1) Working in your groups analyse the organisation of information that the Facebook social networking site potentially uses.

2) Suggest the organisation of information and data and then how it can be utilised in a relational database.

3) Evaluate the strategic value of the proposed organisation of business data to the Facebook social network site.

Assignment brief:
If data were stored in an unorganised manner within a system, how difficult would it be to retrieve them? It would be difficult to use and exploit the data collected for its intended purposes. Therefore in all systems, data resources must be organised and structured in some logical manner so that they can be accessed easily, processed efficiently, retrieved quickly and managed effectively (O'Brien and Marakas, 2010 p 170).

It is important to appreciate the value of database management; this is something that is clearly central to the success of companies such as Facebook social networking. The emergence of social network services such as Facebook have a perspective on the critical elements of management information and the related topics such as knowledge management and decision making. Understanding how data are structured, stored and accessed can help businesses gain greater strategic value from their organisations data resources.

As a group produce a report that examines the following aspects of data management and operations for Facebook:

1. Information organisation - Weighting 30%

• Justify your views on how data may be structured and used. Emphasis here is placed on profile and customer preference data.

2. Facebook operations - Weighting 30%

• On the basis of the preceding discussion (section 1), analyse the Facebook social network service offering to the individual and/or business entities. What is the focus based on how data is collected and used?

3. Improvement and alternative data uses- Weighting 20%

• Based on the preceding discussion, suggest potential improvements or innovations to existing services provided by Facebook social networking and exemplify them.

4. New applications and commercialisation- Weighting 20%

• Critically assess how your suggestions for improvements (section 3) meet the expectations of users and how they can be commercialised.
• Outline the implications for how your suggestions will affect the existing infrastructure for Facebook.