Unit 2: Digital Economy - Doing Business on the Web

Doing business on the web:
Sir Tim Berners Lee created the World Wide Web in 1989. In the following 10 years it became a business phenomenon, By 1999 it was said that AOL had 2000 millionaires working for it. This internet portal was valued more highly than General Motors, yet with only a tiny fraction of its sales. An average of nine start-ups a week in the USA, mainly internet based, but all riding on the internet boom, were asking for and getting public investment in their share offerings.
However, following on from some share price falls in early 2000, on Friday 14 April 2000, the bubble burst spectacularly with Wall Street suffering its largest one-day losses in history. The stock market went on to lose around $2 trillion dollars in value in that one week. Large numbers of transactional website, some with massive funding, disappeared in the aftermath of the collapse. This event caused vast numbers of investors to lose large amount of money and shook confidence in the world wide web as a means of doing business. New start-ups barely reached one a week through 2001. There was then as much pessimism about the internet as there was unreasonable optimism before.
However, in the short time since then a more realistic and focused digital economy has emerged. The UK Office for National Statistics, quoting government policy, states:

"E-commerce is likely to have a huge impact on the way we do business. It has the potential to lead to dramatic growth in trade, increase markets, improve efficiency and effectiveness, and transform business processes. In recognition of its significance in the future performance of the economy, the UK Government set itself the target of becoming the best environment in the world to do e-commerce." (Source: "Our Competitive Future: Building the Knowledge-Driven Economy, DTI 1998 White Paper, CM4176")

                                                                                                                                

Growth of the consumer base:
The major factor in driving any business is the availability of customers. In spite of the demise of the dot com bubble, there has been a massive growth in the numbers of potential customers connected to the internet.
By the second quarter of 2004, over 50 per cent of all UK households (12.8 million) were able to access the internet from home, compared to less than 14 per cent at the height of the dot com boom in 1999.
Furthermore, although dial up still dominates, broadband technologies (ADSL and cable modem) have grown hugely since the beginning of 2003 and are catching up with dial up. Other statistics show that "always on" access stood in July 2004 at over a third of the market and is still rising rapidly. Although this in itself does not mean people will use the internet to acquire goods and services, it is a large potential market for organisations that manage to put together the right offer.
                                                                                                                                  

Activity 1 - When is there the need for speed?
Which of these requires fast, high quality internet access and why?

• buying the latest CD of your favourite band?
• Yes - you would need fast, high quality internet access to buy the latest CD online because, if you wanted to listen to it, slow internet access would not allow this.
• listening to internet radio?
• Yes - you would need fast, high quality internet access to listen to internet radio because, without it, you would not be able to listen properly due to the inevitable buffering.
• downloading MP3s?
• Yes - without fast, high quality internet access, a large file would take a long time to download, or may not download properly at all.
• downloading videos?
• Yes - without fast, high quality internet access, a large file would take a long time to download, or may not download properly at all.
• buying a basket of 100 goods from an online grocer?
• No - on an online grocer, you would only be looking at text and, sometimes, pictures - this would not require fast internet access.
• creating a travel itinerary for a round the world trip?
• No - this would more likely be done by typing and perhaps booking things which should not need fast, high quality internet access.
• subscribing to a news service?
• No - unless you wanted to watch videos of news reports online, you would not need fast, high quality internet access.
• looking up information on the driving test?
• No - you do not need fast, high quality internet access to look up what is largely static information.

                                                                                                                                    

The drive for productivity:
A legacy of the dot com boom is that a great deal of discussion about the internet concerns how much money can be made or lost by embracing web technologies.
However, there is another side that is important, not just to the private sector, but to the public serctor as well.
How much money can be saved by employing web technologies?
Howard S. Charney, a Senior Vice President for Cisco Systems, in a keynote speech delivered around the world in 2002 to governments, education and industry, suggested that the internet would be the engine of a new business revolution. This revolution would be based on productivity, or increased worker output per hour. His thesis was that in the first "Information Stage", the world wide web acts as a vast store of information based on billions of websites. It then progresses to the "Interaction Stage", being thehub of e-commerce and e-services. The third phase is the "Collaboration Stage". Organisations will use "new technologies that link people together online such as instant messaging, threaded discussions, video-conferencing, web-based meetings and virtual conferences. And it sets the foundation for such exciting applications as digital collaboration in the design of products and services, e-marketplaces, telemedicine and e-learning". Finally the internet will transform our lives, becoming the hub of everything we do - the "Transformation Stage". (Source: Cisco)
                                                                                                                                      

