 10% of what they heard from an oral presentation, 35% from a visual presentation, and 65% from a visual and oral presentation.

The use of visual aids, then, is essential to all presentations. Without them, the impact of your presentation may leave the audience shortly after the audience leaves you. By preparing a presentation with visual aids that reinforce your main ideas, you will reach your audience far more effectively, and, perhaps, continue to ?touch? them long after the presentation ends.

ADDING THE VISUAL DIMENSION

Visuals add an important dimension to a presentation, and you, the speaker, must capitalize on this dimension. It is critical that you prepare visual aids that reinforce your major points, stimulate your audience, and work well in the physical setting of your presentation.

Visual aids and audio-visuals include a wide variety of communication products, including flip charts, overhead transparencies, slides, audio-slide shows, and video tapes. Demonstrating a process or simply passing around a sample of some equipment or model are also effective way to clarify messages visually. If visual aids are poorly selected or inadequately done, they will distract from what you are saying. The tips listed below will help you in the selection and preparation of visual aids.

Tips on Preparing Visual Aids

  • Start with at least a rough outline of the goal and major points of the presentation before selecting the visual aid(s). For example, a particular scene or slides may trigger ideas for the presentation, providing the power of images. Do not proceed too far without first determining what you want to accomplish, what your audience wants to gain, and what the physical setting requires.
  • Each element of an audio-visual product ? a single slide or a page of a flip chart presentation, for example, ? must be simple and contain only one message. Placing more than one message on a single image confuses the audience and diminishes the potential impact of visual media. Keep visual aids BRIEF.
  • Determine the difference between what you will say and what the visual aid will show. Do not read straight from your visuals.
  • Ask the audience to read or listen, not both; visual aids should not provide reading material while you talk. Rather, use them to illustrate or highlight your points.
  • Give participants paper copies of various graphic aids used in your presentation. They will be able to write on the paper copies and have them for future reference.
  • Assess your cost constraints. An overhead transparency presentation can always be used in a formal environment if 35 mm slides are too expensive.
  • Account for production time in your planning and selection process. Slides must be developed, videotape edited ? you do not want to back yourself against a wall because the visuals are not ready. You can often get production work done in 24-48 hours, but it is much more expensive than work that is done on an extended schedule.
  • Use local photographs and examples when discussing general problems and issues. While a general problem concerning welding safety, for example, may elude someone, illustrating with a system in use at the site can bring the issue home.
  • Use charts and graphs to support the presentation of numerical information.
  • Develop sketches and drawings to convey various designs and plans.
  • When preparing graphics, make sure they are not too crowded in detail. Do no over-use color. See that line detail, letters, and symbols are bold enough to be seen from the back of the room.
  • Do not use visual aids for persuasive statements, qualifying remarks, emotional appeals, or any type of rhetorical statement.
  • If you have handouts, don?t let them become a distraction during the presentation. They should provide reinforcement following your address. Consider giving them out after the presentation, unless the audience will use them during the presentation or will need to review them in advance of the presentation.
  • Practice presenting the full program using graphic materials so you are familiar with their use and order. If you use audio-visual materials, practice working with them and the equipment to get the timing down right.
  • Seek feedback on the clarity of your visuals and do so early enough to allow yourself time to make needed adjustments.

The question of what to use and how to choose is an excellent one. The next several pages will help you answer this question by identifying the advantages and limitations of each type of visual, as well as the development techniques required in preparing each. By looking at these pros and cons, you can more easily decide what will work best for your presentation.

Flip charts are quick, inexpensive visual aids for briefing small groups. The charts, felt-tip markers and graphic materials are readily available, and with a modest ability at lettering, the presenters can compose the desired visual aid in-house.

