Home

Syllabus

Class Sessions

Worksheets

LEXs

PoPs & Xtra Credit

Student Progress

Return to Class Session #1

---

 

The fact is that the World Wide Web is less than _____ years old for browser access to the Internet!!

Oh, the humiliation of asking the gas station attendant for a map, when you should be clicking on Mapquest and printing a custom one with not only directions listed but a map (in color) as well. The barbarism of pulling over to a pay phone and looking up the Highway Patrol Road Conditions phone number in the Yellow Pages for weather conditions (if the page wasn't torn out), when you could simply click the Heavenly Valley ski site and follow all the links for information on anything from snow depth to road conditions to open trails.

So, what do you do with the Internet? What products and services do you use or find available? What is being provided to you?(on transparency)

As customers?	As businesses?

Here's what people are doing on the Internet in terms of information searches.

Welcome to E-Business (note I didn't say eCommerce). A good way to start progressing your thinking in this course is to think about what we, individuals, do with the Internet. Also, it would help to begin to think like a business person as well, rather than from the perspective of the user.

Another good way to progress your thinking in this course is to consider what works and what doesn't work, what is trite and what is true about the WWW. List as many answers in each category as you can think of. (on handout)

Now, let's take a few minutes to look at the Internet. We want to learn some basics to build from, see its relationship to business, and see how we get around on it and access information from it.

The Internet

WWW - World Wide Web	GUI Interface for processing client requests. Uses HTTP - hypertext transfer protocol (uses TCP/IP layer - Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol)
Email	For one-to-one exchanges, for e-mail mailing lists and Listserv ( or list servers) subscriptions for one-to-many exchanges, either moderated or un-moderated.
IRC - Internet Relay Chat	Real time (or near) text on screen communications in virtual spaces (designed) called chatrooms. May allow use of microphones and speakers to speak verbally. A variation is video-conferencing
FTP - File Transfer Protocol	Upload and download files and graphics from one computer to another.
Telnet	Connect to and use a remote machine's resources.
Usenet Newsgroups	Bulletin Boards and  (threaded) Discussion posted to a Web Page (uses "forms" or email) Also allows newsfeeds via the groups newsreaders
Streaming audio and video	Instead of loading the large files to your hard drive your computer's memory buffer allows you to load just enough information from the large multimedia file to play the audio or video as it is being recieved. Once played, the info is erased from the buffer
Search Tools	Directories,
	Search Engines,
	and Meta Tools (which search multiple engines and directories at once).
Server Protocols - Note: Web browsers can speak to servers using all these protocols as well as http	FTP - file transfer protocol.
	Gopher - an early system of campus information  protocols.
	NNTP - read and distribute posted Usenet  BB's. (uses TCP/IP layer)
	WAIS - document search & retrieval system.
	Telnet - text based systems.
	SMTP - e-mail messaging. (uses TCP/IP layer)
	http - hypertext markup language click here for info

All the parts of the Internet are now available to use through the WWW. The WWW allows the users to benefit from:

Text	Links	Sound	Video
Email	Graphics	FTP	Telnet

So, what is the relationship of the Internet to businesses? A business benchmark was set in 1998.

"Marketing hoopla aside, 1998 will be remembered as the year E-commerce went mainstream. But Internet selling's apparent success--estimates range from $2 billion to as high as $5 billion for the holiday season--should not come as a surprise. Indeed, the groundwork had been laid all year. And despite some glitches, odds are that growth will keep climbing, with total sales to consumers expected to top $18 billion for all of 1999, according to Forrester Research Inc., up from $7.8 billion this year. By 2003, Forrester says, sales could reach $108 billion, accounting for 6% of consumer retail spending. And those are conservative estimates." Note: Sales for 2001 were approximately $40 billion.

Business Week, 1/11/99, p. 154."E-Commerce: It's Clicking."

Who uses the Internet?

The sites below are some of the many sites that collect information about the people who use the Internet and the Internet itself. Each of these sites takes a slightly different look at the way the Internet is growing. How Fast is the Internet Growing? Who is using it?

	Survey.Net
	Nielsen/NetRatings
	Hobbes' Internet Timeline
	HTTP://www.commerce.net/

Below are some facts and figures about the use of the Internet for commere world wide.

Some of the key strengths of doing business on the Internet are:

• It is a means of two-way communication 
• It delivers a variety of information in a variety  ways
• It is low-cost and globally accessible (it's the world wide web)
  European search engines
  Search Engine Colossus
• It allows shared access to information and databases
• It promotes relationship "Marketing" and collaboration
  Amazon.com
• It is a public relations and a publicity tool
• It is a marketing tool and a procurement tool
• It is not limited by time or geography
  U.S. Post Office
• It gives credibility and an opportunity, or it can expose you for what you are and are not (first impressions are important, you  get few second chances)

"On the Internet, no one knows you're a dog." 

           (thanks to Topsy Smalley, Librarian, Cabrillo

Cat Lover's Click Here

To understand the evolving relationship of business and the Internet we need to realize that our terminology is evolving to reflect the changes. We throw around terms loosely: e-tailing, Web business, e-business, e-commerce, EC, e-marketing, Electronic Commerce Online selling, digital business and so on. There are two we should develop our thinking around.

