Slashdot Mirror
Wikipedia Founder to Give Away Web Hosting
eldavojohn writes "Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales is going to be giving away free web hosting from his company's site Wikia. The company announced this 'free culture' movement at the current Le Web 3 conference in Paris. They somehow received a $4 million dollar investment package from Bessemer Venture Partners, Omidyar Network and individual investors with no business model. Is this a dotcom bubble style mistake or just proof of Jimmy Wales' golden touch?" From the article: "Openserving will go further than Wikia's current services, by giving away hosting services and bandwidth, in addition to allowing site creators to keep the advertising revenue generated by the site. 'If we give away the bandwidth and the storage, and we get none of the advertising revenue, what's the business model? Well, I don't know yet,' Penchina said. The software acquired with ArmchairGM will let Openserving customers create collaborative publishing sites, combining elements of blogs and wikis."
Isn't this the real-life equivalent of the underpants gnome line?
Maybe he's been reading too much /.
-Eric
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
'If we give away the bandwidth and the storage, and we get none of the advertising revenue, what's the business model? '
They will make it up in volume!
Tired of being "punished" by the Slashdot $rtbl since 2002. I'm now over at http://soylentnews.org/ .
They somehow received a $4 million dollar investment package from Bessemer Venture Partners, Omidyar Network and individual investors with no business model. Is this a dotcom bubble style mistake or just proof of Jimmy Wales' golden touch?
Free web hosting? Jimmy Wales? dubious investors? That's *got* to be something to do with pr0n...
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
"Open source was the beginning. Free culture is what's happening next," Wikia CEO Gil Penchina said Monday, announcing the company's plans at the Le Web 3 conference in Paris on the future of social media.
Sorry to burst your bubble Gil, but here goes: Who's gonna unclog my toilet in thie "free culture"?
Hi there, people reading this article ten years in the future.
If Openserving was a giant success, then I am all for it. The commoditization of culture and expression is the future, and I should be noted as before my time. Find me in the present, give me gifts. We'll go do expression stuff together or something. You can cry into my neuroblog and listen to emo with me.
If Openserving was a huge flameout that eventually meant the end of the company for yanno, giving away things that take resources for free, then I am rightly skeptical and predict this as a stupid move that will waste lots of money and time. Find me in the present and we'll go to a brick-and-mortar store where you can purchase me a neuroblog. I don't know what that is yet, but it sounds exciting.
This will inevitably lead to... wait for it... Wikiverts! My only question is, will the user community get to edit the advertising -- and can you imagine the results.
GetOuttaMySpace - The Anti-Social Network
Anyone can modify your website.
Senator McCain, is that you?
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
I imagine the people who started Geocities or blogger are still trying to figure out how to spend all the money they made when their company was acquired.
Wow, free web hosting! How could it fail?
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere