ALBERT

Notes: The help desk and user support industry has, over the last ten years, risen to prominence as one of the most important areas of the IT and customer services industry. However, it has also become clear that not all help desks have the same requirements, and help desks operating in academic environments find themselves with distinct circumstances and problems. Drawing on research published by the author, and a comprehensive review of recent literature and input from practitioners, addresses these issues which distinguish the help desk in academia. Also finds that it often suffers from difficulty in defining its role and obtaining resources, examines how some institutions have successfully tackled these problems and offers some suggestions for strategies, future developments and sources of expert advice.

Notes: The World Wide Web is the most significant advance in mass dissemination of information since the invention of the printing press. Because electronic information is largely display independent, it is accessible to persons with disabilities who have the use of a computer with adaptive technology. Unfortunately, some Web design erects new, needless barriers to the use of this medium. This article outlines some of the problems, describes international activities aimed to transcend these problems and also suggests some simple, immediate solutions.

Notes: Reports that the use of new technology in English composition courses is making it easier to teach and to learn how to write, according to instructors and students at the University of Oregon. A new computerized writing classroom and extensive training of instructors in use of the classroom, plus electronic mail and the Internet, are having positive results. About 35 instructors and 750 students benefited from use of the new instructional methods and technology in 1996, according to Ann Alskaya, director of the university's new Center for the Teaching of Writing. Eventually, the changes will affect all 4,000 freshman students who take English Composition at the UO. Later, the center will train faculty members outside the English department who want to incorporate technology and writing into their courses.

Notes: It is important to understand the organizational structures and decision making processes in the university and their relationship to the CWIS. This article describes, reviews and summarizes March and Cohens' theories on the university as a structured anarchy. It also raises a list of questions that CWISs struggle with regularly which may be best answered by this theory. A second part of the article describes the companion theory of garbage can decision making proposed by March, Cohen and Olsen. Besides proposing the decision making model, March and Cohen even offer tactics to use in a structured anarchy that can enhance chances of success. Although CWIS problems seem dominated by management of technical questions, the authors feel that the ability to understand the organizational model of an institution and to manage the decision making process may be equally important to success as technical expertise is.

Notes: Describes a Web-based service set up for authors and teachers at the library, Wake Forest University. It involves a Web site which facilitates copyright permission requests, thus encouraging the seeking of permission and freeing up library staff time which had previously been spent helping individual patrons through the process.

Notes: Summarizes a teaching strategy developed by three University of Wisconsin-Green Bay faculty members which employs e-mail and the World Wide Web to bring interactivity to large-section, introductory lecture classes.

Notes: This paper focuses on a multi-year effort to change the organizational culture of a very traditional IS unit into one that is "learning organization" and "client service" oriented. It describes the steps taken in the first two years within the context of John Kotter's "eight-stage process of creating major change". The paper sets forth the intent of each phase and the practical steps that have been taken to bring about the desired change. It approaches the process from the perspective of the CIO (the initiator of the process) with a practical appraisal of its success to date from the viewpoint of a long-time university staff member.

Notes: Without reliable electronic records, colleges and universities will be unable to manage and defend themselves - they will lose their memories and be at significant risk. The authors explain the problems associated with the continuing reliability of electronic systems, and define the difference between an "information system" and a "record-keeping system". Collaborative partnerships among information technology staff, archivists, records managers, auditors, lawyers, and others at each campus, and also among professional organizations, are proposed to address these needs.

Notes: Describes steps that can be taken by all members of the campus community to prevent software piracy. Details the application of copyright law for works of software, then goes on to advocate the development and implementation of a software policy and software audits.

Notes: Regardless of how they are budgeted, information technology (IT) costs must be paid. Most schools offer some computing services at no cost to the individual or unit and some that are charged back to users and units. Typically, common good services are centrally funded, and services that differentially benefit specific individuals or units are charged for. How services are funded often reflects a school's philosophy about IT and about finances. Preferably, IT funding mechanisms deliberately help shape and influence an institution's IT and services philosophy, as opposed to an IT or service philosophy being unintentionally shaped by fiscal policies that follow no particular strategy. Levying fees to users on an individual or departmental basis may yield a different demand and expectation of IT services than when costs are borne by a central budget. Quantity and quality, degree of centralization, and administrative complexity of services are major variables in determining funding. Also at stake is the degree to which an institution wishes to endorse, suppress, control or expand IT services. These issues are specifically illustrated through a case study of the formulation of a new budget and cost accounting model to both finance an institution-wide network upgrade and to maintain that network.

Notes: Administrators and funding agencies are legitimately asking whether our huge investment in information technology is improving higher education. Two surveys conducted at The College of Wooster gathered students' impressions of the impact of e-mail discussion groups and Web pages on their classes, and they show that overall students do see these technologies as beneficial. Other studies are also summarized. But what is the right question? Is it the technology that matters, or is the benefit in how it is used?

Notes: Multi-campus/large scale distance learning initiatives increase the complexity of issues, and affect the impact of various quality factors that must be considered in the design and implementation of programs. The impact and interactions of distance education quality factors differs when designing large-scale versus smaller-scale distances learning programs. This article will look at the various quality considerations within a large-scale model, and will look at how decisions were made to ensure quality in the design of the California Virtual University (CVU).

Notes: Describes work at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, USA, in developing information across the curriculum. Similar to writing competency programs, this approach will require students to take a number of information-intensive courses and necessitate a close partnership between librarians and teaching faculty in establishing requirements, integrating information skills into the curriculum, and evaluating outcomes.

Notes: The introduction of sophisticated information technology to higher education is now forcing faculty and administrators to reexamine the traditional allocations of ownership interests in course materials. This article has been prepared to alert educators and administrators in higher educational institutions to the issues surrounding ownership of electronic course materials. In particular, the article focuses on the allocation of copyright ownership in electronic course materials as between faculty and their sponsoring institutions. While copyright laws vary somewhat from country to country, basic ownership issues will be common to nearly all copyright regimes. Drawing on US copyright law as an example, the article briefly reviews relevant copyright basics, the work made for hire doctrine, and options for contractual allocations of copyright. The article concludes by laying out a series of criteria that should be considered in formulating an institution's intellectual property policy.

