NEWS: Wikipedia founder remakes Web publishing economics

News/Social Networks/Wikia/Eric Auchard
Found on: reuters.com

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales is a freaking visionary!

He announced on Monday that his for-profit company, Wikia, would be giving away all the open source software, computing power, storage space and network access that website developers need to create community collaboration sites for absolutely free!

Here's the catch - he's asking that they link back to Wikia.

Reuters post:

Wales is betting the plunging cost of computers and networks can help Wikia support the free services offer. "It is becoming more and more practical and feasible to do," he said.

WISDOM TO PREVAIL

"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," he said.

The move follows the announcement last week that Amazon.com had become Wikia's first corporate investor and is acting as the sole investor in Wikia's second round of funding. Terms were not disclosed.

Wikia took $4 million in funding in March from Bessemer Venture Partners, Omidyar Network, high-profile Silicon Valley "angel" backers including Marc Andreessen, Dan Gillmor, Reid Hoffman and Mitch Kapor and Joichi Ito of Japan.