E-Commerce
This section starts by explaining what e-commerce is. Then it examines e-commerce from cognitive and social perspectives.
What Is E-Commerce?
E-commerce is the arena in which products are sold directly over the Web. From the human perspective, people who do e-commerce conduct business by using online channels. One immediate outcome of this feature of e-commerce is that the buyer and the seller do not see each other when the transaction is conducted . Furthermore, the seller and buyer exchange neither cash nor credit cards. All the purchase activities are performed electronically , except, of course, the shipping of the merchandise itself (when it cannot be delivered online, unlike many software products).
E-commerce started around 1995, almost in parallel with the exposure of the Internet to the wide population. As soon as the commercial potential of the Internet was recognized, new e-business businesses were established and traditional businesses added the electronic selling channel. The dot-com era (in the 1990s) was a record in this movement (see Chapter 6, International Perspective on Software Engineering ).
Although there are differences between traditional purchase style and online purchasing (in online shops one cannot touch the products one wants to buy), even a surface examination of the features of the Internet reveals its commercial potential. For example, businesses can reach potential customers even if the customers do not live nearby; customers can reach shops that are not located near their homes ; all online shops are open all the time; many online shops enable their customers to read reviews by other customers. It seems to be a win-win situation from both the customer s and the businesses perspectives. The expectations of this selling channel have not yet been fulfilled, however, and many customers still prefer to shop in real shops , to touch what they intend to buy and not to skip the shopping experience. Still, there are businesses for which the online channel is their main business model.
Table 15.1 adds to the preceding discussion by mapping seller-buyer relations according to their synchronisms and asynchronisms with respect to place and time. For example, in traditional shops, both the place and the time are synchronous. In e-commerce, both the place and the time are asynchronous.
| Time | ||
|---|---|---|
| Place | Synchronous | Asynchronous |
| Synchronous | Shop | Lottery |
| Asynchronous | E-commerce | Purchase by the telephone |
| Tasks |
|
As mentioned previously, e-commerce encompasses many other topics: marketing, Web design, psychology, technology, cryptography, and more. E-commerce establishes a new economy with new rules. Here are two illustrative examples:
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In many e-commerce transactions, we process bytes instead of commodities.
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The value of online companies, which sometimes do not have any real estate, may be judged equal to the value of old and well-established firms.
Discussion
Andy Grove is the chairperson of Intel. One of his famous statements is All companies must become Internet companies or die. (see http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,21849,00.html. ) Read this source (or other resources that refer to this vision). Suggest what reasons led Mr. Grove to make such a statement.
Almost any business can perform part of its activities in the online channel. Furthermore, there are services that emerged only as a result of the ability to offer online services and purchases. For example, several newspapers allow their readers to purchase selected articles and to pay only for these articles. This option is viable since the online channel enables this type of transaction and the online payment system can be adjusted for such situations by introducing, for example, concepts like micropayment .
Cognitive Analysis of E-Commerce
This section explores online purchasing by looking at two topics ”metaphors and hypermedia ”and investigating their influence on online buyers . The focus is on the end users.
| Task | In your opinion, what kind of customers does e-commerce especially fit? Address their characteristics, perceptions, and decision-making processes. |
Metaphors in E-Commerce
In Chapter 2, Software Engineering Methods , and in Chapter 11, Abstraction and Other Heuristics of Software Development, we met the concept of metaphor. In all cases, metaphors are presented as a means of communication in software development. The same is true with respect to e-commerce. Metaphors are used in e-commerce environments to foster communication. The use of metaphors in ecommerce is almost transparent. Just think about the shopping cart that appears on many Web sites. Clearly, there are not physical shopping carts on e-commerce sites. The metaphor clarifies to shoppers how they should behave in these environments.
Let us put the discussion about metaphors in wider perspective by examining their contribution to learning processes. Constructivism is a cognitive framework that looks at the mental processes by which knowledge is constructed in learners minds. Cognitive theories that look at mental processes from a constructivist perspective ask questions with respect to the mental basis on which knowledge is constructed. One way to provide learners with a basis for their mental constructions is by presenting metaphors that may help them relate new knowledge to mental structures that already exist in their minds. In other words, metaphors may provide a basis for the mental construction of new knowledge.
