GSM5170

Management INFORMATION SYSTEM

Matric No. Name

GM 05104 WONG JIAN YUAN

GM 05156 WONG SIEW WEI

CASE STUDY 2

Research Article

When Making a Database of Private and

Company-Strategic Information Available

to the Public Can Be Good

Question 1:• Question 1: What is your first reaction to Glaxo’s

approach to finding a cure for malaria? Is it a

legitimate initiative or simply a smoke-and-mirrors

marketing ploy to get the public to believe that it cares

about so-called neglected diseases in third-world

countries?

Answer:

• Glaxo’s approach is a very intelligent way to collect

information from huge population. By tapping the minds of

many, it creates value to the company and society. And

people are passionate about being in the community, so will

willingly contribute. Although it looks like being “exploited”

by the company, but if it is used in a proper way to benefits

the community in the end, it is a good approach.

• It is legitimate because it was very transparent so people

already would be able to self-govern and be accountable to

one another.

• The only risk that may arise is the intellectual property

rights and which party should have ownership of the

resulting content built. Company can have a contract with

participants which gives IP rights to the company, or in some

contracts, certain users can retain IP rights. So as long as

everybody is doing what is right and have structures for

shared contribution, the risk will be reduced. However, there

could be company exploiting this method to steal people’s

idea without respecting the IP rights. Therefore, challenges

still exist as there were lacking of laws to protect and

distributing ownership of ideas of users. Thus legal risk do

exists.

Question 2:

• What role could a social media tool like Facebook play in

supporting this initiative? What information could Glaxo and

the volunteer researchers share on Facebook to speed up the

process of finding a cure for malaria?

Answer• Social media serve as a tool for business to engage consumers,

fans and followers, encouraging a two-way conversation, that

speed up the information exchange process.

• Facebook has been used widely by everyone around the

world, and consumer have time and desire to be involved on a

much deeper level in Facebook. The collective, thoughtful

engagement in Facebook generates powerful results as it is

where the consumers contribute their input or ideas in

Facebook.

• It connects your customer, and obtaining valuable feedback

from them. Facebook can pass the messages to an abundant

amount of crowd, at anywhere and anytime, without cost.

• Glaxo can share in Facebook, the 13500 compounds

that may be capable of inhibiting the parasite that

causes malaria. Glaxo can showcase previous trial

research and other relevant information about

malaria. Researchers from all over the world can also

use Glaxo’s intellectual property to move through the

tedious and long trial-and-error process in search of

the cure for malaria.

Question 3:

• Search the Web and find at least two sites at which

you can participate in “saving the world” through

some sort of crowdsourcing initiative. What sites did

you find? Who sponsors the sites? What is the “save

the world” focus?

• Crowdsourcing is the practice of harnessing collaboration--

internally or externally--to solve problems, attain innovation,

and efficiency on many different levels across various

industries.

https://www.khanacademy.org/

• Khan Academy is a non-profit organization founded by

educational entrepreneur Salman Khan and has its mission to

provide a world-class education to anyone for free. It is relying

on volunteers to subtitle into the widely spoken languages of

the world Khan Academy's substantial collection of

educational videos on subjects ranging from math to art

history.

http://seeclickfix.com/

• SeeClickFix is a web tool that allows citizens to report non-

emergency neighborhood issues, which are communicated to

local government, as a form of community activism. It has an

associated free mobile phone application.

• The site allows for anonymity of reporting as a way to encourage more people to report issues, hoping for transparency that keeps civic agencies accountable

• Ben Berkowitz, one of the founders, says that what sets SeeClickFix apart from other hyperlocal sites is that it can foster interaction among government, news media and residents. The site aims not only to hold government accountable, but to facilitate community volunteering..

Question 4:

• What role can analytics play in facilitating this type of

research? What “intelligence” would be important to

capture and share with everyone? What sort of

information regarding the 13,500 available

compounds could be displayed in a digital dashboard?

Answer• Analytics is the science of fact-based decision making.

Analytics focuses on the integrated of technology tool and statistical techniques to create real-time, high-quality, fact-based business intelligence in support of decision making.

• Business intelligence is the component of overall field of analytics. The collective information from business intelligence will become the input for analytics to analyse various relationship within the information, and in the end generate accurate findings that help us to make decision.

• In Glaxo’s research, analytics is very important, because the

volunteers will provide information about their past experience,

or knowledge on which compound may be possible to cure

malaria. After gathering all information from all volunteers, we

need to perform information processing. Then, online analytical

processing can be done to manipulating the information to

support decision making.

Answer

Answer

• In this research for example, the intelligence is “what new

drugs can be used to kill the malaria bacteria”, “which

compound is most effective to kill the malaria bacteria”, “what

compound can serve as secondary cure for malaria disease”,

etc.

• Information that can be displayed in digital dashboard include

the CA number for each chemical compound, different type

mixture compound, dosage of compound used, concentration of

chemical used, reaction time, the method, the compound

characteristic/ description, lab result, date of trial, customer

contact, etc.