Activity 2 - Investigate loval government online:

My local county council website can be found here.
The main information it supplies is displayed to the right: →
There is a large quanitity of information supplied on this website, ranging from information on allotments to recycling bins to zebra crossings; there is an A-Z of services on the website, (also displayed on the right).
A benefit for the council of having this information online is that the information they have collected is not wasted as it is easy for the general public to access. This is also a benefit for the consumer as it allows them to view the information that has been provided for them. Overall, having this information online rather than as pamphlets or as information possessed by council officers is better because it allows more people to access it using the internet.
The website offers several opportunities for the consumer to interact with either other members of the public or with the people who run the website:
 
 













The website allows you to:

• apply for:
• benefits
• blue badge
• bus pass
• jobs 
• report:
• flytipping
• missed bin
• pothole
• street light
• pay for:
• council tax
• garage rents
• housing rents
• sundry
• book:
• adult education
• register a birth
• register a death
• theatre show

The purpose of the website is to display important information to the general public who inhabit the county.
                                                                                                                                     

The internet has become firmly established as a major source of information for many people in the developed world. Nevertheless, e-commerce and e-service delivery is still a minor player in world markets when compared to traditional bricks and mortar organisations, but it is becoming more persuasive very rapidly. Technology companies and a number of educational bodies use collaboration technologies, although they have yet to gain a firm foothold in the mainstream market. Message boards and hosted forums are a popular means of providing after-sales support.
A number of companies have experimented with live chat as a means of supporting people in buying goods such as computer hardware, providing help with installation of products, hiring cars, and buying products as diverse as sheet music and bicycles. However, there are significant costs involved in maintaining live chat, not least staffing, especially on sites hoping for 24/7 global reach. As a consequence, a large number of organisations have quietly dropped these services.
                                                                                                                                   

Activity 3 - Find out about live chat:
Many organisations have experimented with live chat as a means of giving improved customer service; e.g. Musicroom.
An ISP (Internet Service Provider) could use live chat to help its customers by allowing them to speak face to face with staff which would enable them to gan help more easily if they are experiencing difficulty with a product or completing a payment online.
One successful instance of the use of a number of these technologies is Channel 4 TV. The Channel 4 website has a community section with over 58,000 registered members. It allows viewers to use message boards to discuss programmes and issues arising from them, as well as chat directly with celebrities, directors and stars of shows.
The advantages of using live chat for a web-based organisation are:

• Live chat allows you to reach anyone anywhere immediately, no matter what time of day it may be for anyone involved - basically, if someone lives far away but has difficulty with a product, they won't have to worry about travelling a long way to seek help because they can essentially reach that help from their own homes.
• The customer can choose who they want to speak to - e.g. a sales representative - and can find them immediately - in a shop, that member of staff would have to be called to a certain place which would take time.

The disadvantages of using live chat for a web-based organisation are:

• There are some human ways of communicating which will not translate on live chat, such as eye contact - if the staff member helping the customers on live chat cannot make eye contact with the customer, they are unable to tell if the customer understands what is being said, or vice versa.

                                                                                                                                   

Activity 4 - Investigate commercial benefits of community websites:
Below is a list of all of the different communication services available through the Channel 4 Community website:

Channel 4 run message boards, live chat and other community offerings as they arguable keep people interesting in their porgrammes, etc which is obviously good for viewing figures as a broadcaster.




Any adverts on these forums are there so that they will generate income and get people looking at other things they could spend money on. Therefore, other companies will pay Channel 4 money for placing ads there.
In terms of models for other content providers, this could prove the point re: capturing and keeping an audience, interactivity re: message boards, live chat and possibly local based interest if it's done at a regional level; (e.g. What's going on in East England? etc).

