The quick tour: a summary of approaches

RELease 1.0, Jan 24, 1995

Egghead has taken heed of the corporate world's fondness for Lotus Notes, and has used Notes to create an online catalog and ordering system.

Information and services are different from hard goods, though they are often treated similarly. Software can be superdistributed, then metered or simply used. It can be available across the net for use on demand. It can be measured out and paid for in small amounts. First Virtual Holdings takes advantage of the differences and focuses specifically on information.

Services will be easier to run profitably when companies link a payment system to the subscription process common to Internet mailing lists. That's what AT&T Interchange has done as part of its interface design, although it is intended for publications, not other kinds of services. To subscribe to an Interchange information provider's publication, drag its icon to your in-box (you have to subscribe to the information provider first).

2. The scope of operations

The companies launching electronic-commerce initiatives take very different approaches to participating in the value chain. Some ventures choose to do well at narrow functions, such as CyberCash; others plan more expansively and create new platforms, currencies or environments, such as the DigiCash and CommerceNet initiatives.

There are many ways to participate. On the front end, companies can define complete retail interfaces: front-ends for commerce with virtual shopping baskets, aisles and product-test and -comparison tools. Some of the tools created for CD-ROM shopping are likely to be available for online services soon. Or companies can leave the interface design to others and supply some code that enables any interface to incorporate secure transactions (e.g., a "buy it" button and a password-entry dialog that goes with it that sends information to a particular transaction server or service).

Electronic storefronts and malls are sterile places. On the whole, except for cases in which someone knows what he wants and is looking for a good deal in which case a comparison table seems to make more sense than a virtual display), commercial behavior on the Net is a by-product of successful social behavior. These malls and so on need to be a part of social spaces.

On the back-end, companies might run a server, run a service, build a mall or develop an entire environment for commerce. Servers can provide a gateway or switch to existing clearinghouses, banks or transaction systems. They can be standalone transaction systems or issue their own tokens or certificates. Servers can present, validate, authenticate or notarize. They can offer protection schemes for intellectual property such as metering and unique, traceable digital signatures. Metering systems monitor usage, accumulate charges and submit them when they cross a threshold.

Companies can also consult and do facilities management. Helping organizations create a presence on the Internet is a fast-growing business. Many of those entities would like to make money from that presence. The most ambitious initiatives are out to create parallel economic structures with radically different rules. We will revisit this question in a future issue of this newsletter.