Integrating temporal media and open hypermedia on the World Wide Web

The World Wide Web has since its beginning provided linking to and from text documents encoded in HTML. The Web has evolved and most Web browsers now support a rich set of media types either by default or by the use of specialised content handlers, known as plug-ins. The limitations of the Web linking model are well known and they also extend into the realm of the other media types currently supported by Web browsers. This paper introduces the Mimicry system that allows authors and readers to link to and from temporal media (video and audio) on the Web. The system is integrated with the Arakne Environment, an open hypermedia integration aimed at Web augmentation. The Links created are stored externally, allowing for links to and from resources not owned by the (link) author. Based on the experiences a critique is raised of the limited APIs supported by plug-ins. (C) 1999 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.