Synchronization Aspects of a Presentation Model for Hypermedia Documents with Composite Nodes

This paper outlines the synchronization aspects of a hypermedia presentation model, called Nested Context Presentation Model (NCPM), which has three major features. First, it allows authors to specify temporal synchronization constraints among events of interest within hypermedia documents. Second, it allows asynchronous material, such as user interaction links, or programs, to be combined with synchronous material in a single hypermedia document. Third, it separates the presentation specification from the structural definition of the hypermedia document. The synchronization facilities of NCPM can be applied to any hypermedia model with composite nodes and, with minor simplifications, even to those conceptual models without composites. In particular, the synchronization facilities can be applied to those models that can be translated to MHEG objects.