The folks behind Wikipedia are applying taken their open-source approach to knowledge to news.
They have set up Openserving, offering a free, collaborative news blog.
“We think it’s going to be like Time-Warner – today’s news, today’s opinion,” CEO Gil Penchina told Journalism.co.uk.
From the official news release:
“Wikia’s OpenServing extends the essence of the open source model – free software and content – to all aspects of web-based computing. The six pillars of Wikia’s OpenServing offering are: free software, free bandwidth, free storage, free computing power, free content over the Internet, and giving away 100% of the ad inventory and revenue to bloggers and website owners who partner with Wikia. By tapping Wikia’s OpenServing utility, anyone can set up and maintain their own collaborative content project for news and opinions for free.”
It is an interesting concept. But I wonder if we need another free, web publishing platform. After all, there are a myriad of free blogging tools already available.
Where Openserving might be able to carve a niche for itself is in providing web publishing for projects with multiple contributors. I’ve already signed up for an account. Why? To try it out and experiment with this approach to web publishing. The site is not live yet, but you can find the holding page here.
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