The Internet is changing. The Internet that we used to know, dubbed "Net95" by Lawrence Lessig, was a place where information flowed freely around attempts to control and contain it. Net95 gained fame as a place where even repressive regimes where unable to stop the free exchange of information.

Net95 is disappearing. The cause is not the force repressive governments, but the allure and demands of e-Business. E-Business requires layers of control to protect information and authenticate use, and these layers fundamentally change the nature of the Net. Backed up by the force of law in some cases and by economic incentives in others, these changes have the potential to change the Net, as Lessig says, from "a world of relative freedom to a world of relatively perfect control."

The need for a central repository to register Document Type Definitions (DTDs) and schemas has increased as more and more companies begin to use XML as an integral part of their companies’ e-business solutions. Access to such a repository will drive the rapid adoption of XML by providing common schemas and tools that can be used to build applications.

Relationships between organizations can take many different forms, including vertically integrated virtual corporations, tightly integrated trading partners, and loosely integrated trading communities or bazaars.

This white paper looks at the different approaches to building cross-organizational business systems and shows where each approach is applicable. The approaches covered include EDI, middleware systems such as IBM's SanFrancisco, Extricity's products, CrossWorlds's products, and webMethods B2B integration server, and CBL, an XML-based set of e-commerce building blocks defined by Commerce One.

Business and leisure travelers are flocking to the web to plan and book trips. Travel companies need to work with partners to build compelling sites that hold customers' attention and stimulate purchasing, and to reach customers on other sites around the web.

 

This white paper looks at the strategic areas in which the online travel businesses will need to succeed in order to remain competitive as the industry grows and matures.

In order to maximize the performance of a web business, it is important to close the loop between site content, user behavior, and business goals.  Closed loop operation is becoming increasingly critical for making your web business profitable and increasing competitiveness and profitability over time. 

This issue of Rapids examines the tools and techniques you can use to close the loop. It covers announcements of partnerships and acquisitions made at Fall Internet World and helps you understand what these announcements mean for your business. 

This issue of Rapids takes a broad  look at what it takes to make effective use of the web in support of third party channel sales.  Gaining perspective on these issues is particularly critical for companies today, as the established sales force automation vendors begin making claims that their client/server systems are now "web ready."  What does this mean?  Will their systems meet your channel support needs? 

Do you worry about the web? If you don't, maybe you should. Because the web is taking away some of your control over your business, and giving it to your customers. 

The first generations of electronic commerce were based on direct relationships and centralized architectures. Today, a new generation of electronic commerce is taking shape, based on the open, networked essence of the Internet. Networked businesses face new challenges -- they need to exchange and manage content, business processes, and transactional data across multiple organizations.

This white paper describes the evolution of business models and technology for networked commerce and describes the key role played by automated content exchange. The paper is intended for business managers seeking an overview of the evolution of networked commerce and for technical managers seeking to understand content exchange requirements. 

Traditionally, distribution chains have been linear: a line stretching from the vendor through resellers and distributors to the end customer. As the internet impacts all aspects of business, it is inevitably affecting distribution chains too. We are starting to see these chains take on more of a network character -- rather than being simple linear chains, distribution now takes place through a complicated network of relationships between a vendor, its partners, and the customers. 

A recent development in these distribution networks is affiliate programs. These programs, also called associate programs and revenue sharing programs, offer new ways for products and services to reach customers, while providing new reward structures in the value network. 

This issue of Rapids describes these programs, looks into what is and what isn't working, and asks how these programs are different from traditional activities such as advertising and using reseller networks. 

As the web continues developing, it has changed from a place focused on information distribution to one focused on interactions. Companies are now using the web to engage with their customers, partners, and the industry at large. Often times, this means building a site that adapts to visitors, is easy for them to navigate, and supports rich interactions between an organization and those visitors. 

This issue of Rapids examines the steps needed to support guided interactions driven by a visitor profile. Using this approach, one distinguishes between different types of users and directs them towards particular content, interactions, and presumably outcomes.  The article then considers where use of this technique is appropriate. 

In the age of targeted and one-to-one marketing, it is clear that customer data is one of a company's most important assets. Information about customer demographics, purchase history, and behavior can be used in sales, marketing and customer service to gain more revenue and increase customer loyalty. And the internet seems like an ideal medium to conduct smarter, data-driven customer interaction. 

This issue of Rapids provides an overview of the technical and organizational barriers to using customer data to drive web interactions. It makes recommendations about steps to move from where you are now to where you'd like to go. 

There is a tendency to think of website data as if it were just one thing, as when someone asks, "What are we doing with the stuff we collect from the website?" Thinking of web data in this way can make it harder to use. There are distinctly different kinds of data that you can collect from your website; making effective use of the data starts with understanding the differences. 

In the first part of this article we looked at the issues associated with collecting aggregate site data and site performance diagnostics. In this second part we look more closely at individual visitor and customer data.  Topics covered include the use of customer data to drive personalized and one-to-one interactions and deriving segmentation information about visitors. 
 

It is easy to collect data about the visitors and customers who come to your web site. Lots of it. The hard part is making use of what you have collected. 

There are two common issues that suggest why making sense of this data is difficult: 

• Most companies don't have a clear way of "sorting out" the different kinds of data in terms of use. 
• Most companies didn't start collecting data in response to specific business questions and thus find themselves "backing into" the business issues connected to the data. 

This issue of Rapids makes some fundamental distinctions about the kinds of visitor data you can collect from your website. It then moves on to connect that data with specific business issues. 

The second part of this article continues the discussion of this topic and looks at what you can do with the data you collect. 
 

Building out a Web site with high-quality content that attracts visitors and retains customers is an expensive proposition.  At these high levels of investment, Web business managers need to know that syndicated content they license is producing returns.  We talked recently with several companies on both the buy and sell sides of the syndication relationship about the metrics and methodologies that they're using to measure the effectiveness of content. The conversations indicate that many content subscribers are still working their way through some of the fundamental business and technical issues associated with finding, licensing, integrating, and publishing syndicated content.

Content syndication is not a new business.  Newspapers have for decades purchased and published content from outside sources as have broadcast media. Syndication opportunities are driven by the basic economic laws of supply and demand:  there's a demand for some kind of specialized content, and a shortage of resources (like talent or money) to satisfy the demand. 

Extension of the syndication model to the Internet is natural.  Companies seeking to build and maintain strong Web presence are generating increased demand for content.  Companies that own content are eyeing new channels for distributing their intellectual property  This growing demand has created new opportunities around the syndication model for both buyers and sellers. 

This article looks at the "sell side" of Web content syndication.  We address questions such as: What are the key issues for those companies who own or aggregate content?  What kinds of revenue models are sustainable over time? 

Internet content syndication has been in the news with a flurry of announcements related to the ICE protocol. ICE, standing for Information and Content Exchange, is a protocol defining a set of messages that can be used to manage syndication relationships and the replication and exchange of content between a syndicator and its subscribers. 

At first glance, it seems that a new protocol, and particularly a new protocol for syndication, shouldn't matter very much unless you're already in the syndication business. But, we believe that syndication will be increasingly important to all kinds of web businesses. Syndication technologies will find many uses, including support for traditional syndication of news and entertainment content but also extending to new uses as businesses adapt to the network economy. 

This article provides an overview of the ICE specification and discusses new business opportunities enabled by the use of syndication technologies. We conclude with a discussion of the likelyhood of widespread ICE adoption and the events required for such adoption.