COMP3410 / COMP6341 - I.T. for eCommerce
eTrading
Topic Outline

Roger Clarke **

Version of 18 July 2007

© Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd, 2000-2007

This document is at http://www.anu.edu.au/people/Roger.Clarke/EC/ETIntro.html

Introduction

This is the home-page for the eTrading topic within the unit COMP3410/6341 - I.T. for eCommerce.

This four-hour segment deals with various models underlying the trading of goods and services, and the kinds of technologies required to support them.

Contents

• Overview
• Lecture Outlines - Lecture 1, Lecture 2, Lecture 3, Lecture 4
• Additional, More Advanced Reading
• Tutorial Discussion Topics

Segment Overview

The fundamental concept is 'market'. The elements of marketplaces and marketspaces are explained, and an outline is provided of the processes whereby trading occurs. Many different kinds of market exist, and more are being dreamt up. Which form is appropriate depends on a number of factors:

• the category of tradable goods and services. Productised items are quite distinct from custom-built items, and different families of technologies and services are needed to support trading in them
• the category of trading partners and their relationships. The distinctions will be drawn between B2B, B2G, B2C and C2C segments, and consideration given to the various ways in which participants in a marketspace can be connected with one another
• the commercial basis under which the trading is conducted, including sale for cash, barter, subscriptions, sponsorship, indirect recompense and deferred recompense
• the extent to which the purchaser invests effort into the selection process. This distinguishes deliberative purchasing (formal processes that organisations, and occasionally individuals, engage in when they are making a decision with significant economic consequences) from spontaneous purchasing

With the maturation of electronic trading, it appears likely that a larger proportion of contracts may be effected by means of auctions. This term refers to a number of somewhat different, formalised processes whereby prices are set for the exchange of goods or services.

Several technology issues are introduced. The parallel explosions in mobile devices and wireless connectivity are creating new challenges. Payment mechanisms are seriously inadequate. The security of transactions, especially the payment aspects of transactions, are badly undermined by malware.

There's a widespread presumption that, in cyberspace moreso than in meatspace, you need to know who you're doing business with. To test the prevailing presumptions about identities in marketspaces, it's necessary to study the concepts of identification, of anonymity and pseudonymity, and of authentication, together with the technologies that threaten and support the privacy of individuals.

Finally, an increasing amount of exchange is taking place between individuals, in what can be called 'consumer-to-consumer' eTrading. Sometimes money changes hands, but some of these markets involve 'sharing', which is a form of barter. Peer-to-peer (P2P) technologies have quickly become mainstream. This segment identifies the serious challenges that currently exist, particularly in the context of digital versions of copyright objects.

Lecture Outline

The slides are provided in Mac PowerPoint 98 (readable by any recent PowerPoint version), and PDF. The content in the slides is examinable material. So is the content of the Required Readings listed in each Lecture Outline.

Lecture 1: Conceptual Foundations

Wed 18 July, 2-3 pm, Chem T1 - (Slides in PowerPoint), (Slides in PDF)

Sub-Topics and Required Readings:

1. eTrading, Markets, Marketspaces:
   • Underlying Definitions
   • Commercial Approaches to Trading (section 3.1)
   • Markets (section 3.1)
2. Tradable Items
   • Categories of Tradable Items
   • Products, Commodities, Customisation and Custom-Built (just the section on those four categories)
3. Trading Partner Relationships
   • Categories of Trading Partners
4. Trading Partner Topologies
   • Alternative Topologies for Supra-Organisational Systems
5. Processes
   • Deliberative Procurement
     • Definitions of the Phases of the Deliberative Procurement Approach
   • Spontaneous Purchasing
     • Definition of Spontaneous Purchasing
     • Spam (Background only)
     • Cookies (Background and Applications only)
     • Principles and Practice of Effective Direct Marketing (sections 6.1 and 6.2 only)
6. Auctions

Lecture 2: Some Key Technology Issues

Thu 19 July, 10-11 am, DEMS T (old Geology T) - (Slides in PowerPoint), (Slides in PDF)

Sub-Topics and Required Readings:

• Mobile Commerce ( Internet and Cellular)
• Payment Schemes
  • Modes of Payment (section 3.2)
  • Getting Paid on the Internet (by Credit Card)
• Malware
  • The Wikipedia Entries (only the generic information is examinable. Fine details, and the names and specific characteristics of particular threats and instantiations are too detailed to remember, and are rapidly changing
  • The Feasibility of Consumer Device Security. Read all of it. Only s.4 is examinable (and ss. 4.2 and 4.4 are especially important), but those sections won't make sense unless you read it all

Lecture 3: Identity in Marketspaces

Wed 25 July, 1-2 pm, Chem T1 - (Slides in PowerPoint), (Slides in PDF)

Sub-Topics and Required Readings:

