website collaborations content sharing - articles/news/events/media etc examples in industry : aap newswire most media businesses eg tv/radio/press use the content from newswire services such as AAP, Roeuters, PR-newswire these can include different types of media- vision, audio, scripts media businesses also use their own local, interstate and networked reporters and staff to report on topics according to their preferences and focus media businesses are mostly networked these days - eg the commercial television/radio stations have one in every state which allows them to act as separate entities to some extent but also use and provide content to/from their fellow networked stations there are cost benefits to this as well as sharing of resources if you use the example of the recent content sharing agreement of paytv whereby foxtel is buying all the content (eg US movie studio content known for it's outrageous pricecs amongst others) for it's competitors optus and austar, there are benefits on both sides - more buying power due to greater audience numbers for foxtel so they can negotiate a better price, and less expense for optus and austar because they don't need to negotiate themselves and compete against their local competitors and they get the choice of more & better content choices for their customers some different methods of sending content to other sites - depending on the source and destination site automated via RSS/XML feeds email sites could download it/copy paste from a source site database dumps single point of data entry, even on different sites one or more sites could setup the data entry point for content eg event listings promoters could either send their data here or enter it themselves, then it is sent to the other sites in the collective there could be check boxes for the promoter to choose where they want it sent and text boxes for them to suggest other places one site could handle event listings, another interviews for distribution- these don't necessarily have to be on the one site, but could be if people are happy with it advertising sharing there would be more buying power for the person/s who were buying advertising due to greater audience reach they would be able to setup deals for cross platform media, eg maillists,magazines, websites, radio, netradio etc there would have to be some guidelines in place - perhaps following the tv/radio advertising rules (eg u can't show competitors ads back to back on tv/radio - eg ford ad then toyota ad) each site would specify it's audience size and demographics (without giving away all their secrets of course!) each site would still be able to arrange their own local/direct advertising if they wish but if they were part of the advertising sharing option they would have to use some from it as well paid advertising : there would be a number of corporates/related businesses approached - this is the tricky part of course, who to choose? people don't want to be accused of 'selling out' and some people have problems with certain corporates. most sites tend to be using party promoters banner ads - this is cool, but I think often the parties, especially the smaller ones can't afford advertising I think if say it started with (choosing a low number here for example) 8 sites in the collective, 24 advertisers came on board - everyone would have to use at least 2-3 of them. there may be some caveats from the advertisers, but when setting up the deals, it would be better to say there is a pool of sites wanting to show your ads there should be different categories of ads : paid general, sponsorship, community announcements, local/direct ads up to the discretion of the individual site promo/publicity sharing each collaborative site specifies the requirements of it's banner ads or other type of advertising which is freely available for the other sites to access banner swapping between the sites or link swapping-whatever the individual site's policy is the sites may choose to only swap with some of the sites in the collaboration, ie you probably wouldn't swap with your competitors unless you were happy doing that sites involved a wide range of sites would be approached, some examples include: arts music music community- strong message board focus magazines music label mailing list services both specialty sites and general interest sites national and locally focussed sites visual art sites general notes when mentioning sites in the sections here I'm referring to different members of the collective whether they be websites, magazines, street press, zines, radio programs, maillists etc these ideas are designed to share resources and information and give some of the smaller sites the opportunity to concentrate on the part they do best. individual sites could use this sharing system in a small or large way - totally up to them, some may choose to have some shared content, others might want content and ads/promos etc distribution there are also possibilities for distribution for artists wanting to be featured on a site, new music releases announcements, reviews etc etc this could tie in with music distributors and people signing up to p&d deals - these are not much use without a bit of publicity to let people know about it, so this could provide a source of revenue for the collective as well - ie people pay a fee to publicise or be featured on the sites without having to approach them all seperately administration & skills & revenue a new system could be put in place, with members of the collective administering it, or members of the collective could allocate an area of their existing system to use for the collective there are already many talented people working on their own sites with excellent and transferable skills - everyone is basically working towards the same goal of spreading the word of what they are passionate about. some people have sites which create revenue, although I think this would be rare and if they do make money it's probably only enough to cover costs some people are just doing it for a hobby/gain more skills and others are wanting to prepare their future by setting up something which may be able to support them in the future the costs would be shared between the collective just as the benefits would be there are a wide range of skills available to the collective if people were to join up - writers, editors, system admin, web designers, coders, publicists, music artists, advertising sales/buyers, music label people, graphic designers, video editors, visual artists, party promotersas well as general people who are happy to support their friends, biography writers revenue streams exist in a few places, such as the advertising deals, publicity services, helping people make press kits, artwork etc even if the revenue streams are not high, they could outweigh some of the expenses (even if only in time) which are involved in the running of a site which could allow individual sites more time to spend on their own fun or revenue making methods (eg, sometimes people have these great ideas but spend most of the time administering a site or replying to emails that they never get to try find banner ad prospects or advertise anywhere else) of course, not all sites want to make money, but I imagine most would like to at least cover their costs, and perhaps pay contributors or spend any money on further developing their site so one day it might become a more self-sustaining site. and even if people do make some money on their sites, I think there would be only a few if any who were making industry standard wages - most would be working other jobs to pay the bills and doing their sites in any spare time they have. these are the types of sites which could benefit from a sharing system/collective