I think there is room for the cooperative movement. When people take matters into their own hands, they manage to do some pretty great things.
The Notre-Dame-de-Montauban example shows that La Coop fédérée's board of directors has been willing to sacrifice a portion of its revenue for many years in order to help the communities that take control of their destiny in the sectors it is involved in. It will not create a concept. La Coop fédérée would have never created a concept like the one in Notre-Dame-de-Montauban. If community members agree to form a cooperative and take charge of the situation, we support them and take risks. That is not a business decision. In a business decision, La Coop fédérée would have never created a concept similar to the one in Notre-Dame-de-Montauban. However, as we are part of a cooperative, we agree to take a bit more of a risk for the benefit of those who come together in a cooperative.
Regarding the Internet, in order to have a network of cooperatives affiliated to La Coop fédérée—as in the Notre-Dame-de-Montauban example—it is important to have permanent and effective communications. I say “permanent” because communications are often not permanent; they are often temporary and fluctuating in the regions. The data absolutely must be centralized so that a large business can work with our network. That requires easy access to Internet communications that are always reliable and fast, so that everyone can constantly be online in order to lower the administrative costs to a minimum. Communications, around the world, help reduce companies' administrative costs. That entails a minimum critical mass. It is possible to create a federation with small cooperatives like it's been done in Notre-Dame-de-Montauban, but means of communication are required.