Notes: The authors describe the preparation and execution of a statistics and a fine arts course, each of which was offered in parallel to an on-campus classroom group and an online Internet group. The authors address the pedagogical, administrative, and political issues that must be resolved before one can legitimately offer a course of study to an Internet audience that the instructor will never physically see. Pedagogical issues are paramount if the goal is to achieve best teaching practice. In addition, there are numerous administrative hurdles to resolve where admission officers, registrars, and governing boards are working from a traditional mindset where rules and guidelines are based on local geography and physical presence. Further, political issues quickly present themselves, including time issues, faculty-colleague and administrator perceptions of "legitimate teaching activity", and valuations of the course.

Notes: Co-ordinated by their scholarly association, textile/apparel faculty from multiple universities have succeeded in establishing a World Wide Web server dedicated to providing information from across their disciplines to enhance instruction. The process of server establishment and Web-site creation including funding, determination of information for posting, problems encountered, and future plans are reviewed. Other faculty could use this as a guide in establishing servers and Web sites for their own disciplines.

Notes: With the Web sweeping through every aspect of campus services, how do you quickly deliver complex services without reinventing the wheel each time? The ability to quickly create support processes allows development staff to be more productive, and provides better service to clients. The use of collaborative development methodologies have been shown to be effective in the delivery of high customer satisfaction, fast prototyping of new services, and rapid deployment of operational processes. Discusses the aspects and benefits of rapidly developing and implementing Web-based services with limited resources, and our success with tools that support collaborative development.

Notes: This paper describes the experience of a globally distributed organization, as simulated across three MBA programs. The students, located in each of three countries, worked collaboratively in teams to create a common project, using technology as a means of communication. Observations were made of local team interaction, as well as the intergroup exchange that came about from merging the local teams into a larger global team. The project revealed some weaknesses in technology as a communication tool, as compared to face-to-face interaction. Nevertheless, the findings support traditional group theories - theories developed through observation of face-to-face groups. The existence of mutual accountability and evaluation, superordinate goals, and the tone of the initial group meeting were found to be key for successful task completion and group satisfaction. Building a team in a virtual setting was found to be more difficult than in a face-to-face environment, but not impossible. Team-building factors that might be implied in a local arrangement, had to be made explicit in the virtual setting, as opportunities did not exist for clarifying intentions outside of the meeting place. Additional experience in using the technology as a means of communication should reinforce this need for clarity, as managers become accustomed to fewer opportunities for communicating implications.

Notes: An original computer-based tool, dubbed CyberInteractor, is described. CyberInteractor is designed to facilitate immediate student feedback to an instructor and to other students in a classroom setting or via the World Wide Web. Feedback is saved in a database for educational research purposes. Students view a question that can include pictures, diagrams, a movie or sound clip, random numbers, and calculations involving the random numbers. After responding, they receive feedback showing how other students in the same class have responded. Newsgroups enable students to explain their reasoning. Instructors can give pre-tests and post-tests, and collect the answers and student discussions in files that can be analyzed later, thus facilitating the collection and processing of data from large numbers of students.

Notes: Describes results of efforts to find institutional models for preventing computer-related repetitive strain injury.

Notes: Multiple choice homework, including feedback on each incorrect answer, is administered over the Web using an in-house program. The large enrollments in lower division courses hinder the use of homework without the aid of a computer for grading, recording, and reporting. The current system permits faculty to create assignments using only a word processor, which allows the facile inclusion of symbols, pictures, and other non-textual information. This is particularly important in science classes, where such material is a major part of any assignment. The system includes security measures, and reports scores back to instructors in a form which can be easily included into a spreadsheet.

Notes: The identification of variables related to faculty publishing productivity is essential in promoting campus information and work environments that foster creativity. This study explores personal and institutional factors, especially the emerging role of the campus telecommunications environment, that support faculty productivity.

Notes: While the research literature is full of glowing reports of amazing success stories, this article enlightens the troops in the trenches with a disaster the author encountered in 1997 trying to implement distance learning of two classes in technology. Though we all want to hear success stories, many times we learn more from failure. This personal narrative explores what went wrong and what can be learned from the mistakes of others in the field

Notes: Discusses the need for a security firewall. Describes the different firewall technologies and models available for deploying security firewalls. Describes the set of specifications chosen to implement the security firewall at the Tata Energy Research Institute and the approach taken to implement these specifications. Also describes the resources on security mailing lists, including Web sites available on the Internet.

Notes: Describes a feedback system for distant students including the tools and documents to provide feedback on frequent fixed response assignments and on projects or essay response assignments. A distance feedback system depends upon carefully planned, written assignments; specified evaluation criteria; and technology. It includes documentation, progress tracking, standardized responses based upon the specified evaluation criteria, and multiple assessments during the course. The proposed feedback system accommodates technological limitations yet provides useful feedback to facilitate distant student learning. The system could be adapted to benefit students enrolled in traditional instruction. A description of the feedback system components follows a brief introduction to instructional feedback and feedback levels and functions.

Notes: University strategic planning for information systems and management was investigated for four Indonesian higher educational institutions. A combination of the case study approach and a survey of a small sample of academic staff who have used the systems, was undertaken. Staff perceptions of the service from information systems are described, and related to their perceptions of planning for these systems. A number of evaluations of specific information sources and delivery are given in detail. Policy document analysis showed little information systems planning as part of the university strategic planning. Some observations are made about the influence of strategic information system planning upon successful use of a university's information systems.

Notes: University students often enter physical laboratory sessions with minimal knowledge of the experiments to be conducted and little or no understanding of the underlying concepts that govern the investigations. As a result, lab time is used inefficiently; motivated students lose interest and routine procedures are followed with minimal learning. The authors have developed a set of multimedia modules meant to enhance, not replace, the technical laboratory experience. The modules are akin to well-conceived laboratory manuals applying multimedia tools, such as digital images and video clips, to better prepare the students for upcoming laboratory sessions. The modules are accessible through the Internet and include mechanisms for exchanging information.

Notes: As an instructional medium, the World Wide Web offers a multitude of options for educators. This paper highlights the design, implementation and use of the WWW to provide and evaluate library instruction including: a curriculum- integrated tutorial for learning online resources, critical thinking and other information literacy skills; "Ask a librarian" e-mail reference service; a multi-user object-oriented environment (MOO) for real-time course-integrated instruction and synchronous reference service.

