Below are your tasks, with an estimate of the time required for each. Please finish everything by Class 9. Articles are in the Course Reader unless otherwise noted.

    The first three items complete the module on Discussion Groups and Virtual Communities.

1) [1/2 hr] Read A. Geoffrion, "A Mini-Review of Net Gain," 9/98, on-line version linked to the course home page.

2) [1/2 hr] Read A. Geoffrion, "My Ideal Virtual Professional Community: A Personal Checklist," 9/98, on-line version linked to the course home page. It is important to keep in mind that these notes focus on a particular kind of virtual community, namely one that caters to professionals sharing a common interest. Virtual communities that cater to a certain kind of consumer would strive toward a different ideal. I have written three specializations of these notes, for example to a virtual community of logistics practitioners, but am not asking you to read these.

3) [1 hr] HOMEWORK 8: Participation in Discussion Groups and Virtual Communities [5 hrs --1 hr week 5, 1 week 6, 1 week 7, 1 week 8, 1 week 9 (due)]
Complete this homework, which is detailed in a Class 4 handout.

Please prepare for a Class 9 discussion on this module. Sample questions:

• What approaches did you find most useful for finding pertinent e-mail lists, Usenet news groups, and Web-based discussion groups?
• What was your favorite list or group discovery, and why?
• Is there a specific, particularly useful or interesting post by someone else that you would like to share with the class?
• Do you have any strong reactions to share on any of the readings given for this module?
• What are your beliefs about how best to use on-line communities for e-commerce during the next few years?

4) [1/2 hr] Read K Chap. 13, "The Future of Electronic Commerce." This is a fairly good chapter on a difficult topic (difficult because the Web is changing so fast).

5) [1/2 hr] Read M. Moroz’s "Internet Standards: IETF and W3C". Class 8 handout not in course reader, and also linked to the course home page. These organizations have a big influence on the future of the Internet and Web. The time allotted is generous, to enable you to visit the IETF and W3C Web sites.

6) [1/2 hr] Read E. Dyson, "Intellectual Property on the Net," Educators' Tech Exchange, Spring/Summer 1995, 12-13. A much longer version of this paper is on-line at http://www.eff.org/pub/Publications/Esther_Dyson/ip_on_the_net.article. Esther Dyson is chairman of EDventure Holdings, which focuses on emerging information technology worldwide. Visit www.edventure.com/bios/esther.html to learn more about this highly regarded observer of the contemporary IT scene. Please ponder these questions, which we will discuss in class: What kinds of intellectual property (IP) is she talking about? What business functions are associated with selling such IP and how has the Net affected them? What strategies seem plausible for commercially-inclined creators of IP?

7) [1/4 hr] Skim L.M. Fisher, "The Wired Enterprise: Here Come the Intranets," on-line at the Booz, Allen & Hamilton website, www.strategy-business.com/technology/97109/ (first quarter 1997). We haven’t had time to deal with intranets in this class because they seldom support e-commerce directly, but they are very widely deployed and you should know something about them. This article is a nice introduction. The last four (unassigned) chapters of the Kalakota-Whinston text contain more material on intranets for those who are interested.

8) [1/2 hr] Read T.W. Malone and J.F. Rockart, "Computers, Networks and the Corporation," Scientific American, 265:3 (September 1991), 128-136. This paper offers useful insights for thinking about new technologies, including those contributing to the foundations of e-commerce. What is most interesting from our viewpoint is the third stage of adoption, at which new social and economic structures emerge that intensively use the new technology. Most of the other articles in this special issue are still of interest.

9) [1 hr] Read A.A. Penzias, "The Next Fifty Years: Some Likely Impacts of Solid-State Technology," Bell Labs Technical Journal, 2:4 (Autumn 1997), 155-168, on-line (HTML and PDF) at http://www.lucent.com/ideas2/perspectives/bltj/autumn_97/autumn_97.html. This is a provocative view of the future by a Nobel Laureate physicist who is Vice President and Chief Scientist of Bell Labs. Please ponder and be prepared to explain in class the implications for e-commerce of each of his predictions.

10) [2 hr] Work on your Term Project and class presentation. Please reread the Term Project section of the syllabus in its entirety. In part, it says: Reports should be placed on the Web as far in advance as possible -- even if only partial or preliminary -- so that other class members can become familiar with the project prior to the official class presentation. This will increase the value of presentations to the class and permit more informed discussion. A substantial part of the report should be up by Class 9, and the final report no later than Class 11.