Online media cooperative
An online media cooperative is an autonomous association of similar businesses or organizations who voluntarily join together around an online media platform for their mutual and individual benefit. The businesses in an online media cooperative are typically within the same industry ex: drug stores, pet stores, pizza shops and are located within a geographic region or nationally. The online media typically takes the form of a video, video series, or some other creative work that is outside the funding abilities of an individual business. The media elevates or otherwise promotes the core mission of the businesses in the shared industry in a manner that benefits the members of the cooperative individually.
The platform aspect of the cooperative allows for the unique, individual identification of each member in the cooperative based on some type of geographic location mechanism. This mechanism could be based on physical address, IP address, or proximity/attachment to short-range wireless communication systems such as Apple's iBeacon using mobile telecommunications devices such as cell phones, tablet computers or traditional computer equipment.
The intent of an online media cooperative is to improve the business environment of local stores and organizations. The disintermediation that the Internet brought about has benefitted consumers and businesses typically at the expense of small local businesses. The cooperative allows hundreds or thousands of these small businesses to join together in an economically affordable way to produce entertaining media that serves as a regional or national outreach program. This online media attracts an audience around the topic/mission and, when it and the overall online media platform is produced properly, creates a concerned and engaged "viewer" who is significantly more likely to conduct business with the local cooperative member.
