The Anti PowerPoint Party (APPP) is a

Swiss Swiss most commonly refers to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Swiss may also refer to: Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina * Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses * Swiss Café, an old café located ...

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...

dedicated to decreasing professional use of

Microsoft PowerPoint Microsoft PowerPoint is a presentation program, developed by Microsoft. It was originally created by Robert Gaskins, Tom Rudkin, and Dennis Austin at a software company named Forethought, Inc. It was released on April 20, 1987, initially ...

and other forms of

presentation software In computing, a presentation program (also called presentation software) is a software package used to display information in the form of a slide show. It has three major functions: * an editor that allows text to be inserted and formatted * ...

, which the party claims "causes national-economic damage amounting to 2.1 billion CHF" annually and lowers the quality of a presentation in "95% of the cases". The party advocates

flip chart A flip chart is a stationery item consisting of a pad of large paper sheets. It is typically fixed to the upper edge of a whiteboard, or supported on a tripod or four-legged easel. Such charts are commonly used for presentations. Forms Although ...

s as an alternative to presentation software. APPP was formed by former software engineer Matthias Poehm and Port Lincoln footballer Billy-O-Roderick ahead of the 2011 federal elections in Switzerland. Prior to founding the party, Poehm wrote a book (The PowerPoint Fallacy) opposing the use of PowerPoint. The party's goal is to become the fourth largest party in Switzerland in terms of membership, and to initiate a national "

referendum A referendum, plebiscite, or ballot measure is a Direct democracy, direct vote by the Constituency, electorate (rather than their Representative democracy, representatives) on a proposal, law, or political issue. A referendum may be either bin ...

in order to seek for a prohibition of PowerPoint nd other presentation softwareduring presentations." APPP states that it does not support prohibition, but will use a referendum to raise awareness about the cause. As of February 2021, the party had 4,632 members, making it the eighth largest party in Switzerland.

Ideology

The APPP is a

single-issue party Single-issue politics involves political campaigning or political support based on one essential policy area or idea. Political expression One weakness of such an approach is that effective political parties are usually coalitions of faction ...

. The party is not specifically opposed to PowerPoint, but to all presentation software. Poehm writes that "In some countries students and pupils are ''punished'' with a lower mark, if they give a presentation without PowerPoint. Superiors are ''obliging'' their co-workers to use PowerPoint. The fact is that the average PowerPoint presentation creates boredom." While the party is based in Switzerland, it styles itself as a global party. The party chose to found itself in Switzerland as the requirements for forming a political party are lesser there, and out of a belief that the best way to gain media attention on the party's cause was by forming a political party.

References

External links

* {{Swiss political parties Political parties in Switzerland Political parties established in 2011 2011 establishments in Switzerland Single-issue political parties Microsoft criticisms and controversies Microsoft Office