Through a new service called OpenServing, Wikia will provide free bandwidth, computing power, storage and software for collaborative content—and those who have a Google ad code will get 100 percent of the ad revenue from their sites. Somehow, those with existing sites also will be able to drive traffic back. (Demo here.) At first glance, it might look like sites only sharing revenue would have a hard time competing against this model—tag line: “Free content for all”—but it doesn’t seem to have a video component. Just last week, Wikia announced a second round of funding, all from Amazon—which already provides its own free computing power for developers through EC2. For now, though, the two efforts are separate. OpenServing’s runs on software acquired in the recent purchase of ArmchairGM.com. The announcement by co-founder Jimmy Wales was timed to coincide with Le Web 3 in Paris. Headline: ‘New Web Business Model: Get Rich Using Wikia’s Services for Free!” Wales: “We don’t have all the business model answers, but we are confident – as we always have been – that the wisdom of our community will prevail.” That certainly clears it all up.
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