Task 2.2 - Doing business on the web - Growing the customer base

Nowadays, most of the increases in retail sales are through internet sales. The growth of internet sales has led to the growth of new companies who are collecting information from consumers to spot trend in the market. An example of a company set up to provide analysis of the retail market is Kartel World Panel.
In the supermarket trade there are many major players and it is the competition between them that feeds this part of the economy. In this BBC business article on Tesco market shares, the different shares each leading supermarket in the UK has are displayed:

Unit 1: The Information Age - 1.5 Net Books

In my previous blog posts you have seen that the Information Age has empowered people as consumers, developers and distributors. The e-commerce world is a self-service economy with great choice and variety. It is also a world in which it has become easier to produce creative work to a commercial standard.
Individuals with a computer and an internet connection can publish material on the web as a blog, an e-zine or a website. Music of commercial production quality can be produced at home on a PC or Macintosh with a few hundred pounds worth of software. A radio station might broadcast from a front room inthe Australian bush. It is possible through the internet to distribute material at almost zero cost.
E-books are a manifestation of these trends. They are a means of distributing and selling books with very low overheads. They are also a medium by which individuals with no previous access to book publishing can produce and distribute a quality product over the internet.
Additionally, as the e-book is a digital product, it is possible to embed multimedia features in the book and potentially make it even more engaging to a much wider audience than a paper book.
                                                                                                                                      

E-books:

An e-book is simple an electronic version of a book. There is no one standard definition beyond this. In its simplest form, an e-book is nothing more than an electronic file containing the text of an existing book. In a more complex form, it is a rich multimedia experience based around textual material.
One of the more confusing aspects of e-books is that they are available in such a variety of formats, each with its own purpose, features and particular health benefits.
Some e-books are intended simple to be just like paper books, but available on a computer or possibly a PDA. For this purpose the ideal is to be able to carry a device the size and weight of a paperback, or less, but containing a whole library of books. Other e-books are intended to do a lot more than a paper book can. For example, a complex e-book can show a film clip to accompany a textual description, or play a music file to accompany a piece of music.
                                                                                                                                      

Format	Description	Advantages	Navigation	Platform
Text file	Text only	Very simple to create Very simple to use Searchable	Scroll only	All computers
Word/RTF	A word processed document file, including text, images, colours and links	Familiar package Easy WYSIWYG (What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get) interface	Hyperlink Scroll ToC (Table of Contents)	Windows and Macintosh
Adobe Acrobat	A document file created to look like the original paper, including text, images, colours and links	The most popular e-paper format The look of the printed page is preserved but adds navigation	Hyperlinks Scroll ToC Bookmarks	Virtually all computers, pocket PCs and Palms
HTML/XHTML	Web-based Rich multimedia multipage sites Hand crafted	Easy to create Easy to embed Anyone with a browser can view	Hyperlinks Scroll ToC Bookmarks	Virtually all computers, pocket PCs and Palms, (and phones, cameras etc. if CSS used correctly)
Open e-book (OEB)	Web-based XML based XHTML format	Open standard for e-books Based on well known XHTML so anyone with a modem browser can view	Scroll ToC Chapters	Virtually all computers, pocket PCs and Palms
Compiled HTML (e.g. Instant e-book)	Web-based HTML compiled into stand alone .exe file	Can be distributed as a single file rather than a directory of files Anyone with IE can view	Hyperlinks Scroll ToC Bookmarks	PCs
Microsoft Reader	An encrypted streaming text format based on XML that assembles output to a screen page at a time	Reads like a book Cleartype technology makes text very viewable Text-to-talk technology alows books to be read to you Allows annotations	Library Scroll ToC Bookmarks	Windows Pocket PC
Palm Reader	An encrypted streaming text format based on XML	Reads like a book	Library Scroll ToC Bookmarks	Palm PDAs Pocket PC

                                                                                                                                       

Structure and format of e-books:

Text e-books:
Text document-based e-books are the simplest form of e-book. All that is necessary is to write the text in a text editor, or scan it into text from paper using a text converter. The file format is simple text, and so all the text is inevitably in a linear form in the one document. Although this might seem overly simple, it has been used extensively for computer manuals in the past, prior to Adobe's portable document format (PDF) gaining wide acceptance. A number of e-books are still available in text format. Despite its simplicity, they have the advantage of being very easily searchable, editable and portable to almost any platform.

