The intranet was built with the LAMP -- Linux Apache MySQL PHP -- Web application framework, and Subversion is used for source code management .Open source software has also played a part in preventing WIN staff from accessing undesirable content from the Internet with the Squid and squidGuard proxy tools.

With the new intranet in place, WIN then converted its public Web site, www.wintv.com.au, from ASP to LAMP, because "there is a lot more you can do with PHP and Perl than ASP."

Open source is not limited to Web applications at WIN but is also being used for generating post-production content.

"We use Blender and the GIMP in the production environment," Purser said. "The graphic designer uses Adobe so on the editing system GIMP has filled in nicely."

Blender, an open-source 3D graphics application, is used to create the "billboard", or the short graphical interval between programs. One area where Purser couldn't "declare success" was with the OpenOffice.org productivity suit e."We had 20 machines [with OpenOffice.org] and it was slow so we ended up replacing it with Microsoft Office 2000," he said. "We still have an OpenOffice.org installation but no further plans at this stage."