E-commerce?

But first, another buzzword, and one that is very much the current flavour: ``electronic commerce'' or e-commerce. So what is it?

E-commerce is not a separate, distinct, service available through the Internet--rather it is just a general name for any kind of transaction, where money changes hands, that is carried out using the Internet. Most commonly, it refers to a service of some sort that is accessed via your Web browser, but it can equally apply to something involving e-mail, or any of the other more specialised Internet services that will be discussed below.

The current hype and excitement about e-commerce reflects the fact that many businesses believe that this is the way of the future. In particular, they feel that many goods and services that are currently traded by ``conventional'' means--shops, wholesalers, agents, brokers etc.--could be traded equally well, or perhaps even better, by using the Internet. Of course, this becomes a genuinely feasible alternative only when a sufficient number of people and businesses are in a position to access the Internet. But it seems likely that this sort of break-through level of access may already have been reached in some countries (especially the USA) and will certainly arrive very soon in many others--such as Ireland. As a result, many organisations are struggling to anticipate what the impact will be on their own ways of doing business; and are at least experimenting with some form of online business or e-commerce.

It is already possible to engage in many commercial activities using the Internet. Here's a small sample:

• Booking airline tickets.

• Making hotel reservations.

• Managing your bank accounts.

• Buying Books.

• Tracking courier deliveries.

... and this is just the tip of the iceberg. If you want to investigate the possibilities of e-commerce in more detail, a good starting point would be this index site:

http://www.yahoo.ie/Business_and_Economy/Electronic_Commerce/

Of course, a common factor in almost everything that can be described as e-commerce is the need to be able to exchange money--to buy and sell in an online environment. At the moment this is generally done by using credit cards. You may be concerned about passing on your credit card details over the Internet, in case they may be intercepted or otherwise abused. Some caution is certainly appropriate. Reputable e-commerce sites will operate a so-called ``secure'' server which encrypts or disguises any sensitive information as it is transmitted--thus making them a good deal less vulnerable to eavesdropping that say, conventional phone or FAX communications. But that, in itself, does not guarantee that the business you are dealing with is trustworthy. So, as a general rule, if you are going to use the Internet for electronic transactions of any sort, you should exercise the same care that would be appropriate to any other kind of business dealing. You should ensure, as far as possible, that you are dealing with established, reputable organisations. Ideally, look for recommendations from people you know and trust.

While credit cards are commonly used to support e-commerce today, this is a rather clumsy and awkward system--especially for small value and one-off transactions. Furthermore, in using a credit card, you automatically surrender some degree of privacy (compared to using cash). The solution to this will be some sort of ``electronic'' cash. This technology is still only at the development stage, but the pent-up demand for it is now so great that we can expect a de facto standard to emerge and be widely deployed in the foreseeable future. This will dramatically expand the opportunities for high quality, profitable, commerce on the Web. This will not displace the existing, free Internet services, but it will greatly enhance the range and quality of services which can be accessed. So we can look forward to the emergence of new, and perhaps unimagined, services via the Internet for quite some time to come!

But now, let's return to looking at more of the variety of existing Internet services--both old and new.