The same is true with respect to e-commerce. Since e-commerce is a new concept for all of us, the environments that support this commerce channel should attempt to associate the online shopping experience with customers previous shopping experiences. More specifically , the role of metaphors in e-commerce environments is to help customers shop online and simultaneously associate their current purchasing actions with familiar ones.
| Task | Examine different e-commerce Web sites. List metaphors used to support one s orientation on these Web sites. In what way do these metaphors achieve their aim? |
Hypertext and E-Commerce
Generally speaking, every piece of information can be presented in different ways. One might present a specific piece of information in a linear fashion while another person would use hypermedia. Cognitive theories tell us that our mind is a nonlinear structure [Minsky85]. More specifically, learners (in our case, the customer s) knowledge is organized neither linearly nor in a flat structure. Thus, when we come to present information (to online customers), we should consider the fitness of hypermedia presentation styles, and not automatically adopt a linear fashion.
From a cognitive perspective, a hypermedia presentation of information supports the individuality of learners and the importance of letting them approach information in their own way. Jonssen [Jonssen86] suggests that because each individual s knowledge structure is unique, the sequence in which any piece of information is decoded by learners should be malleable, rather than set (p. 270). Thus, by allowing learners to choose the path in which they learn a certain topic (in our case, exploring an e-commerce environment), we give them first an opportunity to be guided by both their previous knowledge and their current needs and second, the choice of path to navigate, allocate information, read other customers reviews, and perform other e-commerce activities.
The dominance of hypermedia in e-commerce Web sites can be observed easily by looking at the structure of a typical e-commerce Web site. Thus, for example, when one enters a company s Web site, in most cases, one may observe at a glance what the company offers. Then, the deeper the customer enters the Web site s hypermedia levels, the more details are presented about different products (their functionality, price, etc.). These details should lead customers in their purchasing decision-making processes.
| Task | Choose several e-commerce Web sites. Map their hypermedia structure. |
Social Perspective of E-Commerce
It seems that one of the dominant social factors in e-commerce is the online communication among different customers and between the customers and the shops. For example, in the customer-customer relationship there are Web sites that enable customers to present their personal review about different products; the customer-shop communication channel enables e-commerce companies to announce new products and sales in a very simple way. Furthermore, e-communication enables customers to provide online shops with immediate feedback about their products and marketing strategy, information that may immediately influence the business directions that a shop takes.
Naturally, different e-communication tools serve this communication, such as e-mail, listservers, and discussion groups. To illustrate this aspect, Table 15.2 maps, in a way similar to Table 15.1, different communication tools according their synchronization with respect to time and place.
| Time | ||
|---|---|---|
| Place | Synchronous | Asynchronous |
| Synchronous | Face-to-face conversation | Physical bulletin board |
| Asynchronous | Telephone conversation | |
| Task |
|
Discussion
Mobile commerce is the term applied to online financial transactions using a mobile device. This commerce fashion enhances, of course, the developments of mobile communication. ( http://www.mastercardintl.com/newtechnology/mcommerce/whatis/ ). In what ways is mobile commerce connected to e-commerce?
The Timeless Nature of the Internet
Toward the end of the last chapter (Chapter 19, Additional Information on Resources Used in the Book ), which expands our coverage of resources, appears a section on Web sites, something that would not have been present even a few years ago.
The Internet is an enormous mass of information. Some of it is obsolete, such as old conference Web sites. We cannot guarantee that you will go to a particular site and not get an error message error message of some type, because the owner of that site decided to restrict it to members . This is tantamount to an author going to each library that bought a copy of his book and collecting it. That probably just wouldn t happen. Web sites, however, can be withdrawn with just a few keystrokes. This section explores the timeless nature of the World Wide Web (the Internet) and how it affects the human aspects of software engineering.
In gambling rooms in the United States, there are no clocks so the gamblers will not know how long they have stayed or whether it is day or night. On Web sites, there seems to be no time as well. You do not have to wait for hours of operation. Information is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week (24/7).
This 24/7 availability is good for students, who seem to be using references from the Web ever more frequently. Some book authors, with prior experience, are citing it now [Petroski03]. However, one has to be careful with these Internet citations, since the sites may be opinionated, limited to origination by a single person with a computer that can act as a server. In other words, a particular site may contain false information.
If you do a search for this year s conference on some topic, you may uncover previous years sites as well, and perhaps some years may be missing. It all depends if the owner of the site disabled the links to it. This is another way the Internet is timeless. Old conference hotels are still being advertised years after the conference has come and gone.
| Task | Perform a search for your favorite conference Web site. Is the current version near the top of your findings? Why or why not? |
The large number of devices attached to the Web supports this timelessness. A typical engineer seems permanently attached to a cellular phone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), and a laptop computer, at least. All these devices are likely to be wireless, so the Web is everywhere one can obtain a signal.
