eWeek reports that Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales wants to facilitate the dissemination of free content by offering free software, free storage and free bandwidth.

Free usually means ad supported - but not in this case. Wales says his customers will be able to keep any advertising revenue their content generates. The new service will be called OpenServing.

Wikia, the commercial counterpart of the non-profit Wikipedia, recently received an undisclosed amount of funding from Amazon.com. When asked whether Amazon will supply web services for Wikia or OpenServing, Wales said potentially - but hosting wasn’t a part of the investment deal.

MediaWiki will be the first free app available from OpenServing. WordPress and Drupal may follow, along with “hundreds of other software packages". Users will even have a single sign-on across all services.

Many hosting providers dismiss Google Apps for Domains and Microsoft’s Office Live as proprietary platforms with limited functionality. Their customers want the flexibility to install whatever open source software they choose. In which case, might OpenServing’s mission of creating a free software clearinghouse atop a free hosting platform represent a threat to traditional web hosting?