Flip Charts:

  • Help the speaker proceed through the material
  • Convey information
  • Provide the audience with something to look at in addition to the speaker
  • Can be prepared prior to, as well as during, the presentation
  • Demonstrate that the speaker has given thought to his or her remarks
  • Can be used to record audience questions and comments
  • Can be converted to slides

Limitations:

  • May require the use of graphics talent
  • Are not suitable for use in a large audience setting
  • May be difficult to transport

When Developing Flip Charts:

  • Each sheet of paper should contain one idea, sketch, or theme.
  • Words, charts, diagrams, and other symbols must be penned in a large enough size to be seen by people farthest from the speaker.
  • In general, make each letter at least 1/32? high for each foot of distance from the material. For example, a 1-inch letter is legible from 32 feet, and a 2-inch letter from 64 feet. Divide the distance from the back of the room to the visual by 32 to determine the minimum size of letters.
  • Use block lettering, since it is easiest to read. Use all capital letters, and do not slant or italicize letters.
  • Use and vary the color. Also, check from a distance to make sure the color works well and is not distracting.

Overhead transparencies are useful for audience settings of 20 to 50 people and can be produced quickly, easily, and inexpensively. Any camera-ready artwork, whether word charts, illustrations, or diagrams can be made into transparencies using standard office paper copiers.

  • Most manufacturers of paper copiers offer clear and colored acetate sheets that run through copying machines like paper, but transfer a black image into acetate for use as overhead transparencies.
  • The standard transparency size is 8=? x 11?. The only piece of hardware required is an overhead transparency projector.
  • Overlay transparencies provide a good cumulative presentation.
  • Speaker can use an overhead projector with significant light in the room, thereby enabling the speaker to maintain eye contact with the audience.

Limitations:

  • The projected image size is sometimes too small to be seen from the back of a large room.
  • Often, the image does not sit square on the screen, as the head of the projector is tilted to increase the size of the image.
  • It is difficult to write on the transparency while it is on the projector.
  • Sometimes the projector head gets in the audience?s way.
  • Some speakers feel captive to the machine, because they must change each transparency by hand.

When Developing Overhead Transparencies:

  • To add color, simply cut a piece of colored acetate gel, available at art stores, to the shape and dimensions needed to highlight a particular part of a transparency. The second (or third) color is taped to the edges of the transparency with clear tape, or glued over an area with clear invisible adhesive such as spray adhesive.
  • Permanent and/or water-soluble ink color marker pens are available for use in hand-coloring parts of an overhead transparency.
  • Overhead transparencies can be developed during a presentation by marking on acetate sheets with water-soluble or permanent transparency pens. The same approach can be used to add information to existing transparencies. In both cases, a damp tissue can be used to wipe information off a transparency that has been marked with water-soluble ink.
  • When removing a transparency from the machine during the presentation, slide the next immediately underneath it to achieve a smooth transition. Don?t leave the screen blank with the light on.
  • A 45-degree angle to the audience is the most effective location for an overhead projector and screen. This provides for the least obstructed view. Ideally, set the projector on a table lower than the surrounding tables or platforms to make it less imposing.
  • Transparencies with too much information ? especially typed pages designed for a printed piece and transferred to acetate ? are confusing. Keep transparencies simple.
  • When typing words for transparencies, use bold typing elements such as HELVETICA and capitalize.
  • Consider making use of a laser printer that can produce good quality transparencies in a variety of bold type styles. These printers, coupled with desktop or portable personal computers are widely available, and prices have dropped significantly. The quality of type and variety of type styles make this a superior option when compared with transparencies done on an office typewriter. If resources permit, color printers are also available.

Posters are prepared graphic devices that can be made of a variety of materials and media ? photographs, diagrams, graphs, word messages, or a combination of these. Posters work best in smaller audience sizes.

  • Posters are permanent and portable.
  • Posters can be simple or very elaborate.
  • Posters can be used alone or in a series to tell a story.

Limitations:

  • Posters tend to contain too much detail.
  • Transporting them can be difficult.
  • The more elaborate posters require extensive preparation and can be quite costly.

When preparing posters:

  • Each poster should contain one message or theme.
  • Words, charts, diagrams, and other symbols must be penned in a large enough size to be seen by everyone in the room.
  • Use all capital letters, and do not slant or italicize letters.
  • Use and vary the color. Also, check from a distance to make sure the color works well and is not distracting.

35 mm slides enliven a presentation for virtually any size audience. They can project a professional image, are relatively inexpensive to produce, and if necessary, can be produced quickly.

