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Electronic Commerce
An Introduction to the Technologies


Prof. David Bernstein
James Madison University

The Graduate Reading Forum
James Madison University

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Overview
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  • The Technological Foundations
  • Reaching Critical Mass
  • Core Electronic Commerce Technologies
  • Initial Research/Engineering Questions
  • Future Research Areas
  • Conclusions
The Technological Foundations
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  • Physical Layer
    • Hierarchical Networks
    • Packet Switching
  • The Network Layer (Routers, Gateways, and Hosts)
    • Internet Protocol (IP)
    • Domain Name System (DNS)
The Technological Foundations (cont.)
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  • The Transport Layer (Host to Host)
    • User Datagram Protocol (UDP)
    • Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)
  • Application Layer: What users care about
Reaching Critical Mass
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  • Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), the Hypertext markup Language (HTML), the Common Gateway Interface (CGI), and Uniform Resource Locators (URLs)
  • Mosaic
E-Commerce Technologies: HTTP
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  • A simple stateless protocol for accessing hypermedia documents:
    1. Client opens a connection
    2. Client sends a request and waits for a response
    3. Server processes the request
    4. Server sends a response
    5. Server closes the connection
  • Common Requests: GET, HEAD, and POST
E-Commerce Technologies: HTML
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  • Yet another mark-up language (i.e., specify function not form)
  • Includes ways to solicit user input
  • Includes ways to link documents/pages in a nonlinear way
  • Allows for multimedia documents
E-Commerce Technologies: CGI
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  • Allows an HTTP server to temporarily pass control to another program/process
  • Includes several methods of passing parameters
  • Includes a standard method of encoding non-alphanumeric characters
Initial Questions: Page Generation
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  • The Issue:
    Static
    Pages are written in HTML
    Quasi-Static
    Use a database and generate HTML pages off-line
    Dynamic
    Use a database and generate HTML pages on the fly (using the CGI)
  • Interesting Technologies:
    • Extensible Markup Language (XML)
    • Active Server Pages (ASP)
Initial Questions: Page Formatting
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  • The Issue:
    Fixed
    Pages can only be formatted one way
    Flexible
    Pages can be formatted on the fly in a variety of different ways
  • Interesting Technologies:
    • Extensible Style Sheets (XSL)
    • Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)
Initial Questions: Dynamic Content
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  • The Issue:
    Dynamic Pages
    Real-time, page-oriented content
    Streaming Media
    Real-time but not page-oriented
  • Interesting Technologies:
    • Client-Pull and Server-Push
    • Real Audio/Video and Shockwave
Initial Questions: Clients and Servers
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  • The Issue:
    Server-Side Processing
    It's expensive to perform many tasks on the server
    Client-Side Processing
    HTML itself doesn't provide any means for client-side procesing
  • Interesting Technologies:
    • ECMAScript
    • Java Applets and Servlets
Initial Questions: Saving State
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  • The Issue:
    HTTP is Stateless
    Nothing about HTTP transactions is "remembered"
    E-Commerce Requires State Information
    It's "expensive" to save state information on the server
  • An Interesting Technology:
    • Cookies
Research: Microtransactions
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  • The Issue:
    • Many transactions are very small
    • Processing costs can exceed the value of the transaction
  • An Example (from my research):
    • Real-time traffic information
Research: Multi-Site Protocols
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  • The Issue:
    • Some activities involve more than one site
    • Transferring state information is very difficult
  • An Example (from my research):
    • Inter-related reservations at multiple hotels/restaurants
Research: "Intelligent" Agents
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  • The Issue:
    • Some transactions are very tedious
    • A rule-based system could handle them for you
  • Examples (from my research):
    • Comparison shopping for gasoline
    • Taxi/livery bidding systems
Research: Domain-Specific Protocols
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  • The Issue:
    • Many application domains have specific needs
    • Formal standards are unlikely to be developed
  • Examples (from my research):
    • XML DTD for hotel reservations
    • XML DTD for restaurant menus
Research: Coupons, Invoices, etc...
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  • The Issue:
    • Some transactions do not involve traditional delivery mechanisms
    • Some transactions involve unusual/delayed payment
  • Examples (from my research):
    • eVoucher for a pre-paid meal
    • eInvoice for negotiated gasoline price
    • eCoupon from a travel guide for a hotel
    • Electronic equivalent of "Green Stamps"
Research: Coupons, Invoices, etc... (cont)
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Research: Coupons, Invoices, etc... (cont)
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Research: Electronic Delivery
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  • The Issue:
    • Some "products" lend themselves to electronic delivery
    • How can/should these products be delivered, confirmed, etc...
  • Examples (from my research):
    • eTickets for airlines
    • Electronic hotel room key
Research: Versatile Streaming Protocols
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  • The Issue:
    • Audio and video are not the only kinds of information that require streaming
    • Existing protocols are medium-specific
  • Examples (from my research):
    • Local street network information
    • Real-time traffic information
Conclusions
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  • E-Commerce is not just hype from a technological standpoint
  • A variety of intersting technologies have been developed
  • Much more remains to be done
There's Always More to Learn
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