With more and more people accessing the Internet regularly and then looking to conduct e-business digitally, it becomes increasingly important to understand what bandwidth options suit specific needs. What are the options available to businesses and consumers today? Cable modems, DSL, and satellite data services?

     A Special telecommunications report:
Cable, phone rivals heat up market for swift Net access BY JON HEALEY, Mercury News Staff Writer, March 27, 1999

• WIRELESS INTERNET For several years industry watchers have been forecasting an explosion in wireless internet usage. Wireless technology will extend the Internet to everywhere business is conducted.

• E-commerce companies, while constantly adjusting to operating at lightning speeds to keep pace with Internet technologies, must reconcile themselves to the fact that their customers are living in what amounts to slow motion on the other end of the line

• New Internet devices that have limited features? There is a growing array of devices that perform limited range of computing tasks on the market now, from phones with screens and keyboards that let you surf the Net and use E-mail to network computers with limited functions.

• Oracle is developing a low-cost, Intel-processor based computer that has no hard drive and will be priced at $150 excluding the monitor. The computer, which will be initially targeted at the education market, will use Netscape's Navigator and the Linux operatingsystem, said CEO Larry Ellison. 

• Smart devices and embedded technology, and how it will soon affect the way we do business in the future?

• Mobile commerce will deliver the benefits of electronic commerce directly into the consumer’s hand, via wireless technology. Mobile phone will become a uniquely powerful distribution channel, available anywhere, anytime, in the palm of the consumer’s hand.

     Reference sites:

• GMC: Global Mobile Commerce Forum 

• Mobile Commerce related Web Sites

• m-commerce Logica is a leading supplier of mobile commerce solutions. Our offerings can be broken into two parts: Services (such as consultancy, system integration, and programme management)Products (such as middleware to help electronic cash protocols across wireless data bearers

• Wireless.com A Site for Everything Wireless.

• Wireless Internet and mobile computing 

• Web-surfing cellphones coming to the United States. By John Borland, Staff Writer, CNET News.com August 2, 1999: After many years of hype, mobile phones that allow users to surf the Internet are finally coming to U.S. shores.

• Study: Wireless data poised for growth By Corey Grice. Staff Writer, CNET News.com, May 25, 1999

• Wireless E-Commerce: A New Business Model A new business model is emerging: the integration of wireless networks with data communications -– combined with electronic commerce –- to create wireless e-commerce.

• Europe will lead the wireless world, By Fletcher Research, UK, 03/09/99

• The Internet has become the driver for E-commerce thanks to the invention of the World Wide Web as a principal means of sharing information and of the browser as the universal front end. The average web surfer is used to spending more time on a page simply waiting for it to download, whereas traditional media are readily available for viewing at the instant of presentation. However, with improvements in the level of technology commonly available, web browsing will eventually achieve virtually instantaneous presentation as well.

     Article: 
     Browsers Designed for the 21st Century By Netscape marketing
 

• The auction site eBay introduces a task-specific browser that is optimized for tracking multiple auctions at once. We expect to see more such specialized user interfaces to supplement the generic browsers NS or IE.

• Agents on server, agents on client/3rd party server, integrated system online/offline, integration in mobile computers: pagers, phones, cars, etc 

     Articles:

• Agents that Buy and Sell: Transforming Commerce as we Know It P. Maes, R. Guttman and A. Moukas. Communications of the ACM, March 1999 Issue. Acrobat PDF [156K]

• Intelligent Agents: The Key to Open eCommerce Component Strategies magazine, April, 1999.

• A CEO's Guide to eCommerce Using Object-Oriented Intelligent Agent Technology by Peter Fingar © June, 1998, Peter Fingar.

• Rather than simply sending shoppers to other sites to buy, new technologies will fuse context-sensitive buying opportunities and research into a single user experience. Universal shopping carts will let portals clear transactions for participating merchants so that buyers can take care of all their shopping on one site--and presumably with one simple bill.

Sticky Shopping Sites by Jim O'Brien, Computer Shopper Magazine, July 99

BuyWiz Launches Universal Shopping Cart: BuyWiz Inc. launched the beta version of a free, PC-based universal online shopping cart that offers built-in comparison shopping, price tracking and one-click buying. Internet News, August 23, 1999

• Adding Flair To Web Catalogs By Jon Pepper, Special To Inter@ctive Week. June 21, 1999

• JavaServer PagesTM (JSP) technology provides an easy and powerful way to build web pages with dynamically-generated content. As part of the Java family, the JSP technology enables rapid development of web-based applications that are server- and platform-independent.

• JavaServer pages: Dynamic generation for the web

• Comparison Chart: JavaServer PagesTM vs. Active Server Pages

XML: Extensible Markup Language: a way to solve a whole series of problems. XML is a way to integrate multiple data sources, to communicate with business partners, to build extranets, and to make information available over the Web. XML will make search engines relevant, but they will be XML search engines with lots of agent stuff that basically has to be built in. 

     Articles:

• The Future of Internet Publishing Putting XML in perspective by Norbert H. Mikula, DataChannel, Inc. 

• XML is here to stay --Even though eXtensible Markup Language is in the early adopter stage, widespread industry support indicates XML is the new "it" technology. By Dan Orzech, Datamation.com, July 20, 1999 

• XML for VP by Dan Hanrahan, ClickZ Network

• XML & Java: An Obvious Match By Maneesh Sahu, WebTechniques.com, June 1999

• The Excitement Over XML Jesse Berst, Editorial Director ZDNet AnchorDesk WEDNESDAY, July 30, 1997

• Follow That Truck, With XML Firm gives its clients FedEx-like capability to track shipments. By James C. Luh, Internet world March 15, 1999

 

• Ten technologies that will take over. 8 XML By Rex Baldazo, senior technical editor, Builder.com

• XML tutorial run by IBS Consulting.