Notes: Discusses the steps necessary to design an effective online course. Four essential steps are identified and considered: defining course objectives, providing access to information resources, developing and implementing effective learning strategies, and providing timely, context-specific feedback and motivational support to students. The aim of effective online course design is to produce a network learning environment in which students are able to construct progressively more adequate models of a targeted knowledge domain and acquire competence in using them in real-life situations. In order to accomplish this aim, technology must be used wisely, in pedagogically sound ways, within the context of a supportive institutional infrastructure, and in a manner that avoids some common obstacles to effective online learning.

Notes: For many educational institutions the World Wide Web has become a major avenue of communication with its constituencies. Students, potential students, faculty, staff, people at other institutions and the general public are all directing their questions to the e-mail address www@institution.edu The personnel that receive this mail are often ill-prepared for the quantity and variety of questions that arrive. This paper examines the evolution of this problem over the first four years of UC Davis' use of the Web, and presents some of the strategies that have proven useful for managing this onslaught.

Notes: Virtual reality (VR) is a new computational paradigm that redefines the interface between human and computer. VR may result in a significant improvement over traditional instruction because it is not only an interactive multimedia tool but also a learning environment that is extremely close to reality. Yet there have been few empirical studies on the use of VR compared to that of other computerized or non-computerized educational tools. Examines VR both in different scenarios and for different applications in learning and teaching. The evaluation plan reported here addresses one aspect of such an assessment specifically ± the effect of VR support compared to that of video support in tenth graders' learning of world geography. One world geography course (N = 36) selected for this experiment was composed of five units. A rotation treatment was used, each group using VR for two units and videos for two units; in addition, one unit was optional for every student. Three procedures were used for data collection and analysis: to determine the effect of VR support, competency tests were administered; to determine student attitudinal responses toward VR, students were required to complete a survey and be interviewed; and to determine the tendency of returning to VR, students were given the option of attending the VR lab. This investigation was limited in several respects (e.g. data from a sample of students in a single class may not be representative of the population).

Notes: Discusses the effect that campus-based systems have on institutional culture. Strategic planning and decisions regarding information technology (IT), one of the few things that touches every member and unit on campus, needs to consider how IT changes the very culture of the institution. Major changes impact not only those directly involved in its development and use, but non-users as well.

Notes: Today, foreign language teaching can find important resources in technology, the Internet, etc.; but how the teaching of foreign literature, or literature in general, might benefit from technology remains a more open question. The project "Writing La Fontaine" seeks to complement the traditional practice of literary imitation with technology that facilitates writing and peer-editing. The project allows for detailed study of the literary text and may provide a possible model for the use of technology in the teaching of literature.

Notes: Describes the development of a Web-based reference collection for an academic community. Includes such topics as collection development policies, tailoring the site to a specific audience, staff motivation, and site design. Discusses successes, failures and modifications during the first two years of the project.

Notes: This paper focuses on the development of an Internet-based distance learning model for teaching the introductory finance course in the Finance Department at Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU), America's newest institution of higher education which opened in August 1997. An important component of the mission of FGCU is the incorporation of technology and the needs of the regional community into curriculum design. The department felt it was important to develop a separate Internet-based course as an alternative to the traditional in-class introductory finance course. In this Internet-based course students are required to participate in a "boot camp" for the first few weeks, which covers only the most complex aspects of the course. After this initial period, the course is completely Web-based in design. The Web page for this course, located at http://www.tmag.com/sgarrison/courses/fin3240d/index.html, contains a variety of pedagogical materials to help students learn and comprehend course content.

Notes: Describes how a core group of faculty built the Lucid Chemistry Web Site over four years and how students in large first and second year chemistry courses have started to use it (slowly at first, and now to near 100 percent participation in some classes). The facility has been developed for use by key administrative units (Testing and Evaluation, Computer Services). Now coming to the Lucid Chemistry Web Site are roughly one-half of the chemistry department instructors and tenure-track faculty. Asks whether the task of teaching needs more "builders". Argues that more administrative involvement is needed with material creation and distribution. Will more users come? Yes, 100 percent participation by both teachers and students is a possibility. Mechanisms for achieving this goal are explored.

Notes: This article profiles the technology-rich environment at Elsik High School in the Alief Intermediate School District on the west side of Houston. The district's $16 million commitment to technology by 2001 is explored. The instructional benefits are featured by departments with a basic outline as to what students are doing in a strong instructional program that is technology-based. Implementation ideas by departments are demonstrated from the art department to the sciences and social studies. After departments are highlighted, the technology available to the administrators, teachers, and staff is showcased. Online technologies, video distribution, and video conferencing are discussed. All of the technological tools and implementation of these tools into and across the curriculum demonstrate Elsik High School's commitment to integrate technology into each and every classroom to better prepare students for the new millenium.

Notes: The Fachhochschule JOANNEUM (FH JOANNEUM), a university of applied science, founded the Centre for Multimedia and Learning (CML) in 1998, in order to provide support for lecturers in implementing computer-supported learning strategies within their classes. Now, after two years of work and different approaches applied, the CML has developed a strategy which promises a sustainable development for the highly diversified courses offered at the university. Within this article, evaluation results of three different approaches are described and the future strategy of a bottom-up approach is outlined. Based on the results, an in-house training program for the teaching staff has been developed.

Notes: Neural network topology selection refers to a systematic procedure for selecting between competing models. Naturally, it is regarded as a key aspect in optimisation and replicability of neural network performance. When constructing neural network topologies, it is necessary to determine from the outset the general taxonomy of the neural network architectures to be constructed. The taxonomy considered in this study is the general taxonomy of time-varying patterns which subsumes many existing architectures in the literature and points to several promising neural network architectures that have yet to be examined. The context of the problem is that choosing the right neural network topology for use in a particular domain such as corporate bankruptcy prediction with optimum generalisation performance is not, in any case, a trivial problem. The results of experiments presented in this paper would serve as a baseline against which to select between two competing architectures.