  • Slides have high credibility with audiences because viewers looking at photographic slides taken in the field often feel that seeing is believing.
  • The only hardware required is a slide projector and a screen. Slide programs are easy to package in slide trays.
  • Changes in slides or in their sequencing can be done rapidly to meet changing conditions or audiences.

Limitations:

  • Slides cannot be made using a photocopying machine. Therefore, they require more time and money to produce than overhead transparencies.
  • The lights must be dimmed more for slides than for overhead transparencies.
  • Slides require a great deal of preparation and rehearsal.

When Developing a Slide Presentation:

  • Use the outline or text of your talk to note places for appropriate visuals.
  • The best slide programs often mix field photographs with slides of charts, graphs, and other supporting images.
  • Catalog and categorize slides, and place a date, location, and other relevant information on each slide.
  • Vendors can make word slides and illustrations by computer, though they tend to be costly.

Audio-slide shows are self-contained programs having pre-recorded sound tracks that are coordinated with slides by use of electronic synchronizers. The recording tape includes electronic signals that activate a connected slide projector so that an image appears simultaneously with the appropriate voice message, music or sound effects. Audio-slide programs can serve audiences ranging from a handful to a couple of hundred people.

  • For a fraction of the cost of films, audio-slide programs can achieve many of the same program needs.
  • They can impart considerable information because color and a wide array of audio-techniques and visual images can be used.
  • If multiple projectors are used with dissolve units that allow images to ?fold? into one another, even a sense of movement can be created.
  • They usually can be produces in-house, equipment is accessible, and they offer a presenter the flexibility of changing slides to meet the needs of specific audiences.

Limitations:

  • Time must be allotted for developing script, sound-track, title and credit slides, visuals, and for production.
  • Each presentation requires securing and assembling proper equipment synchronizer, tape recorder, projector(s), screen(s).
  • Good maintenance must be given to slides so that a warped slide doesn?t malfunction and throw off an entire presentation.

When Developing a Program:

  • Identify all components to the program and possible resources to assist in developing these components (e.g., photo lab, recording studio, slide library, graphic artists, a person who has prepared similar programs).
  • Make an initial contact with resource personnel to see what services they can provide, time frames and their scheduling requirements.
  • Develop a tentative production schedule.
  • Prepare a script or a story board and carry this script with you.
  • Photograph or borrow slides of scenes that emphasize your points. Also, gather charts, drawings, books, or other resource materials pertinent to the subject which may be photographed or reproduced graphically as slides.
  • Keep images to one message per frame.
  • Test-run the slide-tape show with enough time to replace slides that are unclear.
  • Secure permission to use commercial or otherwise copyrighted music or material.
  • Keep credit slides to a minimum and use simple design for clarity.

Videotape electronically carries both a picture and a sound track. Its features of sound, movement, vivid image, color, and variety hold an audience?s attention the way film does. Videotape can be used to program an entire presentation, or to support a speaker?s remarks by highlighting certain topics.

Limitations:

  • Videotape productions can be expensive to create and require experienced production teams.
  • In large meetings, the audience may not be able to see the monitor. (If resources permit, video projectors are available.)

When Developing Videotape:

  • Practicing with the equipment by filming, as well as showing, is the best way to overcome hesitancies about its use.
  • To cover the basics if you are brand new to video use, budget yourself a one hour session with an experienced video producer, whether amateur or professional. University extension programs and the local cable T.V. station are good places to check for a no-cost session. Discuss your ideas. Your budget will determine whether you should tape on your own or have a professional make the videotape.
  • Composing and editing a 15-minute video production can easily consume dozens of hours whether you do all of the work or contract to have part of it done. In order for this kind of investment to pay off, it usually means that the final product should be viewed by a large audience or multiple audiences. Consider the facilities available before choosing to use videotape.

TESTING THE DESIGN OF YOUR PRESENTATION

When you have prepared the visuals you want to use in your presentation, you must practice using them. Do a practice run in full, preferably with someone you know well and with someone you do not know well. Alternatively, use a video or audio tape recorder, or a mirror.

