I chose an article by the Washington Post to base my presentation on for the topic “Copyrights and Wrongs”. It was an interesting piece that proposed 5 ideas for fixing US copyright laws in light of the SOPA bill that was proposed and later struck down.

Right now copyright laws in the US are very strict and and heavily favor corporations that have control of many works which continue to make money while the creators themselves may be dead. These companies pour millions of dollars into lobbying the government to change laws in their favor while consumers really haven’t show much care to copyright issues politically until SOPA happened. I ended my presentation asking viewers to become more aware of what’s going on in their own countries regarding the issue.

Giving the presentation, embedded above, was an interesting experience. I had a hard time giving it the first time because my friends were sitting in front of me so I was more inclined to not take the topic seriously and just rush through it. The following three groups were much easier to do because I could focus more on my presentation instead of worrying about what my friends were thinking.

The audience also definitely made an impact on how easy it was to give my presentation. If they were quiet it was very hard to get a feel for what they were thinking and if they were really connecting with the data I was presenting. I loved the discussions that came up during the course of the Prezi and it really added to what I was discussing.

As far as presentation mediums go, I chose Prezi as an aide to help me make my points. I like web-based solutions because they’re cross-platform and don’t require me to physically carry the file with me. In this case it worked very well, but I think ultimately my color choice could’ve been better. For the background I matched the dark red of my tujournal site, but ultimately I think my presentation would’ve been better off with a lighter color which wouldn’t have looked so serious. One of the major flaws in my presentation was the seriousness of it all and I wish I would’ve had more humor in it to engage the audience.

Overall a great experience Thank you to my audience members who were all great!