The cooperative launched bHive Villages on Tuesday in one of the Flora Hill streets they hope will be the first to embrace the platform for everything from sharing tools to checking in on sick neighbours and organising fun activities to bring people together.

It marks the end of a six year labour of love to create an app that would be wholly owned by Bendigo residents and bring a sense of belonging that has vanished from too many modern streets, executive officer Ian McBurney said.

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"If we were a for-profit platform we would have got funding to start a long time ago," he said.

"But we really stuck to our principles. One of the things that is really important to us is localism."

Everyone has the chance to become a member owner of bHive, stopping the risk of people's data being harvested, as well as the proliferation of fake bots and unwanted advertising.

The idea is that bHive's users - or "villagers" - set up their own web of contacts up to two kilometres away from their households, or add friends from across Bendigo.

They can also set up community groups of like-minded people. Within these groups villagers can post, message, set up events and plan things together.

bHive currently has 60 villagers including 40 members of the public who have just finished last-minute testing.

Mr McBurney expects a rapid surge in membership now that the site has officially launched.

"We'd love 5000 users by the middle of next year, but before Christmas we'd like somewhere between 500 and 1000," he said.

"If it works well we will open it up around Australia in February."

That would mean communities would be able to establish their own bHive cooperatives.

Mr McBurney hopes bHive will tap in to an unmet need for a social media platform capable of bringing neighbours together.

"We thought that sharing, belonging and connection community was important before COVID," he said.

"But the last six months have really highlighted how important human connection is, especially how important neighbours are.

"We've all met new neighbours because they are just about the only people we've been allowed to talk to. So we think coming out of COVID that this is the kind of platform people can use to connect."

To join bHive, visit www.bhive.coop

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