The Internet has evolved to the point where many people today are using it for all their communication needs. With the rapidly changing communication tools of today, people can make appointments over the web, or even shop for groceries and find answers to their questions.
Competition among companies is very stiff over the Internet, as you only have a few moments to capture the attention of potential customers. When it comes to presentations, companies are now making use of animation, videos, and even vector graphics to increase the digital experience of the user.
This has led to an increase in demand for the construction of vivid media experiences which are combined with applications that are highly interactive. This resulted in introduction of Microsoft Silver Light, a multiple browser and platform plugin that offers a highly advanced .NET media experience.
In addition to this, Microsoft Silver Light also offers RIAs, or Rich Interactive Applications. One feature which is unique to MS Silver Light is that it is totally self contained, and it is not dependent on other products like Windows Media Player when it comes to video playback. You should also note that MS Silver Light is also not dependent on the .NET Framework 3.0.
There are a number of features which make Silver Light quite impressive. First off, it can dramatically enhance the appearance of applications, making use of media, animation, text, and even vector based graphics.
Silver Light offers content which is not only rich, but also immersive, and it fits perfectly within the environment for web development. By making use of Silver Light, your website can be given a personal touch, no matter what type of enterprise you operate.
Of all the ways in which ideas can be presented over the web, Microsoft Silver Light is one of the most powerful and robust. When it comes to web development solutions for your business, the possibilities that Silver Light offers you are unlimited, but to fully understand its potential, it is first important to become familiar with Rich Interactive Applications.
Rich Interactive Applications
The goal of RIAs is to give more control and interactivity to the end user, allowing them to complete tasks which would normally be considered mundane through a rich user environment.
User experience is the most important factor which must be considered, and true RIA tools have the ability enhance content without altering its context. Those who are familiar with the Desktop Experience may be thinking that this concept is very similar. However, there are some differences between Desktop Experience and RIAs.
The biggest difference between the two involves the capability for middle tier positioning. In other words, it can be used for multiple clients and device surfaces, and it does not require a great deal of effort by the end user.
To give you an example of this, think of a basic HTML bullet list which contains a collection of names. Every name symbolizes an individual or person inside an organization. The end user will click on one of the names, and once they do, the view context will be altered, causing the screen to repaint itself, showing a more detailed view of the name you clicked on.
You may be presented with tabs, as well as metadata or photos. If you decide to add animations of even controls, as well as a desktop like menu, your RIA will be very similar to a desktop.
RIA is powerful because it has the ability to alter the perception of the person using it, adjusting the context to allow the end user the ability to aggregate the pieces of data, which will allow them to complete tasks which are normally complex without large amounts of effort.
Instead of using a collection of hyper linked names in the form of bullets, you could instead make use of Document icons via the GridView Container. Every icon will have a male/female icon in the upper right corner.
With MS Silverlight, as the experience is altered for the user, the interactivity will also be changed, and yet the information within the rich client can remain static or passive.
You have the option of handling it like a document if you want, but you have a lot of options along with this. As one scrolls down a page, they will see controls placed inside the it. Video, audio, or other forms of media can also be embedded.
MS Silver Light is more than just a tool which emulates the desktop user interface. While many associate RIA with the Internet, it has little to do with it, and functions more as an agent which is attached to the Intranet or Internet.
With tools such as RIA, you can easily cut/copy/paste between two different websites simply by aggregating the views. While RIA technology has a lot of potential, it also has some growing up to do.
There is some confusion that exists when it comes to applications and the attention economies, and it becomes clear that the technology is not as mature is it could be. At the same time, Microsoft Silver Light has successfully taken RIA to a whole new level, and it has a large amount of potential for enterprises.
Microsoft has spent a great deal of time making sure that its applications reach the proper amount of maturity before fully advertising them. In today’s world, IT can be thought of as being evolutionary, and it becomes more intelligent as time passes on.
For Microsoft, Silver Light is very important, because it is one of the keys to our technological future. With the introduction of Silver Light, Microsoft has made it clear that their goal is to redefine the concept of RIA.
While the term RIA is used most often to refer to Rich Internet Applications, Microsoft uses the acronym Rich Interactive Applications.
If you are a media developer, one thing that you should realize is that this tool has been designed for individuals like you. While this article mentions the Silver Light’s ability to process both audio and video content, Microsoft has also emphasized the interactive capabilities of this tool.
One thing that many MS observers realize is that the company has always favored rich clients over the web clients, and the release of Silver Light only continues this legacy.
Another point to note is that Silver Light has been released as Microsoft’s answer to Flash, a technology which of course was pioneered by Adobe. Because Silver Light is a browser plug-in, it will be capable of functioning with a large number of platforms. It functions with browsers such as Firefox, Safari, and course, Internet Explorer.
Additionally, it can operate on desk top computers and even portable devices such as mobile phones and the Zune MP3 player. One particular thing which I find impressive about Silverlight is its support for SMPTE VC01, which is a video standard that is also utilized by WMV.
With all these capabilities, there is little doubt that Silverlight will pose a significant challenge to Adobe Flash, which has dominated the online media environment for many years.
DRM, or Digital Rights Management, is another area which Silverlight will address. Because of the importance which DRM plays in the media and entertainment industry today, addressing this issue gives Silverlight a significant edge in the online interactive media environment, but DRM control will still be maintained by the content providers themselves.