This timelessness is also supported by businesses like hotels, airports, and coffee shops that offer access to the Internet via wireless hot spots. It is also normal now for schools and information technology (IT) organizations to be similarly equipped. Therefore, accessibility is more of a rule than an exception. Common on our campuses are students checking their electronic mail (e-mail) with an open laptop computer wirelessly while walking between classes, and others who tune out lecturers by searching the Web or doing e-mail during class.
This tendency to tune out has even spread to other organizations: the first few persons entering a room for a long meeting in industry search for an electrical plug for their laptop computers. Speakers or those running a meeting do not even take note of the row of open laptops being used by people who do not even look at the presenter because they are using the Web as well as (maybe) listening.
The work/life balance exemplified by the eXtreme Programming (XP) practice of a 40- hour work week [Beck00] is destroyed by this easy accessibility. First, this practice does not mean work only 40 hours a week, but work a reasonable amount each day and then rest. It certainly does not imply work all the time, even though you can do that now.
Let us take the example of an executive going from New York to Chicago for an afternoon meeting. The executive can check e-mail at the home office, answer telephone messages in the cab to the airport with a cellular telephone, use a hot spot at the airport to do some more work in New York, work offline in the airplane, get some lunch at Chicago Airport while answering more mail wirelessly, answer the rest of the telephone messages in the taxi to the meeting, be on the remote office Internet during the meeting, and answer any further telephone messages in the taxi to the airport. Since the executive recharges the battery of the laptop during the meeting, she can work on the airplane and is then only a taxi ride away from the home wireless network. The entire day, the executive was connected invisibly to work. Similarly, as described in the first section of this chapter, people can be connected to shopping, movies, and other leisure pursuits. There seem to be two sides to anything on the Net.
| Task | At this time, using your and your organization s facilities, how long per day can you be connected to the Internet? How? |
Communication
One payoff of the tech gadgets and the Internet is that communication is more frequent, if not improved, and some things that were once difficult are made easy. As an example, take this book. It is a collaborative effort between an author in Israel and one in the United States. Seemingly constant e-mail with attachments for review added to the mere couple of days of face-to-face communication. There also was almost daily comment by the editor. Certainly, regular mail could have been used, but the slowness of what is often termed snail mail was palpable. We will leave it to the reader to decide if this is a positive case study of communication!
Another positive use of communication: Jim Tomayko was sitting in on a new course. When he had an idea, or saw something on which he wanted to comment, he e-mailed it to the teacher on a wireless PDA. That way, feedback is immediate.
A way that feedback is slower, but still all electronic, are distance education courses. These, and an increasing number of courses on campus, have a Web site. A few semesters ago, one of the authors offered a course in a relatively standard room. So many students came that later ones arriving seemed not to touch the floor. There also was a shortage of books to accompany this shortage of space. Getting a different room solved the space problem; the book problem was resolved by putting a large number of copies on reserve. Both solutions were broadcast via the course Web site a few hours after the first meeting. In this way, the class did not waste time at the next meeting following the instructor to the new room, and many students read the assignment. In the days before Web sites, no-one would know which reserve shelf to use (there are several libraries on campus) until the second meeting of the class.
Another form of communication made possible by the Web was demonstrated to the authors during a program committee meeting for a conference. The chairperson had assigned three reviewers to each submission. Some had not completed their tasks, so the chairperson assigned reviews to be done at the Web site in real time during the conference call, by which call the committee made its decisions. The Chair could see integrated reviews appear on the Web site as they were completed.
A negative side of the modern Internet is the prevalence and growth of spam (junk e-mail) and viruses. Either can bring a company to its knees, the first through simple volume, and the latter in various ways. In an e-mail pile of 100 messages, 10 might be real. Virus messages usually contain an attachment, which, when opened, does its dirty work. The growth of spam and viruses has changed the way we do Internet business. Viruses are quarantined or deleted by security software. Spam is now the subject of spam blockers. This has affected distance education (DE) directly.
DE was invented to serve primarily those who were working but wanted to pursue a degree. Normally, they do so without giving up their job. Some e-mail or other communication is done during working hours, usually by the instructor, who figures general mail will be seen by the class later. For privacy, however, the commercially bought Web engine that makes sites for courses usually sends e-mail without naming those in the course. These broadcast-type messages are picked up and deleted by some spam blocker software, forcing the instructor to change communication methods.
Other modifications to on-campus courses include eliminating special tools and providing collaborative software for teamwork. It is essentially a poor idea to make a DE version of a course with the same characteristics of onsite courses, because the special circumstances of distant learners are ignored. Therefore, lectures are not just streamed or downloaded, but both. The objective is maximum learner flexibility.
| Task | List the communications media that you would use in a DE course. |
EAN: 2147483647
Pages: 242