Notes: This paper describes several problems with the current Internet technologies and the way they are currently utilized in education and proposes an innovative solution. First, the paper discusses an activity matrix that maps learning activities involved in business education along two dimensions: level of monitoring and level of interaction. The paper then proposes a unifying framework that utilizes emerging Internet technologies to support these learning activities. The framework goes beyond a simple piece of software at the client level to provide a complete solution with the student client, the instructor client and the server level software. Furthermore, the paper describes the architecture, features and specific technologies used in an actual education support system developed from the framework.

Notes: Examines various aspects of the motives, perceptions and expectations connected with the introduction of Internet banking in Danish retail banking. Responses from 60 key managers in the largest retail banks in Denmark show that they believe that Internet banking will become more important in the future, whereas all other distribution channels are predicted to become less important. Describes further the relationship between the perceptions of and expectations from Internet banking, the reasons for offering an Internet bank and the way it has been organized in the banks.

Notes: The Internet is gaining popularity as a delivery channel in the banking sector. At the same time, customer needs are changing. A total of 12 Internet banking operations in the UK are analysed under customer empowerment functions and Internet banking Web attributes. Internet banking renders location and time irrelevant, and empowers customers with greater control of their accounts. Banks achieve cost and efficiency gains in a large number of operational areas.

Notes: Describes an approach automatically to classify and evaluate publicly accessible World Wide Web sites. The suggested methodology is equally valuable for analyzing content and hypertext structures of commercial, educational and non-profit organizations. Outlines a research methodology for model building and validation and defines the most relevant attributes of such a process. A set of operational criteria for classifying Web sites is developed. The introduced software tool supports the automated gathering of these parameters, and thereby assures the necessary "critical mass" of empirical data. Based on the preprocessed information, a multi-methodological approach is chosen that comprises statistical clustering, textual analysis, supervised and non-supervised neural networks and manual classification for validation purposes.

Notes: Compares the perceptions of Malaysians (representing eastern, Asian culture) and Australians (representing western, European culture) for four Web site design characteristics - atmospherics, news stories, signs and products and services - as part of the integrated Internet marketing model. Under controlled laboratory conditions, two groupings of 30 subjects evaluated eight Web sites - four in Malaysia and four in Australia - in the retail and services sectors. Hypothesises that the predominant culture is not generalised to another culture. Some tentative support for the research premise is found since where a group's perceptions for Web design characteristics and their effectiveness was significantly higher, it was for sites originating in that group's country. Furthermore, perceptions both support and contradict previous research suggesting that Australians prefer an environment of low context and high explicit communications while Asians operate in an environment of high context that stresses implicit communications.

Notes: Power has become an important contextual factor in electronic commerce adoption. Persuading trading partners can mean using persuasive power. Hence, the way power is used to influence trading partners will determine the extent to which trust is encouraged during the adoption and integration process. The purpose of this paper is to focus on the impact of power in EDI adoption. The findings of a case study within an automotive manufacturer indicate that negative (coercive) power left smaller suppliers in a situation of uncertainty, and even conflict, whereas positive (persuasive) power resulted in open communications between smaller suppliers and their buyers, thus building trading partner trust and long-term trading relationships.

Notes: Examines the relationship between accessibility to information technology and research publications among users of agricultural libraries in Nigeria. A self-constructed questionnaire, which had a reliability coefficient of 0.90, was used to collect data. A total of 150 questionnaires were distributed and a response rate of 78.7 per cent was obtained. Data were analyzed using the Pearson product moment correlation coefficient and the student t-test. Results showed that there was no significant association between accessibility and research publications. The finding is discussed in the context of information technology benefits in developing countries generally. Suggestions are proffered on how to improve the benefits of IT access.

Notes: Presents the findings of an empirical investigation of Internet shopping in Singapore. Specifically, Internet buying behaviour is compared between potential Internet buyers and non-Internet buyers. It was found that the classification of different types of products and services will significantly influence the consumer choice between a retail store and Internet shopping mall. The types of products and services that are suitable for selling through the Internet are also identified. Generally, products and services that have a low outlay, are frequently purchased, have intangible value proposition, and relatively high on differentiation are more likely to be purchased via the Internet. Based on the analysis and results obtained from the study, some recommendations are presented to retailers who are interested in selling their products via the Internet.

Notes: Discusses the issue of business-to-business e-commerce implementation and the factors affecting it, considering the appropriateness of the various theories which underpin research into systems implementation (primarily diffusion of innovation and traditional change management theory). Describes the results of a case study of BHP Steel, the largest steel producer and one of the largest companies in Australia, which is a leader in e-commerce implementation. The results suggest that, over time, the driving force for e-commerce changed significantly. From an initial push to improve current business processes by adopting EDI to achieve savings and improve efficiency, the company came to be driven by a desire for greater supplier involvement and customer service in later implementations. Discusses the ways in which BHP Steel's e-commerce innovations have changed and suggests that, in addition to considering the characteristics of the innovation process, other more contextual aspects of implementation (such as the social system in which the innovation evolves and the timing of the innovation's introduction) be considered in an inter-organizational context.

Notes: Electronic commerce has recently shown enormous potential to take over a significant share of the sales market. There is a need to provide services that can reach individual computer users with different information profiles and levels of expertise. In this article the concept of Web assistants, human assistants working in an electronic Web shop, is presented. This human-computer collaboration provides intelligent and adaptive services via an integrated communication media. A prototype of a Web assistant system has been implemented. While browsing through the system the user can call for human assistance should the need arise. Presents the results of a usability study performed on the prototype system. Recent commercial moves in the direction discussed in this article increase the importance of the usability study. The results are encouraging, especially when it comes to the attitude aspects of usability. The subjects were extremely enthusiastic about the concept of Web assistants and its implications. The human Web assistant who participated in the field trial highlighted the importance of user modelling. Although the system is mainly in the context of electronic commerce, it can be used in many other contexts. These include home automation, digital libraries, and technical support, to name a few.

Notes: Considers the use of information technology in the UK National Health Service (NHS) as the government pledges to connect every doctor or general practitioner (GP) to the NHS's information superhighway by the year 2002. This paper uses a case study of a particular UK health authority as a vehicle to illustrate the complexity of the social and technical considerations surrounding this issue. At a grass roots level, the adoption and diffusion of information technology within general practices (surgeries or groups of GPs) is highly varied and there are huge contrasts in the levels of commitment to information management. Within the case study this is evident on an individual level, in that some GPs enthuse about technology, while others are positively "technophobic". On the general practice level, there are other elements to consider, especially in relation to the levels of financial support available. Non-fund holding general practices in socially deprived areas are far less willing to embrace information management and technology. One explanation suggested for this is based on priorities: when faced with the option of "cruising" the information superhighway, as opposed to treating seriously ill patients living in socially deprived areas, the former may simply be relegated as less important.

