I will again be presenting at the HighEdWebDev conference in Rochester which is scheduled for October 14 – 17, 2007. My presentation is will be on Tuesday morning at 8:15 a.m. and is called “Higher Ed Web Development Gets Flattened or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the New World Order”. Here is the abstract:

What happens when Web development becomes a commodity? Globalization 3.0, the arrival of the technically adept Millennial Generation, and the ongoing Communications Revolution will create a perfect storm that will forever change the college campus and the way we work. The services provided by Web professionals will be disaggregated, distributed, produced and reassembled with amazing efficiency. It may well be that many of our services will be outsourced in the relatively near future. This presentation will explore the forces of globalization and free agency and the changes in what we call work, how and why the higher education Web profession will get flattened, and provide guidance on how to not only survive, but thrive in this new paradigm.

This year my presentation will follow a much different format. For several years, I have been looking for a way to eliminate, or at least greatly reduce, my use of PowerPoint. I am from the camp that feels most PowerPoint presentations are poorly done, and that “interesting PowerPoint presentation” is indeed an oxymoron. Instead I want to utilize some of the principles of an unconference (See Understanding the Unconference). I’m looking for ways to leverage the “Wisdom of Crowds” to get the audience more involved. With this in mind, here is the tentative format for the presentation:

• Give participants an opportunity to see the ideas and themes prior to the conference and allow them to provide comments, suggestions and general feedback which will be incorporated into the final presentation. This will be done through a series of posts on this blog. I recommend using the blog’s RSS feed (markagreenfield.com/feed) to stay informed of updates.
• I will follow the 20/20 format of Pecha Kucha – 20 slides for 20 seconds each for a total time of 6:40 seconds. The remainder of the time will be for audience conversation and dialogue (For more information on Pecha Kucha, see del.icio.us/markgr/PechaKucha.
• I have create a channel on Jaiku that we will use before, during, and after the presentation to further the conversation. The URL is jaiku.com/channel/highedwebdev2007.

I would also encourage everyone to use the tag highedwebflat when posting to social sites such as del.icio.us and Flickr.

My goal is to follow the theme of the conference and provide an opportunity to collaborate, participate and innovate. While I am nervous about using a somewhat radical approach for this presentation and going outside of my comfort zone, I’m also excited about the possibilities. I invite you to join me in this experiment in Presentation 2.0.

I will begin posting the ideas and themes to this site in the next few days, and I look forward to your feedback and participation.