Below are your tasks, with an estimate of the time required for each. Please finish everything by Class 3. Articles are in the Course Reader unless otherwise noted.
The first three items continue the module on the Information Technology Foundations of E-Commerce. Items 2 and 3 concern search engines, which are workaday tools for every serious Web developer and user. It is important to refine your search skills, not only for your own use as a student and professional, but also to help you understand how customers and others will find your organization’s Web site and its content.1) [1 hr] HOMEWORK 2: Basic HTML and Web Page Publishing [2 hrs -- 1 hr week 2, 1 hr week 3 (due)] Complete this homework, which was detailed in your Week 2 Assignment sheet; see also the instructions you received in Class 2’s Workshop 1.
Optional: "Guide to Web Site Design," PC Magazine, 17:2 (Jan. 20, 1998), on-line at http://www.zdnet.com/pcmagcd/v5d4/build/html/webtipst.htm. Not in Course Reader. These are some tips from a highly respected source.
2) [15 min] Skim D. Lidsky and R. Kwon, "Searching the Net," PC Magazine, 16:21 (Dec. 2, 1997), 227-258, on-line at http://www.zdnet.com/pcmag/features/websearch/ _open.htm. Skim the front matter, the boxes, and the reviews of AltaVista, BigBook, Deja News, Four11, HotBot, MetaCrawler, and Yahoo!. Notice the relative strengths and weaknesses of the various search engines and directories.
Optional: S. Lawrence and C.L. Giles, "Searching the World Wide Web," Science, Vol. 280 (3 April 1998), pp. 98-100. The authors studied the coverage of six search engines, concluding thereby that the indexable number of Web pages in mid-December 1997 was 320 million pages (indexable means not hidden in a database behind a query front end, and not declared off-limits to robots). This is a considerably larger estimate of the size of the Web than has been given by others. Further, the authors estimate that the engine with the greatest coverage, HotBot, still covers only 34% of these pages. Using multiple engines can greatly increase search coverage.
3) [1 hr] HOMEWORK 3 and CLASS NOTES: Search Engines [3 hrs -- 1 hr week 3, 2 hr week 4 (due)] Class 2 handout. Please read and begin the homework.
The next three items begin the module on Security and Encryption.4) [1 hr] Read K Chap. 4, "Security and Electronic Commerce". Please read the whole chapter very carefully. It is a good, clear explanation of the important concepts identification, authentication, non-repudiation, symmetric and asymmetric encryption, digital signature, digital certificate, certificate authority, and spoofing. It also briefly explains some of the most important security approaches -- S-HTTP, SSL, S/MIME, S/WAN, and SET -- in terms of the OSI Reference Model mentioned in the First Week Assignment sheet. In this connection, there may be a shading mistake in Fig. 4-7: SSL really operates at the Transport Layer rather than at the Session Layer.
5) [15 min] Read D. Youd, "What is a Digital Signature," on-line at http://www. youdzone.com/signature.html. These notes reinforce the previous item. The first four exhibits are equivalent to K’s Fig. 4-3. The next four are equivalent to K’s Fig. 4-4. The rest elaborate on the possibility of deceit mentioned near the bottom of K’s p. 75. I have made a few annotations on these notes to improve their clarity.
6) [1 hr] Read K-W Chap. 5, "Firewalls and Transaction Security" (skim 5.1, pages 138-143, and 5.4). Note that this book uses certain terms differently from K: authentication here corresponds to identification in K, and authentication together with integrity here mean the same as authentication in K. This chapter contains some good material not found in K. Secs. 5.1 and 5.4 are to be skimmed because they go deeper into IT than is necessary for this course. Sec. 5.2 is all good material of managerial interest. The first part of Sec. 5.3 is to be skimmed because this material is explained better in K. For a bit more depth, see the following optional reading.
Optional: C. Särs, "Encryption and Strong Authentication for Electronic Commerce," 12/96, Proceedings of Helsinki University of Technology Seminar on Network Security 1996, on-line at http://www.iki.fi/ged/NetSec/. This paper provides some additional technical detail on encryption and security, including: the difference between key recovery and key escrow, the notions of stream ciphers and block ciphers, hybrid ciphers (which PGP is, for example), guidance on choosing key length, and more on how cryptography is applied (including SSL) in the context of the OSI Reference Model.
The next three items continue the Business-to-Consumer Electronic Commerce module.7) [5 min] Read my "An Appreciation of Doing Business on the Internet, by Mary Cronin, VNR, 1994," 9/98. Prof. Mary Cronin is a frequent writer on IT and e-commerce. Although slightly dated by now, this book gives a nice summary of its subject just before the Web tsunami hit. It is still useful for its description of off-Web activity (mainly email, ftp, telnet, and Usenet).
8) [¾ hr] Read Appendix 5 of "The Emerging Digital Economy," U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Washington, D.C., April 1998, on-line at http://www.ecommerce.gov/emerging.htm. A nice discussion of tangible goods retailing, illustrated by some of the famous poster children of this sector.
Optional complementary reading: K-W Chap. 8, "Electronic Commerce and Retailing". The introductory questions are all good ones. Sec. 8.1 provides useful background on the retailing industry, but has only a little Web-specific content at the end. Sec. 8.2 tells the stories of three successful on-line retailers. It would be instructive to use your new search tools to find these retailers on the Web and to read what is being written about them currently. Sec. 8.3 provides good business background for those lacking it, but has little Web-specific content. Sec. 8.4 raises many good questions but provides few answers.
Optional: "On-Line Trading: Special Report," Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition, 8 Sept. 1998, 40 pages when printed, on-line at http://interactive.wsj.com/edition/resources/documents/online98-cover.htm. An in-depth look at this rapidly-developing area and the activities of such companies as Charles Schwab and E*Trade.
9) [5 min] Read M.J. Cronin, "Business Secrets of the Billion-Dollar Website," Fortune, 2 February 1998, on-line at http://pathfinder.com/fortune/digitalwatch/0202tec1.html (not in Course Reader). This item is about Cendant Corp., formerly CUC International, which was discussed in the prior item. Optionally, read the standard welcoming letter that you would receive if you take a 3-month trial membership for a dollar: http://internal.anderson.ucla.edu/course/1998-9/fa298d01/netMarketWelcome.htm.
10) [1 hr] Continue thinking about what kind of a Term Project you wish to do and with whom. Discuss these matters with your classmates, with a view to locking down your team and topic this week. By Class 3 (October 21), kindly send me an email giving your project title, team, and brief project description (one email per team will suffice).