The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is responsible for defining and maintaining open web standards. Recently, W3C has focused on making content, especially media content, more accessible via the web. Efforts such as Hypertext Markup Language (HTML5), media fragment uniform resource identifiers (URIs), and media annotations are all geared toward making media first-class citizens, that is, exposing various forms of media to the operations used on other web content.

The paper provides detailed background information on four “enabling technologies” currently in development by W3C. Media fragment URIs enable addressing fragments, either temporal or spatial, using a standardized URI format. Media annotations define a standard ontology for media metadata. Web Video Text Tracks (WebVTT), a file format currently in development by the Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group (WHATWG), provides a mechanism for including timed text tracks such as subtitles within HTML5. Finally, the HTML5 standard has introduced the element, which provides a mechanism for using WebVTT files within media resources.

Having presented the enabling technologies, the paper then presents a method for integrating these technologies utilizing NinaSuna, a media delivery platform that provides server-side support for the W3C standards mentioned. This includes a fully functional web application demonstrating this integration.

This paper will be of interest to anyone using or following web standards for media applications.