When I first received this book I was amazed that it was so slim and I realized that this book is exactly what the title suggests, it is an introduction. Saying that though there is quite a lot to learn from this text for the intermediate user trying to get there head around some of the new(er) elements of HTML 5.

A little background first.

HTML 5 is the more recent specification for HTML(hyper text markup language). HTML 5 includes new “tags” and attributes to these tags that allow for more interactive web pages using video, sound, page generated graphics and easier abilities for web forms and client side storage.

Since most of the work focuses on visual and sound elements and I please to see that increase in the ability to use digital media files directly in the html script. By using Javascript with these new tags it is now possible to develop rich internet applications only with HMTL and Javascript. I don’t think that HTML 5 will be a Adobe Flash “killer” but I think that it will offer new possibilities for development and maybe even show a new future for how Adobe should develop next versions of the CS suite.

The Book

“Introducing HTML 5” moves through the major areas of HTML 5 in discussion and example as if it was a lecture based class format. They don’t spend time with tutorial sections or exercises. This is a problem because I think that it would benefit readers more to have some sections to try out the examples and give more details so the book could work more as a reference instead of a cursory view of these new elements.

Chapters

• Main Structure
• Text
• Forms
• Video and Audio
• Canvas
• Data Storage
• Offline
• Drag and Drop
• Geolocation
• Messages, Worker and Sockets

The one element I do like about this book is the focus on particular elements in HTML 5.  I believe what they might be thinking with this chapter sequence is that developers who are interested in using HTML 5 elements in their sites probably might want to create more “rich” sites which means media elements( chp 4 & 5), social components(chp 9 & 10)  and client side storage( chp 6).

There is so much more to HMTL 5 than they are giving in this text but it is an introduction. Maybe I shouldn’t complain.

One of the more interesting sections was “ Who? What? When? Why? A short history of HTML”  and it goes through some of the early foundations but focuses on the controversies with the specification of XHTML. Believe or not, it was an interesting read. Give this section a try and tell me what you think.

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If one was to look at the development of three areas of media technology(radio, television and the Internet) you may notice a interesting trajectory that is still evolving to this day.

Radio:

In the early days of radio it was used as a communication medium across long distances to relay information between two or more places(HAM radio). Then RCA took from agriculture the word, “broadcasting” and used it to change our relationship with this device. Instead of interacting with the medium similarly to the way we do with a telephone it changed it very quickly into a transmitter of content like comedy hours, advertisements, and music.

Television

Television applied this “broadcasting” technique further with visual imagery along with sound and eventually connected and learned from the film industry to create better content.

Internet

At the point we are right now, the Internet is a converged multi-level platform of entertainment and information that has all of the ability to communicate between people easily while still allowing for content to be pushed through broadcasting.

So looking at these three developments of technology, each developed important components to media production, journalism, and communication. Because the Internet can be thought of as a open playing field, this has allowed for many new ways to express, exchange, develop and think.

Each is important in its own regard but in terms of media, the Internet is a culmination of the earlier two and we have yet to see its potential.

In future posts, I plan on dissecting these areas further and discuss each individually.