If you are making a group presentation, do a complete practice run in full. A practice run will ensure that each presentation builds on the previous one and that all the points are covered. These colleagues can also provide valuable feedback. The tips below will help you make the most out of your practice runs:

  • Seek feedback at the point when you have your material well organized but not committed to memory. This will enable any needed changes to be incorporated easily.
  • This feedback should include an evaluation of the presentation?s length, logic, clarity, and interest level; the speaker?s rate of delivery, voice level, and conversational pattern; and the usefulness of the visual aids.

Once you are satisfied with the content of your presentation, make sure that the technical supports are in place or lined up:

  • Check with the meeting organizer to make sure the equipment you need will be there.
  • If at all possible, arrive at the location of your presentation an hour early to check your equipment and room arrangements. Practice using your visuals with the equipment provided. Make sure that you know where the on/off switch is and make arrangements to have the lights dimmed, if necessary.

Rehearsal is a fundamental step in developing and refining effective presentations. Practicing your presentation and working closely with the meeting organizer to secure the necessary technical supports will assist you in making a smooth performance.

In this discussion, evaluation plays a recurring theme. You must evaluate the appropriateness of the visual aids. You must evaluate how best to prepare them. You must evaluate their effectiveness in your practice run. Adding the visual dimension to a presentation is key to ensuring the presentation?s overall success and evaluation plays an important role in choosing and effectively using visual aids.

Training sessions should be designed so that sufficient time is allocated to not only present the information but also to allow for questions and review of materials as needed. The trainer needs to provide an environment in which participants feel sufficiently comfortable in order to ask questions and make comments. Asking questions and discussing aspects of a training program can clarify information and reinforce important learning objectives.

OSHA is concerned that the training information presented must be understood by the employee; otherwise the training will not be effective. Therefore, employers must include training material that is appropriate in content and vocabulary to the educational, literacy and language background of employees. This will ensure that all employees, regardless of their cultural or education background will receive adequate training on how to eliminate or minimize their occupational exposure.

Source:?http://www.osha.gov/doc/outreachtraining/htmlfiles/traintec.html

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The purpose of this discussion is to provide basic, comprehensive information to assist you in developing effective presentations. The use of visual aids, coupled with good public speaking skills, work hand-in-hand to create effective presentations. Your speaking style and stage presence are personal talents that you can refine with much practice and experience. Each aspect of effective presentations, however, could not be detailed in this discussion. Instead, much emphasis is given to visual aids which are essential to all successful presentations.

DESIGNING THE PRESENTATION

There is no secret to developing an effective presentation. Establishing your objectives, planning and organizing your material, and using appropriate visual aids are the essential ingredients. The recipe for effective presentations calls for all three ingredients, and you must use them in the order in which they are presented here. By establishing your objectives first, you can prepare material that supports each objective. The use of visual aids will move you further along toward your objectives by illustrating and emphasizing your ideas more effectively than words alone. Let?s begin, then, at the beginning: As you start to design your presentation, you must ask yourself, ?What do I want to accomplish by making this presentation??

Establishing the Objectives

For any successful presentation, you must know your objectives. It is these objectives that drive your presentation and move the audience to your end goals. Your end goals may be that the attendees take a particular action, adopt a new perspective, or respond to facts and information. Establishing these goals requires careful planning. The key to designing your presentation is determining these objectives. After all, they become the foundation upon which your content, organization, and visual aids are built.

Establishing the objectives for your presentation requires an analysis of your own goals, as well as your audience?s needs and expectations. By considering the nature of your audience, you can more easily determine what you will present and how you will present it. An audience analysis will enable you to:

  • Select appropriate points of emphasis in your presentation
  • Develop a useful level of detail
  • Choose and prepare appropriate visual aids
  • Create a tone that is sensitive to your audience?s circumstance

Your presentation will ideally form a bridge between something you have and your audience wants. Let the audience analysis influence the form of information presented so you can create this bridge.

Planning and Organizing Your Material

When you have determined the characteristics of your audience, then you are ready to plan and organize your material. The tips listed below will assist you in tailoring your approach accordingly. Keep in mind that the use of visual aids will help to produce effective one-way or two-way communication. Many factors are involved in choosing these visual aids, and the type of interaction you want to develop with the audience will influence your choice.

