For Further Review

1. Construct a model for an online company according to your choice. Present it to your colleagues for discussion and reflection.

2. The establishment of an online company requires one to consider different topics than those addressed to start a regular company. Suggest different topics that should be considered in such situations. Examine the differences between such situations and the more traditional ones. Address different topics such as employees and the supply system.

3. There are several payments means that were born together with e-commerce such as cyber-cash, digital cash, digital wallet, and micro-payments. Learn about these concepts (you can look at one of the online glossaries of Internet terms). Explain what problems customers may face when they use these payment means.

4. As is stated in the introduction to this book, this is not a human-computer interaction (HCI) book. However, HCI cannot be ignored when e-commerce is discussed. It is clear that the way in which an e-commerce environment is designed has a significant influence on its selling potential. This question presents several HCI- related considerations to be aware of when one is involved in the creation of an online company:

   1. What objects should be put on a Web site of an online company? What user s activity should each of these objects support?

   2. What relationships might exist between the design of a Web site and what the Web site sells?

   3. n what way is the design of an online company connected to the diversity of online shoppers?

5. One use of e-commerce is Web-Based Instruction (WBI). According to Khan [Khan97], WBI is a hypermedia-based instructional program that uses the attributes and resources of the Web to create a meaningful learning environment that fosters and supports learning. We add that it should also support teaching processes. WBI is adopted by different educational frameworks.

   1. Find on the Web examples of online programs. Analyze similarities as well as differences among these learning environments.

   2. Based on the analysis you conducted in (a), formulate different models of WBI.

   3. Analyze, from both the teacher s and the student s perspective, similarities as well as differences between WBI and on-campus learning.

   4. In what ways are WBI Web sites different from other e-commerce companies?

   5. In modern learning theories , terms like the following are emphasized : interaction , active learning , knowledge versus information , learner freedom , huge source of information , and asynchronous in time and place . How are these terms applied on the WBI Web sites you have reviewed?

   6. Discuss connections between WBI and copyrights. Suggest ways to overcome conflicts between these two concepts.

6. In the Study Questions at the beginning of this chapter, you were asked to consider connections between e-commerce and the Code of Ethics of Software Engineering. Rethink this relationship.