There is not a single day that goes by without an article about some aspect of electronic commerce in such publications as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Business Week or US News . There is a reason for such extensive coverage by the press. Firms are spending billions of dollars on information technology to create the infrastructure needed to compete in a digital economy. As the process of "getting wired" continues, the need to understand how the new environment is and will affect enterprises and individuals increases. We are rapidly discovering that business traditions that have evolved over hundreds of years no longer work. Every aspect of a business is in the process of being transformed; firms are being forced to adapt or fail.

The Internet, in general, and the World Wide Web, in particular, have had a dramatic impact on how individuals and organizations exchange goods and services. The Internet has given rise to new organizational forms (e.g., virtual organizations) and markets which feature electronic transaction models in new categories of goods and services. These developments have profound implications for society and raise several legal and policy issues that are yet largely unresolved (e.g., copyright, taxation, etc.). The convergence of computing and communications technologies is having a dramatic impact on such organizational processes as new product development, resource acquisition, order fulfillment and customer service.

This course will provide you with an understanding of the tools, skills, business concepts, strategic opportunities, and social issues that surround the emergence of electronic commerce on the Internet. You will develop an understanding of the current practices and opportunities in electronic publishing, electronic shopping, electronic distribution, and electronic collaboration. We will also explore many of the problems surrounding electronic commerce such as security - authentication, privacy - encryption, intellectual property rights, acceptable use policies, and legal liabilities.

I will employ a combination of lectures, classroom demonstrations, self-learning, case studies, computer lab sessions, and project work. Experience with programming languages is not required, although basic computer literacy is expected. A willingness to experiment with and explore this emerging technology via hands on use and development is essential. Because there will be a good deal of hands-on work, without a reduction in other types of course work, you will have to spend much more time on this course than you do on most courses.

A group project that will require a significant time commitment will be a very important aspect of the course. In this project, groups will actually have to implement a rudimentary web site that will incorporate many of the types of activities for which the Net is now used by organizations.

The course will include roughly equal coverage of technical & non-technical issues. The technology discussions will be complemented by actual demonstrations and hands-on lab sessions, when possible. In addition to books, we will use a good deal of material from the Internet.