- Germany and China have laws that prohibit the use of certain kinds of political speech
and adult images in the conduct of commerce. Each of these countries has recently
taken steps to enforce these laws by prosecuting firms and individuals that violate them
while conducting electronic commerce. Outline the problems that such enforcement
actions can create for firms and their non-German or non-Chinese customers who
engage in electronic commerce.
- Elizabeth Bricker owns a gift and card shop. A year ago she hired a Web designer and
built a Web site hosted by a national Internet Service Provider. Part of the monthly fee
for her merchant site includes the software needed to process credit card purchases,
and she obtained a merchant account with a national credit card processing company.
Now that Elizabeth's Web-based business is beginning to pick up, she wants to provide
more payment options to her customers. Recently, Elizabeth heard about a new type of
Web script of Web currency called Flooz which is being accepted at a growing number of
stores on the Net. Users purchase Flooz script online at Flooz.com much like they would
travelers checks, and use it at selected merchants. Elizabeth has hired you to
investigate this new cyber-cash and make a recommendation. Include a description of
how one purchases Flooz, how one redeems Flooz, the exchange rate, and current
users of the script. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using Flooz instead of
a credit card. She is particularly concerned with whether it is more or less secure than
credit cards, how it is perceived by the public and whether it makes international orders
more or less difficult.
- Your boss, Plynn Mayberry, is the president of a small plastic parts fabricator, and wants
you to look into improving client interactions via EDI. You know a that a number of
companies that provide value-added network services (VAN) for companies engaging in
EDI, such as General Electric Information Services, GPAS, Harbinger Corporation, IBM
Global Services, IMS Network, Kleinschmidt and Sterling Software, have begun offering
internet EDI services too. Some of these VAN operators are targeting smaller
businesses that, in the past, would not have been able to afford to implement EDI.
Choose two VAN providers and examine their web sites. Determine if they are offering
internet EDI services, and, if so, whether they are targeting smaller businesses.
Summarize your findings.
- Both CNET.com and ZDNET are technology-oriented Web portal sites that include
specialty consumer Web auctions devoted to computers and computer-related terms.
Some more general auction sites are haggle Online, Onsale or uBid. Discuss how you
might adapt one of these sites to make it more valuable for schools and other not-for-profit entities as a mechanism for raising money. (Most schools and many other not for
profit operations run auctions to raise money among their portfolio of activities.)
Use the AltaVista Translation web site to translate the following business messages from
English to one of the foreign languages available on that site. Translate each message
back into English. Write a discussion of the problems you perceive an e-commerce site
will have if it depends of service such as these to figure out the content.
- The flight has been delayed for several hours and your shipment of components will not arrive as scheduled.
- We would be happy to bid on your proposal; however, we will need the drawings of subassembly #24 and the supervising mechanical engineer's quality control report by next Thursday.
- Our company offers the latest and greatest hot deals on wheels. We would love to send you a brochure that explains why our brakes, wheels and suspension components will do the job for you effectively and economically.
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