Crowdfunding

Every company has, to a greater or lesser extent, an information subsystem—that is, a means by which it gathers data, interprets it, and makes it available to employees through a distribution system. Whether we are talking about marketing information, cost projections, accounting results, or internal quality reports, every company depends on knowledge to support its planning, decision making, and control. So how does knowledge fit into the picture? The emergence of the field called knowledge management has highlighted some key propositions in the past 10 years or so. All organizations are storehouses of knowledge that operate in information-rich environments made up of people and things both inside and outside the organization itself. Organizations organize, interpret, and evaluate this information to solve organizational problems. Knowledge is the primary mechanism for processing and utilizing information. People’s brains are the key knowledge resource of any organization. Codified knowledge stored in books, audio, videotapes, and computer systems can be an important knowledge resource as well. There are organizational processes and strategies for IT management and management in general. Therefore, processes and strategies in particular can significantly enhance the ability of organizations to use their knowledge resources for problem solving Several of these themes will come up again in later modules in this course. But by way of introduction to the subject, let’s take a look at some views of how knowledge works. Listen to each of the lectures below and then take the quiz. This will be followed by a case where you apply knowledge management. ASSIGNMENT Crowd Funding What does one do to obtain funding for a new invention, movie, or company? Do you go to the bank? Do you go to venture capitalists? Do you go to angel investors? Crowd Funding is an alternative to these traditional sources of funding. Kickstarter.com is one of the largest of the crowdfunding websites. Here a person posts about the project with a description, maybe a video and the funding needed. Backers then pledge money to the project. If the funding goal is not reached then the project is stopped along with any pending obligations of support. This opportunity for aspiring new artists, inventors, etc., to obtain funding is happening on Kickstarter with thousands of dollars being pledged each day. The creator of the projects keeps 100 percent ownership of the project in which investors decide if they want to invest. • Go to Kickstarter.com and provide a description of the Project of the Day including the offerings and number of backers. Discuss the pledges, the amounts of the pledges, and the number of people offering each pledge amount. What does the pledge amount tell you about the motivation of the customers? • Explain why crowdfunding is advantageous to new entrepreneurs. • What information must an entrepreneur provide to get funding? How does Kickstarter manage the collection and transfer of pledges? Would you use this site yourself or recommend it to others?