Internet access applications

E-mail is well known as a method of sending and receiving electronic messages. It has been available across the Internet for over 20 years. E-mails are typically written and read in a special mail reader program that in a large company is often part of a groupware package such as Lotus Notes, Microsoft Exchange or Novell Groupwise.

Electronic mail or e-mail

Internet Relay chat

Usenet Groups

File Transfer Protocol

Gophers Archie and Wais

Telnet

Push channel

 How the internet changes business

Fundamentally, e-business and e-commerce are simply about transactions. They use both protocols, such as TCP/IP and HTTP, and Internet applications such as web browsers and e-mail readers to facilitate these transactions. But this begs the question, which transactions occur? What type of business transactions would you say are achieved through the Internet? Well, the obvious ones are sales transactions – perhaps buying a CD online. But did you think about other forms of communications such as a customer enquiry about a product via an e-mail browser, or an e-mail from a company telling a customer about a new product release. Remember that these are e-commerce transactions too.

How do e-business and e-commerce relate to the internet

Which parties are involved in e-commerce

New business channel structures
 

 Security and information management

For all the opportunities that the Internet provides for business and consumers, it can also pose a great risk to information belonging to those businesses and consumers. The Internet provides a gateway to a range of information, but also provides a gateway for malicious programmes developed by malicious people to corrupt and destroy information. A key role of the IT manager or e-commerce manager is to protect their business from these threats. Remember that the business is also custodian for customer data and if customer data such as credit card numbers are lost, then this will reflect badly on the business. Fears over security used to be one of the main barriers to consumer and business adoption to the Internet, but this has declined dramatically over the last 5 years. Nevertheless, demonstrating security is still important to consumer confidence. Witness, the efforts that e-tailers take to reassure customers about security and privacy.

What are the threats to information security for the e-business

Focus on computer viruses

Selecting and securing payment systems

 Trends and developments

Harnessing new technology is a great challenge for managers. Technological innovation is continuous and rapid and has to be assessed by managers if they want to achieve competitive advantage – or even to stand still . You may have heard about Moores Law. In 1965 Gordon Moore suggested that the power of transistors on computer processors would double every two years. This has been maintained, and still holds true today.

The speed of change

Assessing technology innovation

 Managing and controlling the internet

In module 2 in this unit, we briefly looked at how governments promote and control the use of the Internet in their jurisdiction. In this module, we look at how the future of the Internet as a global phenomenon is controlled. The Internet is quite different to all previous communication media, apart perhaps from speech, since it is much less easy for governments to control and shape its development. Think of print, TV, phone and radio and you can see that governments can exercise a fair degree of control on what is acceptable. With the Internet, governments can have a say, but their control is diminished.

 

Who controls the internet

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers

The internet society

The internet engineering task force

The World Wide Web Consortium

Telecommunications Information Networking Architecture Consortium

Companies who try and take control