Notes: In this paper, it is argued that the concept of mass customization should not be treated as an alternative strategy to market segmentation. It should be seen as an integral part of market segmentation theory which offers the best way to satisfy individual consumer's unique needs and wants while yielding profits to companies. Though the overall objective of the concept of mass customization is to recognize individual differences among customers and modify the offerings accordingly, by using the logic of the segmentation theory, this paper argues that mass customization is also not simply equal to segmenting-to-one. If all the relevant variables that affect buyer behavior are taken into account, the result is an untenably large number of market segments (finally segment of one). However, practically, creating separate marketing programs for each individual in most circumstances will become extremely difficult, even not feasible, and less profitable. In response to this dilemma, this paper proposes a new concept of "Segment-based mass customization". The basic idea behind this concept is that, mass customization is the efforts of reaching a segment unit efficiently and profitably. The efficiency and profitability will be determined by whether the mass customization is based on an optimal segment size, which is subject to the market situation and company resources. Finally, this paper comes up with a series of propositions which are relevant to developing a good customization strategy.

Notes: The paper explains the background to experimental work that was conducted with the aim of measuring aspects of the WWW (specifically the average lifetime of a web link and the impact of the "Millennium Bug"), but which inadvertently caused two perceived security breaches on remote systems. The paper explains the nature of these incidents and considers why, when over 700,000 IP addresses were randomly sampled in the experimental study, only two sites considered the activity to be an attempt to breach their security. It is concluded that, while the appropriate protection of Internet-based systems is undoubtedly of importance, the problems experienced during the experimental study suggest a lack of uniformity in what different organisations will class as a security breach.

Notes: Software is the intellectual capital output of the codified knowledge of a programming team. The development cost is high, but the variable cost of sale is substantially lower (negligible) than for hard goods. Unfortunately, there does not exist a valid or reliable measure to value software. The trend has been to align pricing to the activities that buyers realize value from. However, new architectures change the nature of where value is realized and how service becomes part of the equation. There does not exist a perfect generic pricing model. Vendors must understand the value they provide to their customers and create a price structure that aligns pricing with value realization, but more importantly facilitates their business objectives of the product (and service).

Notes: A huge upsurge in the growth of e-mail is expected but there has been relatively little published advice on how to take a corporate view of electronic mail, despite demonstration of its operational benefits and of the consequences of its misuse in economic, human and lately in legal terms. This article contributes to formation of such advice. Employing a mix of questionnaire and interview methods, a set of disparate organisations was studied - a global financial services company, an upmarket hotel group, a well-established mobile-telecommunications company, and three universities. The results were used to devise a multi-dimensional "positioning" model, for practical use by managers to understand their organisations' present use of e-mail on four dimensions: information management, people influences, corporate culture, and knowledge management. Shows how an organisation can find/change its present position on the model.

Notes: This project developed and implemented a prototype WWW-based instructional learning system modeled around a metacognitive research and development framework which mapped cognitive variables, to metacognitive learning strategies for those variables, to metadata for the instructional design of the media. The framework helped delineate learning strategies and related metacognitive attributes of young students acquiring knowledge in advanced science concepts in an Internet/browser-based environment. The framework also provided a basis for learner-specific Internet content personalization.

Notes: Describes a case research study into how knowledge workers adopt telework as an alternative work arrangement. It reports how knowledge workers in two New Zealand organisations organise their workload to take advantage of the information and Internet technology available to them in their work and home environments. The findings of the study indicate that knowledge workers are inclined to use home-based teleworking as an adjunct to the work done during normal business hours. Their preference is still to work at the office for most of their work time. Discusses the implications of the findings for practice and research.

Notes: Summarizes some of the key findings of academic papers presented at the First World Congress on the Management of Electronic Commerce, which took place in January, 2000, in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, sponsored by McMaster University. The conference was attended by 243 delegates from more than 25 countries. Outlines two meta-management issues including: the importance of taking a strategic approach to Internet ventures as well as considering infrastructure design during implementation. Several of the papers presented fell into three broad functional categories including operations, human resources and marketing. Finally, a summary of internationalization and education implications is discussed.

Notes: Explores how the spread of connectivity and the introduction of new standards is driving the emergence of entirely new value constructs that deliver to multiple stakeholders. Examines the new economics of network growth and the associated "economics of increasing returns". Looks at the dynamic trajectory of this function from the perspective of new business development at the various stages of the trajectory, and derives management implications for each stage in terms of appropriate competitive and market strategies, organizational structure and management practices. Applies the resulting framework to discuss specific implications for the business start-up of Access Point, Philips' new multimedia, voice technology-based information and on-line services venture that has at its core a disruptive technology.

Notes: Electronic commerce has existed in the business-to-business marketplace since the 1970s, in forms such as electronic data interchange (EDI) and electronic funds transfer (EFT). With the emergence of the Internet, and the World Wide Web in particular, electronic commerce entered a new era which opened the door for an electronic business-to-consumer marketplace. Although the retail side of electronic commerce is still in its infancy, the Web medium offers great potential for building the customer-base, promoting sales, and improving after-sales service. Examines the concept of relationship marketing, which has caused a paradigm shift in business-to-business marketing during recent years. Extends the concepts of network marketing to the Web retail marketplace, and develops a market process model for Web retailing that outlines the stages of the relationship building process.

Notes: E-commerce technologies provide effective and efficient ways in which corporate buyers can gather information rapidly about available P/S (products and services), evaluate and negotiate with suppliers, implement order fulfillment over communications links, and access post-sales services. From the supplier side, marketing, sales, and service information is also readily gathered from customers. Building and maintaining customer relationships is the key to success in e-commerce and, unless service is maintained, customer loss may result, more than offsetting any cost efficiencies due to introducing e-commerce technology. Since the core of e-commerce is information and communications, support for managing customer relationships is available to those who know how to use it. Discusses how technology can be used to encourage and facilitate customer-business relationships. Shows through a customer relationship life cycle model how the management of related procurement functions in customer companies can adjust to take advantage of these relationships.

