Television is all shook up! In the post-broadcasting present of television, new structures, finances, technologies and players dominate the global mediaspace. One of the most important of these new engines is the new worldwide system for the distribution and production of programming based on the principle of the TV format. All television programs like all other human artefacts can be variously copied, imitated, cloned, adapted, counterfeited, parodied and so on quite irrespective of what one thinks of the results. The TV format principle, then, simply increases the adaptability of a program from place to place and from time to time.

It does this by systematically gathering together into a total package the set of knowledges, skills, information and other data which will make it easier to produce another version of the program. Hence, one homely way in which the international TV industry thinks about formats is as akin to cooking recipes out of which attractive and engaging concoctions can be prepared. A much more useful way of understanding the TV format is in terms of being a franchising service that producers prepare for licensees in other television territories. A franchise from MacDonald’s offers much more than tips on how to prepare hamburgers and fries. Hence, a TV program format franchise is a complex and comprehensive body of knowledge that not only offers a lot of advice on how to make a particular program but also carries significant information and advice in such areas as financing, programming, scheduling, promotion, marketing and so on.

However, the full significance of this extension to parts of the service industry of franchising cannot be confined to the phenomenon of worldwide circulation of such formatted programs as Big Brother, Pop Idol and Changing Rooms. Instead, the format principle has acted as Trojan Horse to two highly significant developments in the area of international programming distribution and production.

Servers form the backbone of the Internet as well as your home network. A server is a broad term for computers that provide data and services to other computers. For example, a mail server transmits and stores e-mail. A file server stores files; a print server connects to one or more printers to allow you to fill up your office space with paper. And so on. Linux has become extremely popular for use on servers. Linux combines speed, efficiency, and support for off-the-shelf hardware as well as a handy lack of licensing fees.

This can dramatically reduce costs, especially if you are used to paying a fee per desktop computer just for the privilege of connecting to a Microsoft Windows server. If you pick the server installation, you’ll be presented with packages for server applications for Web, e-mail, file, printer, database, and other server tasks. You can choose the packages that support the type of server you intend to run. For example, Linux is the most-used operating system on the Internet for servers running Web sites. Apache is the most-used Web server software. If you choose the server installation, you will see packages such as the Apache Web server, along with a number of other Webserver packages such as Tux. Apache includes a number of plug-ins, which are add-on packages that you can pick and choose from, such as security, encryption, or special add-ons for CGI applications. Oracle and DB2, among others, provide databases for Linux.

These applications are commercial database software (meaning you have to pay for them and install them separately), but you can also choose the free MySQL or PostgreSQL database packages. Both of these databases come with most Linux distributions. In addition, you’ll find even more databases available for Linux, some free and some commercial.