Thursday, October 11, 2007

The Speech to Inform-Sample Speech, "Why Put it Out There?"

Why Put it Out There?
(The Speech to Inform, Advanced Speech #1 in the Speaking to Inform Manual, Oct.11,2007, ACT Club, Henlin, Northgate Alabang. Evaluated by Lolet Gabay, ACG/CL)


INTRODUCTION

Several weeks ago, Ma’m Lolet here asked me for copies of a couple of my speeches. I asked her if she had access to the Internet. And she said “Yes, of course I have access.”

And I said “Great, that means I don’t even have to email you word documents.” And so, rather than send her documents, I sent her a URL.


Anybody knows what a URL is?

Well, URL stands for Universal Resource Locator. But essentially, it is an address to a web page or a web site. In my case the URL I sent her was the address of the archive of my Toastmasters Speeches.

Now, some of us write out speeches, some of us don’t. I’ve written out speeches ever since Icebreaker. For those who have not seen it yet, here’s how my simple website looks like. (blah, blah) This is not my homepage. It is simply a link to where my main homepage links to.


BODY

When I was creating some of my web pages, I wondered what is it that motivates people to publish their works, their stuff, pictures, videos, documents out there in the World Wide Web.

It’s the same question I ask myself when I update my web blogs and other web pages. In other words, why put it out there? A noted web publisher named Eric G. gave 4 motivators.




According to him, there are 4 F’s that motivate people to publish in the web: Fame, Fortune, Fun and Philanthropy. Of course Philanthropy doesn’t start with F but hey, it’s much easier to remember that way.


Blogging for Fame

The Internet or the web not only connects computers. It connects people. And some people have become well known and respected within a certain group or sphere of discussion.

This group could extend to communities all across the world. If you are a subject matter expert, what better way to advertise and promote yourself than through the internet? Potentially you can have an audience of millions.


When you apply for a job you advertise yourself. You promote yourself. You want others to know about you. You want your skills, your expertise to be known by potential employers.

My homepage which links to the website you saw earlier is actually my resume. But how do you know if you’re popular enough? Or if people even visit your site? There are tools like site counters or statistics to help you.





Blogging for Fortune

This is probably the classic motivator. Money is an extremely strong motivator. They say advertising your products on the Internet is like having your own booth in a World Exhibition Fair.

And that’s partially true. Partially in the sense that they need to know you first, before they buy into you.

Even bloggers themselves can get in the bandwagon through ads or advertisements. Some really good bloggers have ads that generate dollars for them. I’ve got Google ads in my blog but the hits I get on my blog are not enough to make me rich anytime soon - not yet, anyway.



Blogging for Fun

There are people who build web sites and blogs because they just enjoy doing it. They put pictures of events, of their kids, anything. I’m one of them. I have a blog that’s basically a swimming journal.

It is a way to communicate others who have similar interests – in my case, swimming. It’s a fun way to spend some time and develop some skills and it’s no different from any other hobby.





Blogging for Philanthropy

Some of the philanthropic websites are Gawad Kalinga, Philippine National Red Cross, World Vision, Habitat for Humanity and many others. Philanthropy is about voluntary giving and sharing. On a personal level, it could mean sharing what you have, what you know.


CONCLUSION

And that brings me back to the website that I showed you earlier. When I was starting out as a toastmaster, I had trouble writing speeches. Sometimes I still do. I am not a born-writer. And so I turned to the web and found tons of ideas, for speech structure, format, lots of ideas.

I was lucky to have stumbled on the websites of fellow toastmasters around the world who have posted their own speeches. And from there, I had new ideas for my own speeches and in a way I was inspired by their work.

The website I created is my way of giving back to the resource called the web. The resource I believe I benefited from.


The web isn’t there for us to just get and grab and download. It is also there for us to put what we have. So, do follow my speech blog at speeches.blackdovenest.com. I share freely my speeches to all toastmasters and if others benefit from them and get inspired by them, I am happy.

Toastmaster of the Night.




Sample Speeches in Speaking to Inform

Sample Speeches in the Old Program

Sample Speeches in Pathways