Planning Your Material

  • Do not wait to prepare your presentation while on you way to the training session. You cannot do your best at presenting or persuading by ?winging it.?
  • At a minimum, prepare an outline of goals, major issues to be discussed, and information to be presented to support main themes.
  • Limit content to your major point and no more than five key supporting points.
  • Analyze your audience. Prepare your content considering such things as whether they are likely to be friendly or unfriendly, lay or technical in their background, and whether they want only to listen or to respond and contribute.
  • Select appropriate visual aids and a presentation style that will be effective in the physical setting for your training session.

Organizing Your Material

When organizing your material, consider an ?old chestnut? of public speaking ? ?Tell ?em what you?re going to tell ?em; tell ?em; and tell ?em what you told ?em.? This recommendation:

  • Recognizes the importance of reinforcement in adult learning
  • Completes the communication for the listener
  • Informs people who arrive late of what they missed
  • Recognizes the importance of organization, highlighting, and summarizing main points for the audience
  • Serves to clarify main themes for the audience at the end of the presentation

Using Visual Aids

Visual aids help your presentation make things happen. Visual aids help you reach your objectives by providing emphasis to whatever is being said. Clear pictures multiply the audience?s level of understanding of the material presented, and they should be used to reinforce your message, clarify points, and create excitement.

Visual aids involve your audience and require a change from one activity to another: from hearing to seeing. When you use visual aids, their use tends to encourage gestures and movement on your part. This extra movement reinforces the control that you, the speaker, need over the presentation. The use of visual aids, then, are mutually beneficial to the audience and you.

Visual aids add impact and interest to a presentation. They enable you to appeal to more than one sense at the same time, thereby increasing the audience?s understanding and retention level. With pictures, the concepts or ideas you present are no longer simply words ? but words plus images. The chart below cites the effectiveness of visual aids on audience retention.

People tend to eye-minded, and the impacts visual aids bring to a presentation are, indeed, significant. The studies, below, reveal interesting statistics that support these findings:

  • In many studies, experimental psychologists and educators have found that retention of information three days after a meeting or other event is six times greater when information is presented by visual and oral means than when the information is presented by the spoken word alone.
  • Studies by educational researchers suggest that approximately 83% of human learning occurs visually, and the remaining 17% through the other senses ? 11% through hearing, 3.5% through smell, 1% through taste, and 1.5% through touch.
  • The studies suggest that three days after an event, people retain 10% of what they heard from an oral presentation, 35% from a visual presentation, and 65% from a visual and oral presentation.

The use of visual aids, then, is essential to all presentations. Without them, the impact of your presentation may leave the audience shortly after the audience leaves you. By preparing a presentation with visual aids that reinforce your main ideas, you will reach your audience far more effectively, and, perhaps, continue to ?touch? them long after the presentation ends.

ADDING THE VISUAL DIMENSION

Visuals add an important dimension to a presentation, and you, the speaker, must capitalize on this dimension. It is critical that you prepare visual aids that reinforce your major points, stimulate your audience, and work well in the physical setting of your presentation.

Visual aids and audio-visuals include a wide variety of communication products, including flip charts, overhead transparencies, slides, audio-slide shows, and video tapes. Demonstrating a process or simply passing around a sample of some equipment or model are also effective way to clarify messages visually. If visual aids are poorly selected or inadequately done, they will distract from what you are saying. The tips listed below will help you in the selection and preparation of visual aids.