1. eBusiness - Any company with an online presence (a website) It's a broader view of the activities a business might carry on online other than operating an eCommerce shop. This could include online or e-auctioning, banking, informational directories, file sharing, business collaborations, gambling, education & training, mailing, marketing (e-procurement or buying and selling goods and services via the Internet), operational resource management, distribution, stock trading, and more.
2. eCommerce - Creating a shop online, retail or wholesale. Selling and marketing online via the WWW and the related technologies like security, data encryption, cybercash, electronic database management etc. to do so. Sometimes all the activities to implement the shop's functions are included in the eCommerce concept (logistics, billing, managing supply, warehousing , marketing and other non-online support functions)
3. mCommerce - Mobile commerce is centered around individual participation (the so called cashless society): vending machine with a wireless connection can be accessed via
   • a PDA (beam the payment info or open a web page for paying)
   • a cell phone can add the charge to its billing
   • a WAP-enabled "Smart Card"
     Related "mCommerce" technologies include electronic toll booth collection/smart tags, wand technology for payment (some MacDonalds have a keychain wand payment system

Some terms, jargon and their context that allow us to put together an online business presence include:

• The Internet - A network of networks. Intranets and extranets are subsets of the Internet that can only be viewed by certain groups. The Internet is not just computers. It is a combination of computer networks and communication networks like fax, telephone, pager and satellite telecommunications. It is possible to convert/translate a fax to an email, an email to a cell phone message, text from English to French, programming languages to database languages and so on.
• Intranets - Private networks (servers, Websites, databases) sharing products, software, calendars, front ends to databases, file and software sharing, email, and so on. You're on one now
• Extranets - Partnerships of linked intranets
• Client - A computer operated by an information consumer (you). As a user, you are part of the Internet, but if your computer broke down no one would know or care or be affected. 
• Your Computer - An access point to the Internet but not a "stop" on the "information highway." aka the "client" in a client-server relationship
• Server - A Computer/information provider. It is part of the Internet "highway." aka the "server" in a client-server relationship
• Brick & Mortar Business - A physical business (a building)
• B2B - Business to business
• B2C - Business to customer
• B2G - Business to government
• C2C - Consumer to consumer
• 24/7 - Open 24 hours, seven days a week
• TCP/IP - Protocol for how computers find each other, identify themselves, and converse through electronic transmission.
• Web Page - A single document (file) on the Web
• Web Site - A collection of related Web pages.
• Homepage - The first page  you see when you visit a site; the front door. Sometimes called or preceded by a splash page.
• Spam - Jack Mingo received an e-mailed ad that began:

  "This is not spam. You are receiving this because you are on a list of e-mail addresses I have bought."

Bonus Jargon (extra Credit):
*What is a cookie?
*What is an Easter Egg?

The Client/Server Relationship

	Server Characteristics	Client Characteristics
	hardware and software Lives in a closet not person friendly operated by software acts like a chauffeur, leaning against the limo, waiting acts like a waiter running from table to table serving	hardware and software operated by a person lives in a ... acts like a ...

eCommerce Business Models
Now, for your first class lesson on eCommerce basics we'll start with the basic eCommerce Business Models that get you started doing eBusiness. E-business can start with:

1. An Intranet, a network that is within the organization via a LAN, a local area network that uses the Internet standards and protocols for electronic communications. Those on the company Intranet can see the organization Web sites, but the rest of the world is blocked through firewalls and security devices. The company may still gateway to the Internet for messaging and other purposes but still be basically an Intranet eBusiness.. 
2. B2B, business-to-business done via the Extranet. Two or more Intranets are connected over the Internet and collaborate and share confidential information and accessibility, usually limited to selected information only. Financial projections expect B2B revenues to exceed $3.2 trillion in the U.S. and $6 trillion worldwide in 2004.
3. B2C, business-to-consumer, is what we commonly think of as eCommerce via the Internet. As with B2B, the sharing of confidential information and accessibility is usually limited to selected information only, such as the public Web sites and a database of products, services or information. ($204 million in the U.S. in 2003 - can you verify this figure?)
   http://www.walmart.com/
   http://www.polo.com/

4. C2C, or person to person (P2P) eCommerce is a rapidly growing use of the WWW. This is the auction model. http://www.auction.com/

5. B2G, growth has been slowed by the government's reluctance to embrace the Internet as a buying tool, partly due to Y2K concerns. It is becoming popular for both online bidding processes and purchases of items not large enough to merit a bid. With the U.S. government spending more than $500 billion a year opportunities abound. A related use of the Internet by government is to provide services and allow customer payments (G2C or C2G?): pay taxes, renew licenses, etc.

You should begin now to expand your notion of the B2C concept to include eCommerce, the activities necessary to support and implement eCommerce and the ideas of business included in the broader notion of eBusiness. 

The following example may help you understand that you can use the Internet to do business without being directly connected to the Internet.

With all this said, let's look at our Bus 189 course goals and figure out what you will be preparing yourself to learn and do in our time together.

1. Become a business thinking person. Make a business plan, look at the financials, be customer centered not self-centered, see all the parts necessary to create your business.

• develop realistic goals for your site and a plan that will work 
• identify resources required 
• be able to deliver products on time 

2. Become an information  and Web architect. Don't just think in terms of Web pages and the bells & whistles, cataloging products and so on. These are the trees and you are losing site of the forest. You need to design beautiful forests.

• Clarify the Web sites mission and vision
• Set design requirements
• Determine content and functionality
• Define the Sites organization, navigation, identify and label parts, create landmarks and create for the user.

3. Be able to successfully work with professionals to develop the site and the database management 

4. Speak the language, ask the right questions, know what you're getting into, gain confidence.

5. Know what you can and can't successfully do yourself. 

6. Choose and implement an eCommerce Solution.