CoMedia-an international collaboration best practice case

What is CoMedia-Cooperation Multimedia? CoMedia is a multi-disciplinary and international research project between the Rogers Communications Center at Ryerson Polytechnic University, Toronto, Canada and the Fraunhofer- Institute for Industrial Engineering (IAO), Stuttgart, Germany. Its aim is to develop an Internet-based cooperation platform for multimedia companies and to develop a Knowledge-Product for an end user manufacturing company as a business case using the platform. Partnering with the research institutes in Canada and Germany are small multimedia production companies and a large manufacturing organization. CoMedia intends to strengthen the competitiveness of multimedia companies in building up a client oriented cooperation network and testing several collaborative multimedia production services (storage, e-commerce, video shaping rendering). In this case study we also trace the history of the CoMedia project including the starting conditions and how and in which way the partners initiated successful collaborative work packages without being trapped in their previous context. This case study also demonstrates that international cooperation (between both industrial companies and research institutions) can be strengthened on the basis of WIN-WIN oriented cooperation strategies and concepts