Tips on Preparing Visual Aids

  • Start with at least a rough outline of the goal and major points of the presentation before selecting the visual aid(s). For example, a particular scene or slides may trigger ideas for the presentation, providing the power of images. Do not proceed too far without first determining what you want to accomplish, what your audience wants to gain, and what the physical setting requires.
  • Each element of an audio-visual product ? a single slide or a page of a flip chart presentation, for example, ? must be simple and contain only one message. Placing more than one message on a single image confuses the audience and diminishes the potential impact of visual media. Keep visual aids BRIEF.
  • Determine the difference between what you will say and what the visual aid will show. Do not read straight from your visuals.
  • Ask the audience to read or listen, not both; visual aids should not provide reading material while you talk. Rather, use them to illustrate or highlight your points.
  • Give participants paper copies of various graphic aids used in your presentation. They will be able to write on the paper copies and have them for future reference.
  • Assess your cost constraints. An overhead transparency presentation can always be used in a formal environment if 35 mm slides are too expensive.
  • Account for production time in your planning and selection process. Slides must be developed, videotape edited ? you do not want to back yourself against a wall because the visuals are not ready. You can often get production work done in 24-48 hours, but it is much more expensive than work that is done on an extended schedule.
  • Use local photographs and examples when discussing general problems and issues. While a general problem concerning welding safety, for example, may elude someone, illustrating with a system in use at the site can bring the issue home.
  • Use charts and graphs to support the presentation of numerical information.
  • Develop sketches and drawings to convey various designs and plans.
  • When preparing graphics, make sure they are not too crowded in detail. Do no over-use color. See that line detail, letters, and symbols are bold enough to be seen from the back of the room.
  • Do not use visual aids for persuasive statements, qualifying remarks, emotional appeals, or any type of rhetorical statement.
  • If you have handouts, don?t let them become a distraction during the presentation. They should provide reinforcement following your address. Consider giving them out after the presentation, unless the audience will use them during the presentation or will need to review them in advance of the presentation.
  • Practice presenting the full program using graphic materials so you are familiar with their use and order. If you use audio-visual materials, practice working with them and the equipment to get the timing down right.
  • Seek feedback on the clarity of your visuals and do so early enough to allow yourself time to make needed adjustments.

The question of what to use and how to choose is an excellent one. The next several pages will help you answer this question by identifying the advantages and limitations of each type of visual, as well as the development techniques required in preparing each. By looking at these pros and cons, you can more easily decide what will work best for your presentation.

Flip charts are quick, inexpensive visual aids for briefing small groups. The charts, felt-tip markers and graphic materials are readily available, and with a modest ability at lettering, the presenters can compose the desired visual aid in-house.

Flip Charts:

  • Help the speaker proceed through the material
  • Convey information
  • Provide the audience with something to look at in addition to the speaker
  • Can be prepared prior to, as well as during, the presentation
  • Demonstrate that the speaker has given thought to his or her remarks
  • Can be used to record audience questions and comments
  • Can be converted to slides

Limitations:

  • May require the use of graphics talent
  • Are not suitable for use in a large audience setting
  • May be difficult to transport

When Developing Flip Charts:

  • Each sheet of paper should contain one idea, sketch, or theme.
  • Words, charts, diagrams, and other symbols must be penned in a large enough size to be seen by people farthest from the speaker.
  • In general, make each letter at least 1/32? high for each foot of distance from the material. For example, a 1-inch letter is legible from 32 feet, and a 2-inch letter from 64 feet. Divide the distance from the back of the room to the visual by 32 to determine the minimum size of letters.
  • Use block lettering, since it is easiest to read. Use all capital letters, and do not slant or italicize letters.
  • Use and vary the color. Also, check from a distance to make sure the color works well and is not distracting.

Overhead transparencies are useful for audience settings of 20 to 50 people and can be produced quickly, easily, and inexpensively. Any camera-ready artwork, whether word charts, illustrations, or diagrams can be made into transparencies using standard office paper copiers.

  • Most manufacturers of paper copiers offer clear and colored acetate sheets that run through copying machines like paper, but transfer a black image into acetate for use as overhead transparencies.
  • The standard transparency size is 8=? x 11?. The only piece of hardware required is an overhead transparency projector.
  • Overlay transparencies provide a good cumulative presentation.
  • Speaker can use an overhead projector with significant light in the room, thereby enabling the speaker to maintain eye contact with the audience.

Limitations:

  • The projected image size is sometimes too small to be seen from the back of a large room.
  • Often, the image does not sit square on the screen, as the head of the projector is tilted to increase the size of the image.
  • It is difficult to write on the transparency while it is on the projector.
  • Sometimes the projector head gets in the audience?s way.
  • Some speakers feel captive to the machine, because they must change each transparency by hand.