• XML-EDI section at EDI Info Center 
• The SGML/XML Web Page Extensible Markup Language (XML) By: Robin Cover
• XML a professional alternative to HTML
• The XML FAQ
• Coding <XML>
• Meta Content Framework Using XML
• XML Java and the future of the Web

• XML News XML News is a weekly email roundup of breaking news, current analysis, and emerging trends regarding. To subscribe, send e-mail to subscribe-xmlnews@aeneid.com

• MICROPAYMENT TECHNOLOGIES More Payment Options – Especially for Purchases < $20  As more businesses sell merchandise online, payment mechanisms for purchases less than $20 are becoming quite important. Credit cards may not present the most efficient manner for such small transactions. 

• ELECTRONIC WALLETS A consortium of leading credit-card companies, technology firms and online merchants today unveiled a new standard for electronic wallets, called Electronic Commerce Modeling Language. 

• Smart cards For one thing, they are (as their name implies) intelligent. Thanks to an embedded computer chip in each card, they can store up to 80 times more data than a stripe card. And because part of the stored information authenticates your unique identity to the merchant, the card is worthless to thieves

• Another Internet wallet service is in the works, one that not only automatically fills in merchant forms, but also offers features like helping to find what you want, organizing receipts and blocking unwanted marketing, all while protecting privacy. 

• CyberGold Micropayment technology. Cybergold is a payment option - it could go into a wallet, just like a bank card.  Like an e-wallet, consumers don't have to re-enter info when making a purchase in the Earn & Spend Community. After a Cybergold password is entered, it's one-click shopping - cartless shopping. 

• The PowerWallet from Qpass enables consumers to complete online purchase forms at any Web site with a single mouse-click.  

Press Release:
PowerWallet™ Awarded "Best of Show" at Internet World Summer '99, July 21, 1999

• Artificial Life, Inc. introduced of a new class of e-commerce software that answers online customer needs. Unlike shopping bots that merely compare prices, Artificial Life's new e-commerce application allow online customers to interface with virtual assistant robots that the customer then sends on missions to help them make smarter purchases.

• Interactive voice recognition is nothing new, but combine IVR systems with e-commerce and you get voice-enabled e-commerce solutions, new technology that uses natural language speech recognition to initiate and execute transactions over the phone.

• Real-time technologies such as instant meetings, chat, shared whiteboards and shared applications help business users communicate online with customers, coworkers, partners, suppliers, and vendors 

• Creation products that can analyze and report customer behavior and other business data. Technology Enables Discrete Relationships.

• The traditional method of online advertising - scattering ads throughout a site - gains no attention for advertisers, muddles up content providers' sites and confuses visually overloaded users.  So, Net-mercial.com went back to the drawing board and developed a unique caching technology that allows us to quickly download transitional advertisements into the empty space while a requested homepage is loading. 

Streaming Audio, Video:  Millions of people daily enjoy live and on-demand audio and video from rich streaming media presentations and Web sites. With the growing availability of fast Internet connections, these new generation of Internet-based services will become even more popular.

• Streaming Media world offers news, tools, tutorials, discussion forums and a showcase devoted to streaming video, audio and multimedia animation. 

• Real Networks The home of streaming media, makes the industry-leading streaming media platform, and also provides infrastructure for much Internet media content via its Real Broadcast Network.

• Broadcast.com The streaming-media portal site. 

 

• New options for handling credit card transactions over the Web are emerging as cheaper and simpler alternatives to the dormant SET standard.

• XML will make search engines relevant, but they will be XML search engines with lots of agent stuff that basically has to be built in. 

• Directory Engine uses new technology called "Concept Induction™" to automatically analyze and categorize millions of documents. Concept Induction incorporates algorithms that model human conceptual understanding of information

• Specialized platform-independent programming languages, such as Java, facilitate making the electronic pages of the Web into a source of active software objects.

• Selling online entails more than creating an attractive Web catalog. Ideally, it also requires coordinating online sales with your existing back-end systems.

• Enterprises are turning to an emerging class of Web collaboration tools for sharing information over extranets, while sparing IT managers much of the administrative workassociated with traditional groupware. 

• Web content management technologies continue to evolve, creating different classes of products that tackle different problems and provide a range of functionality. Web content management products include Web collaboration and document management, Web publishing applications and the new class of enterprise portal and business intelligence tools and solutions. 

• POET’s internet applications enable XML based content management and Business-to-Business information exchange. POET’s focus is to maintain technology leadership in data management and in emerging eBusiness applications.

• LEXIGTON SOFTWARE ASSOCIATED Whether you currently know a lot about or are looking for information on web content management, see what we have to offer. We offer consulting, training and software solutions web content management.

• Virtual Private Networks: VPN, eXtensible Markup Language: XML, Integrated Messaging: G5 Emerging Security: tunneling protocols PPTP & IPsec, The next-generation Internet Protocol  IPv6,  LDAP:  Lightweight Directory Access Protocol, IMAP:  Internet Message Access Protocol, ADSL: Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line technology, ...

• The new Motorola iDEN 1000Plus phone. By the end of 1999, iDEN phones will include a "browser" to access sites using WAP (Wireless Access Protocol). These browsers (very barebones and text only) are specifically designed for wireless access.