Word e-books:
Word document books are created using simple word-processing software and usually stored in a single word-processed document file that manages the content and layout in a proprietary format within the file. It is also possible to have hyperlinks within the document, which makes it possible to have some multimedia content.
However, the files tend to be relatively large, especially when images are embedded. As a result, this format can be useful in environments where everyone shares the same Microsoft Office software and where a number of authors might be required to collaborate simple on a project, but it is not generally used as a finishing format.

Adobe PDF e-books:
Adobe's portable document format (PDF) books are stored in a single PDF file. This format has been a "fantastic success story". Virtually all computer and software manuals are now published and distributed in this format. Websites which allow downloading of reports, newsletters and articles will almost certainly use PDF for such documents. It is also a growing medium for fully fledged e-books. The Adobe reader and the specialised e-book reader are available for free download.
To create the files a specialised writer program such as Adobe Acrobat, or one of a range of similar PDF creators, may be required. Having said this, some operating systems and software (e.g. Mac OSX) now allow direct printing of documents straight into PDF. Usually a file is created using Word, HTML or some other document creation package; then it is "printed" to PDF.
PDF has a number of features that make it very useful for the presentation of textual material. A PDF file is designed to store the text and layout in a device-independent manner so that the original full-colour print layout for text and graphics is maintained regardless of the platform being used to view the file.
Usually the file is also much smaller than the equivalent file in a word-processing package. A PDF-based e-book has a table of contents, chapters, word searching, dynamic zooming and hyperlinking are all supported. You can even embed multimedia and security features, including encryption, passwords and digital signatures. Used with Adobe Content Server, it is even possible to lend books for a set time and have them automatically deactivate after this time, thus facilitating a lending library of e-books.
The format's main strength is also a drawback. The fidelity of the PDF e-book to the original book means that it is not as flexible as the HTML solution for all situations. For example, you can change small sections of an HTML-based e-book with ease, taking out a single HTML page and/or replacing it with another.
On the other hand, changing a small part of a PDF e-book requires that the entire file be re-saved. Where a rich and alterable multimedia experience is required, the PDF may therefore not be a perfect solution.

Reader e-books:
Microsoft Reader is another free proprietary product designed to simulate reading a book as closely as possible, and gives the reader access to extra facilities, including full searching, the ability to bookmark pages and make notes, and the facility to have the book read to you. To create a Reader book it is usual to write the original content in word-processing software such as Word, and then use a converter or add-in program to convert it into the required format. The format is a single encrypted file (.lit) containing XML data structuring and the content itself.
Opening Microsoft Reader reveals your personal library. Clicking on any of the books within the library takes you to that book. If there is artwork for the book cover this will be shown for a short time and then the book front page will be shown.
This format has been devised to be the computerised equivalent of reading a book, complete with annotations, highlights and so on. Microsoft is not the only organisation to offer this type of format. Palm, Mobipocket, and others offer very similar solutions. They work very well on PCs, pocket PCs and personal digital assistants (PDAs). In fact it was hoped at one time that it would be a "killer application" for PDAs. Unlike PDF, which is essentially a file format with a small accompanying reader program, these readers are full applications that managed libraries of e-books. This makes them a more heavyweight solution than PDF. They have some advantages, in that at their best they do allow a very good simulation of the total paper-book reading experience, but as with PDF this does also restrict them when you  want an e-book to be more than this.
                                                                                                                                      

Activity 1 - Explore an e-book:

Unleashing the Killer App is an e-book.

What is the purpose of it?
The e-book is a "progressive guide to transforming your company into a place where killer apps are born". Drawing from Larry Downes and Chunka Mui's "experience and research with leading global businesses, the authors: identify the twelve fundamental design principles for building killer apps; illustrate these principles with classic stories from history and examples from a wide range of industries that have successfully developed killer apps; examine the economic consequences of the diminishing transaction costs in cyberspace; and, describe how to integrate digital strategy into an organization's planning process to create new markets, form new customer relationships, and change the product line."
What format is it in?
The e-book is an Open e-book because it can be opened up straight onto the web and doesn't need to be downloaded as a PDF file. What is its structure?
The e-book is laid out in three chapters, each with multiple subsections covering different topics:

What navigation is available?
You can scroll, use the Table of Contents or choose a chapter. What are its strengths and weaknesses?
Strengths:

• The e-book shows, as one user said (in the reviews shown below), "examples of killer apps or ideas that have made lots of $$" - both of these are obviously very attractive to people looking to improve their business and these ideas will help.

