One of the topics Ellis covered in his presentation at Technical Communication UK 12 conference was how media synchronization is likely to affect online training, online Help and other forms of user assistance.
HTML5, an emerging Web standard, will enable Technical Authors and courseware developers to synchronize different media, such as live data and video recordings.
To illustrate this, we have created a “quick and dirty” demonstration that integrates a live feed of tweets containing the phrase “online help” with a video. Please note, you will need a HTML5 compatible browser to view this video.
One key area where this technology is likely to be used is where you are looking to use video to guide users through a specific task. For example, if you had a video explaining how to bid for an item on an auction site, you could include, dynamically, details on the product into the video itself. If a different user watched the video, then the product details appearing would change to the one they were interested in.
At the moment, HTML5 is still an emerging standard. However, it is likely to be an important development in the field of eLearning and technical communication.