1. (Id)entification
2. Authentication
   • Identification and Authentication (sections 3.1 and 3.2 only)
3. Identity Management
4. Biometrics
   • Biometrics (sections on Biometrics, How It Works, Uses, and Effectiveness, Accuracy and Benefits)
5. Nymity
   • Anonymity and Pseudonymity (sections 3.3 and 3.4 only)
   • Id, Anonymity and Pseudonymity on the Internet (section 7 only)
   • 'Corporate Case in Ohio Raises Questions on Internet Anonymity' (NYT, 17 October 2000)
6. PITs and PETs
   • Introducing PITs and PETs: Technologies Affecting Privacy
7. Dig Sigs and PKI
   • The Applicability of Conventional PKI (section 5.4 only)

Lecture 4: eTrading in Digital Objects, incl. P2P

Wed 25 July, 2-3 pm, Chem T1 - (Slides in PowerPoint), (Slides in PDF)

Sub-Topics and Required Readings:

1. Copyright
   • I.P. and Copyright (sections 2.1 and 2.2)
2. Copyright Objects
   • Copyright Objects (sections 2.3 and 2.4)
3. Technological Protections / DRM
   • Passive and Active Protections (sections (3) and (4))
4. eSharing Digital Objects using P2P
   • File Discovery and Sharing Technologies: MP3, Napster and Friends ...
   • Peer-to-Peer (P2P) - An Overview
   • Wikipedia on P2P, including the catalogue of networks, protocols and applications
5. eTrading Digital Objects using P2P

Additional, More Advanced Reading

* Direct Electronic Marketing

• Spam
• Cookies
• Direct Marketing and Privacy

* Auctions

• A Longstanding, Low-Tech Electronic Auction (skim it)
• A Modern Electronic Auction (C2C)
• A Modern Electronic Auction (B2B)
• The Views of Technology Provider Ariba on B2B eTrading in Australia (3 October 2000)
• Problems with B2B (The Economist, 21 October 2000)
• Auction, from Wikipedia
• Online auction business model, from Wikipedia

* Online Gambling

• The Technical Feasibility of Regulating Gambling on the Internet, esp. sections 2.1, 3, 5 and 6
• On-Line Gambling: Authentication and Identification Technologies and Issues (references and PowerPoint slides)

* Electronic Services Delivery

• Electronic Services Delivery: From Brochure-Ware to Entry Points

* Payments

• Net-Based Payment Schemes
• Overview of SET

* Identification, Anonymity and Pseudonymity

• Human Identification
• The Digital Persona

* PETs

• Anonymity and Pseudonymity Services
• Tools

* Privacy-Sensitive Public Key Infrastructure

• Conventional PKI (whole of section 5)
• Privacy Requirements of PKI
• Pretty Good Privacy (PGP)
• Simple Public Key Infrastructure (SPKI)
• Simple Distributed Security Infrastructure (SDSI)

* Electronic Publishing / Trading in Copyright Objects

• Electronic Publishing As a Form of Electronic Commerce
• A Workshop in Electronic Publishing
• Copyright
• Electronic Trading in Copyright Objects and Its Implications for Universities

* P2P

• P2P Technology's Strategic and Policy Implications (abstract and slide-set)

Discussion Topics for Tutorial

1. Is each of the following a market, a marketplace and/or a marketspace, and who are the buyers, the sellers and the marketspace operator?
   • your local corner shop;
   • a suburban parking area that, each Saturday morning, is full of people trying to sell their cars privately;
   • an on-line share broker;
   • Open Day at the A.N.U.;
   • Careers Day at the A.N.U.;
   • Computer Swap Meets.
2. Distinguish commodities from standard products.
3. What category of tradable item is the degree that you're enrolled in?
4. Identify tradable items that companies commonly buy using the 'spontaneous purchasing' technique, and that people commonly acquire using 'deliberative purchasing' approaches. Do companies ever purchase spontaneously?
5. Why are auctions more commonly used for commodities than for custom-built and customised goods and services?
6. Describe three ways in which you are taking a risk when you buy or sell using a mobile device.
7. Give examples of marketspaces in which participants are very likely to be concerned about protection of their identity and their personal data. What are currently the most practical ways for people to protect their id? And which privacy-enhancing technologies look like being the most effective in the future?
8. Identify strengths and weaknesses in the University Coop Bookshop's Online Service, at http://www.coop-bookshop.com.au/bookshop. How good a grasp does the organisation appear to have of:
   • cyberspace behaviour and net ethos?
   • the characteristics and needs of University students?

Author Affiliations

Roger Clarke is Principal of Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd, Canberra. He is also a Visiting Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the Australian National University, in the E-Commerce Programme at the University of Hong Kong, and in the Cyberspace Law & Policy Centre at the University of N.S.W.

Personalia

Photographs

Access Statistics

These community service pages are a joint offering of the Australian National University (which provides the infrastructure), and Roger Clarke (who provides the content).

Created: 19 March 2000 - Last Amended: 18 July 2007 by Roger Clarke - Site Last Verified: 15 February 2005
This document is at www.anu.edu.au/people/Roger.Clarke/EC/ETIntro.html
Mail to Webmaster   -    © Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd, 1995-2006   -    Privacy Policy