permaculture

["Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lfl@intrex.net>]

<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6171399.stm>

                
Last Updated: Tuesday, 12 December 2006, 08:35 GMT
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Community websites take wiki path
Wikia
There are thousands of Wikia sites
The founder of online encyclopaedia Wikipedia is launching a service offering free tools for people who want to build 
community websites.

Jimmy Wales has said his company Wikia.com will offer software, storage and network access and that website creators can 
keep advertising revenue.

Sites built with Wikia tools must provide a link to the company, which itself 
earns money from adverts.

Wikipedia is built and edited by users and is free for anyone to use.

Wikia is the commercial counterpart to the not-for-profit Wikipedia site.

Wikipedia was founded in 2001 and is seen as a serious rival to commercial 
online encyclopaedias.

It is built using wikis, open-source software which allows anyone to edit, add, delete, or replace an entry. It relies 
on volunteer contributors to update its pages.

Wikipedia
Wikipedia is a net success story

Businesses have started to embrace the wiki model to allow employees to collaborate and communicate about projects, 
while special-interest groups are also using them to share ideas.

"It is open-source software and open content," Mr Wales told the Reuters news 
agency.

"We will be providing the computer hosting for free, and the publisher can keep 
the advertising revenue."

Thirty thousand users have posted 400,000 articles so far on Wikia.com sites.

Mr Wales believes the falling cost of computers, storage and network access 
will mean success for the service.

"It is becoming more and more practical and feasible to do," he said.

"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.


SEE ALSO
China 'unblocks' Wikipedia site
16 Nov 06 |  Asia-Pacific
Virus creators target Wikipedia
06 Nov 06 |  Technology
Not as wiki as it used to be
25 Aug 06 |  Technology
Wikipedia study 'fatally flawed'
24 Mar 06 |  Technology

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