When Developing Overhead Transparencies:

  • To add color, simply cut a piece of colored acetate gel, available at art stores, to the shape and dimensions needed to highlight a particular part of a transparency. The second (or third) color is taped to the edges of the transparency with clear tape, or glued over an area with clear invisible adhesive such as spray adhesive.
  • Permanent and/or water-soluble ink color marker pens are available for use in hand-coloring parts of an overhead transparency.
  • Overhead transparencies can be developed during a presentation by marking on acetate sheets with water-soluble or permanent transparency pens. The same approach can be used to add information to existing transparencies. In both cases, a damp tissue can be used to wipe information off a transparency that has been marked with water-soluble ink.
  • When removing a transparency from the machine during the presentation, slide the next immediately underneath it to achieve a smooth transition. Don?t leave the screen blank with the light on.
  • A 45-degree angle to the audience is the most effective location for an overhead projector and screen. This provides for the least obstructed view. Ideally, set the projector on a table lower than the surrounding tables or platforms to make it less imposing.
  • Transparencies with too much information ? especially typed pages designed for a printed piece and transferred to acetate ? are confusing. Keep transparencies simple.
  • When typing words for transparencies, use bold typing elements such as HELVETICA and capitalize.
  • Consider making use of a laser printer that can produce good quality transparencies in a variety of bold type styles. These printers, coupled with desktop or portable personal computers are widely available, and prices have dropped significantly. The quality of type and variety of type styles make this a superior option when compared with transparencies done on an office typewriter. If resources permit, color printers are also available.

Posters are prepared graphic devices that can be made of a variety of materials and media ? photographs, diagrams, graphs, word messages, or a combination of these. Posters work best in smaller audience sizes.

  • Posters are permanent and portable.
  • Posters can be simple or very elaborate.
  • Posters can be used alone or in a series to tell a story.

Limitations:

  • Posters tend to contain too much detail.
  • Transporting them can be difficult.
  • The more elaborate posters require extensive preparation and can be quite costly.

When preparing posters:

  • Each poster should contain one message or theme.
  • Words, charts, diagrams, and other symbols must be penned in a large enough size to be seen by everyone in the room.
  • Use all capital letters, and do not slant or italicize letters.
  • Use and vary the color. Also, check from a distance to make sure the color works well and is not distracting.

35 mm slides enliven a presentation for virtually any size audience. They can project a professional image, are relatively inexpensive to produce, and if necessary, can be produced quickly.

  • Slides have high credibility with audiences because viewers looking at photographic slides taken in the field often feel that seeing is believing.
  • The only hardware required is a slide projector and a screen. Slide programs are easy to package in slide trays.
  • Changes in slides or in their sequencing can be done rapidly to meet changing conditions or audiences.

Limitations:

  • Slides cannot be made using a photocopying machine. Therefore, they require more time and money to produce than overhead transparencies.
  • The lights must be dimmed more for slides than for overhead transparencies.
  • Slides require a great deal of preparation and rehearsal.

When Developing a Slide Presentation:

  • Use the outline or text of your talk to note places for appropriate visuals.
  • The best slide programs often mix field photographs with slides of charts, graphs, and other supporting images.
  • Catalog and categorize slides, and place a date, location, and other relevant information on each slide.
  • Vendors can make word slides and illustrations by computer, though they tend to be costly.

Audio-slide shows are self-contained programs having pre-recorded sound tracks that are coordinated with slides by use of electronic synchronizers. The recording tape includes electronic signals that activate a connected slide projector so that an image appears simultaneously with the appropriate voice message, music or sound effects. Audio-slide programs can serve audiences ranging from a handful to a couple of hundred people.

  • For a fraction of the cost of films, audio-slide programs can achieve many of the same program needs.
  • They can impart considerable information because color and a wide array of audio-techniques and visual images can be used.
  • If multiple projectors are used with dissolve units that allow images to ?fold? into one another, even a sense of movement can be created.
  • They usually can be produces in-house, equipment is accessible, and they offer a presenter the flexibility of changing slides to meet the needs of specific audiences.

Limitations:

  • Time must be allotted for developing script, sound-track, title and credit slides, visuals, and for production.
  • Each presentation requires securing and assembling proper equipment synchronizer, tape recorder, projector(s), screen(s).
  • Good maintenance must be given to slides so that a warped slide doesn?t malfunction and throw off an entire presentation.