Notes: Software agents are computer programs that run in the background and perform tasks autonomously as delegated by the user. Although there has been much research on this topic recently, usable software agents are at an early stage of development, and are only now starting to appear in real applications. Typical of these early stages, there has been a technology focus, rather than a product focus, in much of the development work to date. A fruitful application area for software agents is in the area of e-commerce, where potential buyers can easily be overwhelmed by the flood of information that is available, thus potentially making less than optimal purchasing decisions. This paper blends models from marketing and learnings from the field of decision support systems to build a framework for the design of software agents to support in e-commerce buying applications.

Notes: E-commerce enables new kinds of business models to coordinate a value chain. Coordination of the value chain can be accomplished using direct communication or with the help of intermediaries such as brokers, dealers and auctions. The role of electronic intermediaries is becoming increasingly more important. The introduction of new business models in a value chain is a cumbersome process, due to the complexity of the value chain, unclear implications, different goals and interests of the stakeholders and unclear business models. Therefore, there is a need for a business engineering methodology that supports the design and development of new business models by helping the identification of these new business models and by providing insight into the implications of these business models. A business engineering methodology is presented that supports the identification and evaluation of various alternative value chain configurations. The goal of this methodology is to give stakeholders insight into their current, and possible alternative, situations by means of visualization, to evaluate the added value of business models using simulation and to gain experience with the new business models using gaming.

Notes: Electronic commerce enables organizations to form virtual organizations. Shifting between different linkages of the partners for satisfying a need is the major characteristic of the virtual organization, and meta-management beyond the individual organizational level must be applied in order to optimize the benefit for the entire organizational network. This paper proposes a meta-management support system to support the meta-management in virtual organizations. Object-oriented organization modeling and virtual value chain analysis are used to implement the proposed meta-management support system.

Notes: The balanced scorecard is a formal management technique that is built on the premise that measurement is a prerequisite to strategic management. A broad range of business goals can be incorporated in the scorecard and realistic performance targets can be aligned with business strategies. Electronic commerce is rapidly becoming concerned with the many different ways organisations do business and is therefore an area of strategic concern to organisations. A case study of the implementation of the balanced scorecard in a public utility will be analysed to suggest how the basic concepts and philosophy of the balanced scorecard can be retained in its adaptation to the strategic management of electronic commerce.

Notes: A key benefit of advances in information technology has been the increased ability to make decisions that integrate different perspectives. Enterprise resource planning software integrates information from traditionally disparate parts of the same organization. Search engines and Internet services allow a user to integrate information from sources all over the world. So what kind of integrated decisions can the e-commerce supplier or customer make? From a technological perspective, the answer to this question depends on the following: how a given organization presents its information to others, and how it finds the right information from others. A useful tool for e-commerce suppliers and customers to make integrated decisions is an enterprise model, a computational model of the knowledge about an enterprise - its products, processes, organizational structures, resources, goals, and constraints. Sharable knowledge, once organized and represented in an enterprise model, can then be integrated by the modelled enterprise's e-commerce partners. Presents background on enterprise modelling followed by the key managerial and technological challenges in extending traditional models of the enterprise for e-commerce. Finally, discusses research to address some of these challenges.

Notes: Purpose - The main objective of this study is to develop a framework for: identifying the reasons for using e-commerce; understanding the implications of e-commerce in companies; and implementing and applying e-commerce successfully for improved organizational competitiveness and success. Design/methodology/approach - A structured questionnaire was designed, pre-tested, modified, and used to capture data on e-commerce in Hong Kong. Based on the feedback from the pilot-test, the questionnaire was modified and a final questionnaire was developed and mailed to companies in Hong Kong. In the survey, conducted with Hong Kong companies, the perceived benefits and perceived barriers of e-commerce implementation are discussed. Findings - The conceptual model based on the analysis of literature and some reported case experiences is developed using the current issues that have been highlighted as important e-commerce success factors of implementation. The major factors that influence the application and implementation of e-commerce are: perceived usefulness of web; perceived barriers of the internet for e-commerce; usage of the internet; and perceived benefits of the internet for e-commerce. In addition to this, country-specific factors such as culture, technology competency, government policy, educational level, influence the level of application of e-commerce. Practical implications - The framework is the result of the validation of the theoretical model, together with the conclusions of the empirical analysis conducted in Hong Kong. The empirical analysis supported some of the assumptions of the theoretical model, whereas others were not supported. Based on the feedback received from respondents, the model has been revised to reflect these practical considerations. Originality/value - Little research has been done to address the perceived benefits and potential barriers to e-commerce implementation in Hong Kong. This study is a timely and important one in that examines the current status of e-commerce implementation in Hong Kong. A generic framework is presented with the objective of supporting the application and implementation of the internet for e-commerce.

Notes: Purpose - Although the wireless internet attracts more and more interest from marketers and researchers, there is little empirical evidence of multinational corporations' (MNCs) adoption of push-type mobile advertising in global markets. The aim of this study is to fill this research gap, by conducting an empirical survey of the perceptions of MNCs operating in Europe regarding SMS-based mobile advertising adoption. Design/methodology/approach - The study proposes six basic constructs which are thought to influence MNCs' decision-making process on mobile advertising adoption. On this base, a structured questionnaire is developed. The data are obtained by telephone interviews from 53 senior executives of MNCs' subsidiaries in Spain. Findings - Hierarchical regression analysis reveals that branding strategy, facilitating conditions, and security and costs are the strongest determinants of MNCs' mobile advertising adoption. Furthermore, discriminant analysis indicates that Japanese, American, and European firms are statistically classifiable according to their cultural affiliation in terms of their perceptions of mobile advertising adoption. Japanese firms are the least willing to use mobile advertising, while their American counterparts are the most motivated in this regard. Originality/value - While SMS-based mobile marketing has been receiving an increasing attention from both academics and practitioners, there exists little empirical research on this area. In this vein, this study contributes to the literature in two ways. First, the study proposes a conceptual research model based on six basic constructs, which incorporate both theoretical and practical perspectives. Second, the model is tested by empirical data obtained from top managers of MNCs' subsidiaries operating in a European market. The findings of this study thus offer useful insights based on their "hands-on" experience.