Weaknesses:

• Some of the information discussed in the e-book is outdated which could mean that people do not want to read it so much now, instead favouring more modern e-books with up-to-date information.

Does it fulfil its purpose?
Here are some reviews I found here which show that people have mixed - although mainly positive - reactions to it: 

I think that Unleashing the Killer App does fulfil its purpose, despite being outdated, because most of the information discussed in the e-book on successfully transforming your business has not changed.

                                                                                                                                       

Website e-books:
The most important and flexible format of e-book is that created as a website in HTML or XHTML format. In a web-based e-book, all the pages are created as web pages and linked together in such a way as to simulate a book experience, usually with a table of contents or chapter list and sequential page navigation. Since websites allow images, sounds, movies and animations to be included and shifted around quite simply to wherever and whenever you want them, this format is the richest and most flexible multimedia experience. In practise the flexibility of the web format means that there is a rich variety of different e-books available falling within the general category of "web based". There are simple text-based websites with page-to-page navigation. There are web books with a collection of scanned images presented with navigation to simulate moving to the next page.
A specialised version of this can be seen in the British Library's Shakespeare in quatro pages. These allow scholars to view a web facsimile of a number of the pirceless original editions of Shakespeare.
There are also websites with complex multimedia such as The Guinness Book of World Records where the web format allows a richer experience than a paper book could.
As the website is a collection of files, it is more complex to manage and thus some web-based solutions have been created which compile the site into a single .exe file. The disadvantage of this is that it adds another stage to creating the book, and the resulting file might be quite large. As it is an .exe file, it also means that some firewalls will not trust the content when an attempt is made to deliver the file as .exe files are commonly used to hide viruses and Trojan horses programs.

Open e-book format
The open e-book format takes a different web-based approach. It simplifies the structure using XML. It puts the content into a single .html file, a document definition in another (.opf) file, and the presentation styles into related CSS files. This format is most useful for books without multimedia content. As with any website structure it is a very flexible format as it can be viewed over the web or downloaded. The CSS-based approach allows for almost infinite customisation.

                                                                                                                                    

Activity 3 - Find out about Project Gutenberg:

Project Gutenberg offers copyright free books for you to download and use completely free of charge. There are "over 40,000 free e-books", all of them "high quality" and "published by bona fide publishers". No fee or registration is required but visitors of the website are asked to donate a small amount so that the website "can buy and digitize more books".
The website offers various formats of the same e-book - in this case, William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet - such as HTML, EPUB, Kindle, Plucker and Plain Text UTF-8, etc.

                                                                                                                                   

It can be argued that although all the formats discussed have a valuable role to fulfil, overall it is web-based solutions that offer the most flexible solution to a book creation and viewing. To create a web-based e-book you do not need a specialised plug in, conversion or authoring package. You can use a simple text editor, a free web editor or the web-authoring package you probably already have access to. To view the book, your readers do not need any specialised software, just the browser that comes free with virtually all computers, or as a free download from the internet.

Furthermore,  a web-based book can be read either by downloading it to your computer or viewing it on the web. The use of style sheets (CSS) ensures accessibility of the e-book for different audiences on a massive range of platforms.

Additionally, the web-based solution allows e-books to be more than paper books. You can add animations, music, voice, video and more to enhance the reader's experience where appropriate. However, care must be taken as the flexibility can also lead to messy, poorly, designed e-books that lack a coherent sense of identity.

                                                                                                                                      

Activity 4 - Accessibility

 

"Accessibility is an important issue on the web, as can be seen throughout this book. Bruce Ingraham and Emma Bradburn of the University of Teesside have produced "A guide to producing readable, accessible onscreen text" which is of particular interest to e-book authors."