UNDERSTANDING E-COMMERCE : ORGANIZING THEMES

It is useful to think about e-commerce as involving three broad interrelated themes : technology, business and society

TECHNOLOGY : INFRASTRUCTURE

E-commerce is above all else a technologicallydriven phenomenon that relies a host of information technologies as well as fundamental concepts from computer science developed over a 50-year period.

E-commerce relies on all these basic technologies, not just the internet. The internet, while representing a sharp break from prior corporate computing and communications technologies, is nevertheless just the latest development in the evolution of corporate computing and part of the continuing chain of computer based innovations in business.

BUSINESS : BASIC CONCEPTS

While the technology provides the infrastructure, it is the business applications, the potential for extraordinary returns on investment, that create the interest and excitement in e-commerce. New technologies change the strategies or plans existing firms : Old strategies are made obsolete and new ones need to be invented.

SOCIETY : TAMING THE JUGGERNAUT

Since the internet and the web are exceptionally adept at tracking the identity and behavior of individuals online, e-commerce raises difficulties for preserving privacy, the ability of individuals to place limits on the type and amount of information collected about them, and to control the uses of their personal information. The global nature of e-commerce also posses public policy issues of equity, equal access, content regulation, and taxation.