Kurt Shintaku's Blog

Microsoft today announced the release of the Podcasting Kit for SharePoint (PKS), a free, shared source initiative for social computing, which provides organizations with a centralized easy-to-manage solution to create manage and distribute podcasts to deliver the next generation eLearning and knowledge management solution. 

Built on top of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, PKS delivers an integrated experience on a wide variety of devices such as Zunes, PCs and Windows Mobile phones. Customers can customize the UI design of PKS, and use SharePoint Server 2007 features to extend the solution.

PKS offers a wide variety of features to enrich customers’ experience with Podcasting:

• Users can access audio and video podcasts on-demand from any location with a Zune, Windows Mobile Device, or other podcasting device.
• Users can share content by producing their own podcasts and publishing them using SharePoint Server 2007 technology.
• Subscriptions to RSS feeds allow users to receive automatic podcast updates.
• Users can play podcasts in real-time using Silverlight and progressive playback.
• SharePoint Server 2007 technologies allows users to customize access rights, post podcasts to My Sites, and take advantage of many other features of SharePoint Server 2007.

(For a full feature list and a run down of the scenarios in which it can be used visit the PKS web site – see below)

Availability:
In the immediate timeframe, SharePoint partners will receive access to the PKS source code, and work closely with customers to deliver a podcasting solution to fit customer needs. Customers who are interested in learning more about PKS can visit: http://www.codeplex.com/pks. Also we are building a partner ecosystem on codeplex via the “Child Project” concept.

It’s important to note that the PKS is a community driven shared source initiative that is maintained by a group of volunteers, a few of whom happen to work at Microsoft.

• For more information, please visit http://www.codeplex.com/pks
• Visit the official SharePoint blog for updates: http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/

PKS Partner Support:
For customers that have no experience with Podcasting and would like to set up an Enterprise implementation, they should consider contacting one of our PKS partners:

• Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company. Accenture participated in the PKS pilot program, along with several of their clients. Accenture is leveraging and extending SharePoint and the PKS to offer Web 2.0 based learning and collaboration solutions to clients. In addition to technology implementation, we help clients drive measurable business value by addressing the strategy, people and process components that are necessary to achieve high performance.
• 3Sharp: As the primary developers of the Podcasting Kit for SharePoint, 3Sharp has very deep insight into how to get to value quickly, both from the kit’s extensive out-of-the-box capabilities and from customizations and additions. 3Sharp company’s objective is to build and implement solutions that help customers get more out of the tools they already know and use, including SharePoint and the Office client applications. Visit them at www.3Sharp.com
• Nintex is a leading innovator of exciting software products that extend Microsoft technology. Nintex is focusing on building software which bridges the gap between what can be delivered by Microsoft today and common functionality requested by customers. This PKS partnership has enabled Nintex to leverage a platform that will add increasing value to customers and partners. Visit them at www.nintex.com