An HTML5 Primer

The purpose of this Briefing Document is to provide non-technical readers with an overview of what HTML5 is, what it can do for website owners, and what considerations there are in adopting it for production.

There has been a huge amount of excitement in the online industry recently about HTML5 - with many people predicting the imminent demise of rich interface plug-ins such as Flash and Silverlight.

2011 has seen a significant increase in the use of HTML5 in web development projects and this looks set to continue to become even more mainstream over the next couple of years. This is despite the fact that it is not expected to become a fully agreed "standard" until 2014.

The reason is simple. HTML5 is a big leap forward for web technology, and allows for new functionality, and better, easier ways of delivering highly functional, interactive websites and applications.