When Developing a Program:

  • Identify all components to the program and possible resources to assist in developing these components (e.g., photo lab, recording studio, slide library, graphic artists, a person who has prepared similar programs).
  • Make an initial contact with resource personnel to see what services they can provide, time frames and their scheduling requirements.
  • Develop a tentative production schedule.
  • Prepare a script or a story board and carry this script with you.
  • Photograph or borrow slides of scenes that emphasize your points. Also, gather charts, drawings, books, or other resource materials pertinent to the subject which may be photographed or reproduced graphically as slides.
  • Keep images to one message per frame.
  • Test-run the slide-tape show with enough time to replace slides that are unclear.
  • Secure permission to use commercial or otherwise copyrighted music or material.
  • Keep credit slides to a minimum and use simple design for clarity.

Videotape electronically carries both a picture and a sound track. Its features of sound, movement, vivid image, color, and variety hold an audience?s attention the way film does. Videotape can be used to program an entire presentation, or to support a speaker?s remarks by highlighting certain topics.

Limitations:

  • Videotape productions can be expensive to create and require experienced production teams.
  • In large meetings, the audience may not be able to see the monitor. (If resources permit, video projectors are available.)

When Developing Videotape:

  • Practicing with the equipment by filming, as well as showing, is the best way to overcome hesitancies about its use.
  • To cover the basics if you are brand new to video use, budget yourself a one hour session with an experienced video producer, whether amateur or professional. University extension programs and the local cable T.V. station are good places to check for a no-cost session. Discuss your ideas. Your budget will determine whether you should tape on your own or have a professional make the videotape.
  • Composing and editing a 15-minute video production can easily consume dozens of hours whether you do all of the work or contract to have part of it done. In order for this kind of investment to pay off, it usually means that the final product should be viewed by a large audience or multiple audiences. Consider the facilities available before choosing to use videotape.

TESTING THE DESIGN OF YOUR PRESENTATION

When you have prepared the visuals you want to use in your presentation, you must practice using them. Do a practice run in full, preferably with someone you know well and with someone you do not know well. Alternatively, use a video or audio tape recorder, or a mirror.

If you are making a group presentation, do a complete practice run in full. A practice run will ensure that each presentation builds on the previous one and that all the points are covered. These colleagues can also provide valuable feedback. The tips below will help you make the most out of your practice runs:

  • Seek feedback at the point when you have your material well organized but not committed to memory. This will enable any needed changes to be incorporated easily.
  • This feedback should include an evaluation of the presentation?s length, logic, clarity, and interest level; the speaker?s rate of delivery, voice level, and conversational pattern; and the usefulness of the visual aids.

Once you are satisfied with the content of your presentation, make sure that the technical supports are in place or lined up:

  • Check with the meeting organizer to make sure the equipment you need will be there.
  • If at all possible, arrive at the location of your presentation an hour early to check your equipment and room arrangements. Practice using your visuals with the equipment provided. Make sure that you know where the on/off switch is and make arrangements to have the lights dimmed, if necessary.

Rehearsal is a fundamental step in developing and refining effective presentations. Practicing your presentation and working closely with the meeting organizer to secure the necessary technical supports will assist you in making a smooth performance.

In this discussion, evaluation plays a recurring theme. You must evaluate the appropriateness of the visual aids. You must evaluate how best to prepare them. You must evaluate their effectiveness in your practice run. Adding the visual dimension to a presentation is key to ensuring the presentation?s overall success and evaluation plays an important role in choosing and effectively using visual aids.

Training sessions should be designed so that sufficient time is allocated to not only present the information but also to allow for questions and review of materials as needed. The trainer needs to provide an environment in which participants feel sufficiently comfortable in order to ask questions and make comments. Asking questions and discussing aspects of a training program can clarify information and reinforce important learning objectives.

OSHA is concerned that the training information presented must be understood by the employee; otherwise the training will not be effective. Therefore, employers must include training material that is appropriate in content and vocabulary to the educational, literacy and language background of employees. This will ensure that all employees, regardless of their cultural or education background will receive adequate training on how to eliminate or minimize their occupational exposure.

Source:?http://www.osha.gov/doc/outreachtraining/htmlfiles/traintec.html

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