Friday, December 28, 2012

Soapbox Guru is a web site for posting videos of speeches or presentations and receiving evaluations





















Soapbox Guru was created by two Toastmasters in Victoria, British Columbia.Evaluators have three boxes to fill in for giving a Speech Rating, describing The Good, and discussing The Path to Improvement.

This site seems friendlier than the alternative of just putting video out in the open on YouTube, where mean comments may just come from ten-year-olds who have nothing better to do.  

Critical comments and evaluations always should be taken with a grain of salt. For example, an expert on consulting, Alan Weiss, blogged on January 23, 2010 about the Help for Haiti telethon that:

“The worst voice and least talent on the stage all night: Taylor Swift. I don’t get what that’s all about, but when compared so closely with all the others, she has a weak voice and zero excitement.”

Perhaps Ms. Swift had an off night. But, a week later on January 31st she found out what the professionals in her industry thought of her. At the 2010 Grammy Awards (where she had been nominated in eight categories) she only took home four:

Album of the Year for Fearless

Best Country Album for Fearless

Best Country Song for White Horse

Best Female Country Vocal Performance for White Horse

The image of a young orator was adapted from one that once appeared in Harpers.

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