PowerPoint shapes strategy-making, says new paper

Readers of Marshall McLuhan's Understanding media: the extensions of man and The Medium is the Message will not be at all surprised. It is interesting, though, to see it applied to the presentation technology-complex represented by data-projectors, portable computing and GUI-driven software and the quasi-ubiquity of certain software in corporate environments. What I like about this is the attention to actual usage (cf Bourdieu et al). Article here: Love it or hate it, PowerPoint shapes strategy-making, says new paper. Here's a summary statement: "By studying the daily use of PowerPoint in strategy making, it was possible to see how meanings were negotiated through PowerPoint use, as a means for both collaborative efforts to generate ideas and cartographic efforts to divide up territories and pursue individual or group interests." It was good too, to see a recognition of the importance of its relative accessability: " "has radically changed who can participate. It has the potential to democratize strategy-making." The important thing, of course, is to understand just how to understand its effects in order to strategise for its use.