OpenServing

OpenServing was a short-lived Web publishing project owned by Wikia, founded on December 12, 2006,cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Wikipedia founder remakes Web-publishing economics |url=http://www.usatoday.com/tech/products/software/2006-12-12-wiki-free-tools_x.htm?csp=34
work= |publisher=Reuters/USA Today |date=2006-12-12 |accessdate=2007-10-04 ] cite web|url=http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/12/11/wikia-announces-free-wiki-hosting| title=Wikia Announces Free Wiki Hosting|publisher=TechCrunch|date=2006-12-11] and abandoned in January 2008. OpenServing, like Wikia, was to have offered free wiki hosting, but it would differ from Wikia in that the founder of the particular wiki would retain any revenue gained from the advertising on the sitecite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Wikipedia to share collaborative software|url=http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=20061218story_18-12-2006_pg6_1 |work= |publisher=Daily Times |date=2006-12-18 |accessdate=2007-10-04 ] and unlike other hosts, OpenServing would offer this as a free service.cite web|url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_2006_Dec_11/ai_n16883902 |title=Wikia Unveils OpenServing - the Mother of All Freebies|publisher=Business Wire|date=2006-12-11]

According to Wikia founder and chairman Jimmy Wales, the OpenServing site received several thousand applications within the first month, January 2007.cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Wikis can succeed on newspaper sites, claims Wikipedia founder |url=http://www.journalism.co.uk/2/articles/53151.php |work= |publisher=Online Journalism News, Journalism.co.uk |date=2007-01-19 |accessdate=2007-10-04 ] However, after a year, not a single site had been launched under the OpenServing banner. The project had not issued any press releases since December 2006. Angela Beesley, a co-founder and vice president of Wikia described OpenServing as "never very popular or successful", and that the Wikia team's efforts had been refocused on wikia.com itself.cite web|url=http://www.marsmag.com/?p=760|title=Wikia's OpenServing Project Dies a Quiet Death|publisher=Mars Magazine|date=2007-10-10]

OpenServing used a modified version of the Wikimedia Foundation's Mediawiki wiki software created by ArmchairGM, but was going to be branching out to other open source packages. [cite web|url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_kmafp/is_200612/ai_n16941229|title=Wikipedia founder to share collaborative software|publisher=AFP|date=December 2006]

Currently, the Openserving.com domain name redirects to Wikia.com. OpenServing's closure was never formally announced.

References

External links

* [http://www.openserving.com/ Project home page]
* [http://openserving.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page Wikia.com OpenServing page]