The W3C (World Wide Web consortium) sports the following motto: "Release early, release often." It's a sage maxim to follow when changing the development course of a Web standard. The most recent release of SMIL (SMIL Boston) by the W3C Working Group demonstrates why getting a preliminary model out early is so important.
Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL) was introduced in July of 1998. This mark-up language enables Web multimedia authors to schedule presentations so that users experience images, sounds, and text as a choreographed
Why a Standardized Timed-text Format?
On the Web, there is no standard method for displaying text which is synchronized with other elements, such as video and audio. The three most popular multimedia players-- Apple's QuickTime Player, Microsoft's Windows Media Player and RealNetworks' RealPlayer-- support only their own proprietary text formats (QText, SAMI and RealText, respectively). As a result, multimedia authors must write synchronized text files in multiple formats if they wish to support more than one player. A standardized timed-text format
W3C has announced the creation of a new Timed Text Working Group (TTWG) as part of the Synchronized Multimedia Activity (SYMM). The mission of the Timed Text Working Group is to develop an XML based format used for the representation of streamable text synchronized with some other timed media, like audio and video. Working Group members envision that the Timed Text specification will cover "all necessary aspects of timed text on the Web. Typical applications of timed text are the real time subtitling of foreign-language movies on the Web, captioning for
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