Social Nation: How to Harness the Power of Social Media to Attract Customers, Motivate Employees, and Grow Your Business

Chapter 1. SOCIAL MEDIA CREATES REAL VALUE

	"...dependence is the paradigm of you—you take care of me; you come through for me; you didn't come through; I blame you for theresults. Independence is the paradigm of I—Ican do it; I am responsible; I am self-reliant; Ican choose. Interdependence is the paradigmof we—we can do it; we can cooperate; wecan combine our talents and abilities andcreate something greater together."
	--Stephen Covey

In May 2010, GlaxoSmithKline opened to the public the designs behind chemical compounds that have been experimented with as a drug for treating malaria. Traditionally guarded with information and formulas, this company and the pharmaceutical industry in general has officially made the move toward a community-based model. Essentially, Glaxo is relying on a community of interested parties to find the cures that they haven't yet found.

Ultimately, by making this change, they are saying their approach to research and product development will be more successful, more powerful, and probably less expensive, by relying on a community of people who don't work for them. Their belief—by opening their doors to others, better things can happen. This open-source drug development approach, as radical as it may seem today in such a traditional and closed industry, illustrates Glaxo's trust in the power of the power of a community of interested parties, to achieve the innovative results it seeks.

For them, it's a new and social way of doing research, inventing drugs, ...