Following Peter Nitsch's session at Spotlight: HTML5 which you can read about here, I had the chance to check out Bobby Richter’s fun and informative session, Popcorn.js: Make Your Media Come Alive.

If you’ve never heard of Popcorn.js now is the perfect time to. In his presentation, Bobby Richter, the Mozilla Foundation’s Creative Technology Lead for the Popcorn and Paladin groups, explored the creativity behind Popcorn.js, the transition into the Open Web Platform and merging libraries and tools from the Popcorn project.

Popcorn.js is an HTML5 media framework written in JavaScript for filmmakers, web developers and anyone who wants to create time-based interactive media on the web. It allows media makers to manipulate video, audio and other media to control elements of a webpage. Under a development standpoint Popcorn.js utilizing native HTMLMediaElement properties, methods and events and normalizes them into an easy to learn API, allowing developers to create their own plugin systems.

This time-based interactive media can be created with total ease using another tool in the Popcorn Project known as Popcorn Maker. Popcorn Maker was created so that code is automatically written for you so that whatever your project entails it can be created quickly and easily. In order to do this you create Popcorn Maker Templates, which hold media elements and dynamic content. These can also be modified, depending upon your needs.

Popcorn.js is a cool and ambitious new way for all kinds of people to interact and combine various forms of media into an interconnecting space. And that isn’t all - Popcorn.js is open-source, so it’s a great way for us to experiment with its capabilities, and most of all, have fun with it!

Connect with Bobby Richter online:
[Web] Robothaus.org
[Twitter] @secretrobotron