Notes: Purpose - To describe consumers' heuristic and analytical searches for a pre-purchase information acquisition, and to assess the correspondence of flexibility of information task and the information found with a search. Design/methodology/approach - Propositions based on current research in web use and consumer studies. Tracked records of searches are used for descriptive analysis of transitional patterns in the data. Regression is used for statistical verification of the information provided by searches. Findings - Consumer searches center on chaining events, indicating heavy reliance on hyperlink navigation between web sites. Formal searches are seldom used, although when employed, tend to have a high level of diagnosticity. The emphasis on heuristic behavior is logical, as the way consumer information is currently presented on the internet rewards for this type of behavior. Use of heuristic search increases the likelihood of access to flexibly presented information. Research limitations/implications - Consumers favor heuristic trial-and-error searches even in focused fact-finding search tasks, which are typically considered the domain of analytical seeking. Consumers seem to benefit most from apparently inefficient, reactive and heuristic searches, because these are more likely to provide information in a format that the consumer can adapt. Convenience sample limits generalizability of findings. Originality/value - While there is an increasing body of knowledge concerning internet use for finding information, fewer studies have focused on consumer uses of the web in search. This paper provides new information of online consumers, an increasingly important topic.

Notes: Purpose - To provide a thorough analysis of the role of the internet in survey research and to discuss the implications of online surveys becoming such a major force in research. Design/methodology/approach - The paper is divided into four major sections: an analysis of the strengths and potential weaknesses of online surveys; a comparison of online surveys with other survey formats; a discussion on the best uses for online surveys and how their potential weaknesses may be moderated; and an overview of the online survey services being offered by the world's largest research firms. Findings - If conducted properly, online surveys have significant advantages over other formats. However, it is imperative that the potential weaknesses of online surveys be mitigated and that online surveys only be used when appropriate. Outsourcing of online survey functions is growing in popularity. Practical implications - The paper provides a very useful source of information and impartial advice for any professional who is considering the use of online surveys. Originality/value - The paper synthesizes the vast literature related to online surveys, presents original material related to survey methodology, and offers a number of recommendations.

Notes: Purpose - To arouse the public awareness of online gaming-related crimes and other societal influences so that these problems can be solved through education, laws and appropriate technologies. Design/methodology/approach - A total of 613 criminal cases of online gaming crimes that happened in Taiwan during 2002 were gathered and analyzed. They were analyzed for special features then focusing on the tendency for online gaming crime. Related prosecutions, offenders, victims, criminal methods, and so on, were analyzed. Findings - According to our analysis of online gaming characteristics in Taiwan, the majority of online gaming crime is theft (73.7 percent) and fraud (20.2 percent). The crime scene is mainly in internet cafés (54.8 percent). Most crimes are committed within the 12:00 to 14:00 time period (11.9 percent). Identity theft (43.4 percent) and social engineering (43.9 percent) are the major criminal means. The offenders (95.8 percent) and victims (87.8 percent) are mainly male and offenders always proceed alone (88.3 percent). The age of offenders is quite low (63.3 percent in the age range of 15-20), and 8.3 percent of offenders are under 15 years old. The offenders are mostly students (46.7 percent) and the unemployed (24 percent), most of them (81.9 percent) not having criminal records. The type of game giving rise to most of the criminal cases is Lineage Online (93.3 percent). The average value of the online gaming loss is about US$459 and 34.3 percent of criminal loss is between $100 and $300. Research limitations/implications - These criminal cases were retrieved from Taiwan in 2002. Some criminal behavior may have been limited to a certain area or a certain period. Practical implications - Provides a useful source of information and constructive advice for the public who will sense the seriousness and influence of online gaming crimes. Further, this topic may have implications on e-commence, e-services, or web-based activities beyond gaming. Originality/value - Since there is little published research in this area, this paper provides the public with a good and original introduction to a topic of growing importance.

Notes: Purpose - This work aims to probe how interface designers concerned with human-computer interaction of community networks might use the theoretical constructs of social capital and activity awareness. Design/methodology/approach - A design model for community network interfaces is introduced that reconciles various computer-mediated communication research contributions with support for typical community network scenarios of use. Using this model, an inspection is performed on existing community network implementations (available December 2002) and then the adequacy of the model for informing the design process is examined. Findings - Based on the insight gained through this analysis, a generic prototype and new user evaluation method are introduced that allow survey of user reaction to community network design elements under differing conditions. It is shown how results obtained through this method frame a value-chain understanding of conceptual tradeoffs. Research limitations/implications - To demonstrate the new user evaluation method in an analysis of critical design tradeoffs, the issues of persistent virtual identity implementation and usage motivation are probed. However, the evaluation method must be validated with other issues and tested by researchers that were not part of its creation process. Practical implications - Contributions from this paper include tools (a design model, a generic prototype, and an evaluation method) linking theory with community design artifacts, building on previous work. Evaluators now have indicators for assessing community informatics. Originality/value - Interface designers of community networks and those interested in social capital theory will appreciate the link between practice and theory provided by this approach.

Notes: Purpose - E-consumers consistently complain that the internet is frustratingly slow. Most existing research on this phenomenon is based on the concept of "download delay", that is, the time required for a web page to fully download to the e-consumer's computer screen. This paper reports on an exploratory study of the phenomenon of waiting for service on the internet with the intention of extending the narrow conceptualisation of the phenomenon of "download delay" to a more user-based perspective of waiting on the internet. Design/methodology/approach - The study is based on a qualitative research methodology. The research methods are seven asynchronous virtual focus groups involving 126 intensive internet users over 17 days and 92 participants who maintained personal diaries of waiting on the internet over a nine-week period. Findings - A new definition of waiting on the internet is proposed based on extensive virtual focus group research. Subsequently, 14 distinct types of internet waiting situations are identified based on the analysis of a total of 1,041 waiting situations as reported by the participants in the study. Practical implications - A number of practical implications for various functional areas of the business are outlined. Conceptual and methodological contributions are also made. Originality/value - The study is the first to present a broader conceptualisation of waiting on the internet from an e-consumer perspective and based on empirical research. All previous research has been based on just one type of online waiting, i.e. waiting for web pages to download to the user's screen. This paper presents 13 "new" types of waiting situations on the internet.

