RTW - "Released to Web", very similar to "Released to Manufacturing". RTW is for bits downloaded via the Internet.

This week, Microsoft released the media services update for Windows Server 2008. And update is the wrong word here, since there is big improvements and enhancements in this release. Windows Media Services 2008 continues the tradition of our increasing value in serving media. This is becoming a big deal for serving video and audio to the public (i.e. outside the firewall) as well as internally (i.e. inside the firewall).

Here are several links that are good background:

• WMS 2008 download
• .NET Web Product Roadmap including Windows Media (DEC 2007, Harry Mower). Check out the explanation on caching and proxy
• I Want To Broadcast Myself Behind the Firewall (Allan Da Costa Pinto, MSFT Developer Evangelist, NOV 2007)

As I've mentioned before, video is becoming more and more important to web sites and corporations - especially in the new trend of internal usage. Here are a couple more movements to keep an eye on:

First is Academy Mobile. Today, this is an internal capability that we use for our learning.

• Check out this blog post by the SharePoint team: Microsoft Academy Mobile - MOSS 2007 Powered, Community Driven Videocast/Podcast Service for the Enterprise - How We Did It
• Interview with Paulo Tosolini by Mike Gannotti, on SoapBox
• Check out this video on YouTube, "Microsoft Academy Mobile - Enterprise podcasting platform". For a little more insight, notice the comments and MSFT responses.
• "Initially, the target audience for Academy Mobile is going to be Microsoft internal employees. But we are working toward productizing this experience, so that other corporations will be able to install the application and start sharing knowledge inside their own organizations"
• Stay tuned - especially if you are a SharePoint 2007 customer.

Another product that I've mentioned before is IMM or Interactive Media Manager.

• From the Media & Entertainment site, "Microsoft Interactive Media Manager is a collaborative media management solution that extends Microsoft Office SharePoint® Server 2007 for media and entertainment companies. The solution builds on existing technology investments, and helps companies create an end-to-end content production system accessible by everyone. In addition, Interactive Media Manager easily integrates with Microsoft business intelligence tools, giving management insight into production details."
• Interactive Media Manager blog
• Codeplex site - note the media related webparts for SharePoint
• Check out the Media & Entertainment site for links to the case studies. Already one on Starz Entertainment today.
• Since this is built into SharePoint 2007, there are a ton of ways to integrate including leveraging workflow and OBA's.

Keep an eye on the MIX announcements as we should be learning more about media capabilities there.