Start “SMILing” With New JustSMIL Site

If you’re still trying to figure out what SMIL is all about, a newly announced Web site called ‘Just SMIL’ is designed to get you up to speed in no time.

Just SMIL is becoming the Web’s central resource for information on SMIL, otherwise known as the Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language.

SMIL enables designers to position, layer, and place Web-based multimedia content on a timeline, all within the window of an SMIL-capable browser. Content creators utilize video, text, graphics, and animation to create compelling Web presentations.

SMIL is becoming well known as a text-based, XML-compliant and easy-to-learn language. As reported on WebDeveloper.com today, the World Wide Web Consortium released the SMIL specification as an official W3C Recommendation.

The Just SMIL Web site, which is constantly updated, searches for and links to the latest SMIL information and resources on the Web. The site’s main areas include:

• News–the latest news of interest to the SMIL community;
  
• Info–a collection of articles and resource sites on SMIL;
  
• Tools–a range of SMIL browsers and production tools;
  
• Guides–tutorials and production instructions for SMIL authors;
  
• Discus–discussion areas for members of the SMIL community;
  
• Gallery–a selection of SMIL projects.
  

Just SMIL is maintained by Tim Kennedy who works for the Media Communication and Technology program at Bellevue Community College in Washington state as a Web multimedia instructor.

“Just SMIL will be a great resource to start out with,” Kennedy enthusiastically stated when asked about the site. For more information about JustSMIL, visit the JustSMIL Web site and start SMILing.