Notes: Purpose - Using Internet Archive's Wayback Machine, higher education web sites were retrospectively analyzed to study the effects that technological advances in web design have had on accessibility for persons with disabilities. Design/methodology/approach - A convenience sample of higher education web sites was studied for years 1997-2002. The homepage and pages 1-level down were evaluated. Web accessibility barrier (WAB) and complexity scores were calculated. Repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to determine trends in the data and Pearson's correlation (r) was computed to evaluate the relationship between accessibility and complexity. Findings - Higher education web sites become progressively inaccessible as complexity increases. Research limitations/implications - The WAB score is a proxy of web accessibility. While the WAB score can give an indication of the accessibility of a web site, it cannot differentiate between barriers posing minimal limitations and those posing absolute inaccessibility. A future study is planned to have users with disabilities examine web sites with differing WAB scores to correlate how well the WAB score is gauging accessibility of web sites from the perspective of the user. Practical implications - Findings from studies such as this can lead to improved guidelines, policies, and overall awareness of web accessibility for persons with disabilities. Originality/value - There are limited studies that have taken a longitudinal look at the accessibility of web sites and explored the reasons for the trend of decreasing accessibility.

Notes: Purpose - The objective of the paper is to identify the factors that encourage consumers to adopt internet banking services in Thailand and to use the study's findings to develop strategies for banks on how to maximize the rate of adoption. Design/methodology/approach - Quantitative research with a sample size of 600 achieved by sending questionnaires to 15 people in each of 40 large companies in Bangkok. The study is based on the Decomposed Planned Behaviour. Findings - The attitudinal factors that appear to encourage the adoption of internet banking in Thailand most are "Features of the web site" and "Perceived usefulness", while the most significant impediment to adoption is a perceived behavioural control, namely "External environment". The significant moderating factors are gender, educational level, income, internet experience and internet banking experience, but not age. Research limitations/implications - In this study, encouragement factors are those that are able to be controlled by banks, while impediment factors are those that are not able to be controlled. Practical implications - It is essential for banks to facilitate encouragement and restrict impediment factors. In addition to the direct "push" from internet banks (in respect of the encouragement factors), indirect persuasion should be carried out as a "pull" mechanism (in respect of the impediment factors). Originality/value - The study identified a number of specific strategies that Thai banks could follow to maximize the adoption of internet banking.

Notes: Purpose - The purposes of this study are to examine internet users' perception of potential harm among a list of products available on internet auction sites, to discuss the influence of the third-person effect on internet users' pro-regulatory attitudes, and to investigate the effects of users' characteristics and perceived harm on their attitudes toward regulation of online auction industry. Design/methodology/approach - An online questionnaire survey was designed and employed to collect information about internet users' third-person effect perception, pro-regulatory attitudes toward internet auction sites, and control variables such as demographics, internet usage, and innovative characteristics. A convenience sample of 592 internet users was recruited to take part in this study. Findings - Internet users' perceptual differences are statistically significant between the estimated influence on self, teenagers, and other adults for each product. Perceived harm to self consistently predicts internet users' pro-regulatory attitudes, but not for teenagers and other adults. Perceived harm to self also predicts pro-regulatory attitudes toward these web sites, even after controlling for potential confounding variables. Research limitations/implications - The study is limited by its convenient sampling method and measurement of internet users' actual and intended behavior. Nevertheless, because internet users play a complex role of buyers, sellers, and possible victims on auction sites, it is important to examine perceptions and motivations underlying their support for regulating online auction industry. Originality/value - The integrated approach of mass communication, electronic commerce activities, and public policy-making perspectives ensures that future regulatory proposal of online auction industry will be comprehensive.

Notes: Purpose - First, to theoretically justify and empirically test the sequence of effects based on the standard learning hierarchy to explain consumers' online buying-related responses. Second, to analyse the moderating role that consumers' internet expertise can play on the formation of both their affective and buying-related responses towards this medium. Design/methodology/approach - This study poses a conceptual model which is tested by means of LISREL. The data used come from a questionnaire applied to American and Spanish internet users. These two countries have been selected taking into account their differences regarding their degree of internet expertise. Findings - The modelling approach appears to be adequate to explain online consumer behaviour. Moreover, different levels of consumers' internet expertise determines, in general, the predominance of the central or the peripheral route within the formation of their affective and behavioural responses to this medium. Research limitations/implications - This study provides a relevant contribution to the field of consumer behaviour on the internet. It presents an extensive literature review; it introduces new concepts and new relations among them; it successfully adapts classic consumer theories, i.e. the CAB paradigm and the Elaboration Likelihood Model - to the electronic market context; and it has a cross-national vision. Practical implications - It shows how any virtual firm which endeavours to understand consumers' shopping behaviour in its web site should consider these general issues in conjunction with the rest of the specific factors and variables related to it. Originality/value - This is one of the first studies which, on the one hand, theoretically integrates in a model the following concepts: beliefs and attitude towards the internet, trust in internet shopping and online shopping, and on the other, demonstrates that the degree of internet expertise plays an essential role in determining how consumers process and form their affective and buying-related responses on the internet.

Notes: Purpose - To propose a model of a privacy-enhanced catalogue search system (PECSS) in an attempt to address privacy threats to consumers, who search for products and services on the world wide web. Design/methodology/approach - The model extends an agent-based architecture for electronic catalogue mediation by supplementing it with a privacy enhancement mechanism. This mechanism introduces fake queries into the original stream of user queries, in an attempt to reduce the similarity between the actual interests of users ("internal user profile") and the interests as observed by potential eavesdroppers on the web ("external user profile"). A prototype was constructed to demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the model. Findings - The evaluation of the model indicates that, by generating five fake queries per each original user query, the user's profile is hidden most effectively from any potential eavesdropper. Future research is needed to identify the optimal glossary of fake queries for various clients. The model also should be tested against various attacks perpetrated against the mixed stream of original and fake queries (i.e. statistical clustering). Research limitations/implications - The model's feasibility was evaluated through a prototype. It was not empirically tested against various statistical methods used by intruders to reveal the original queries. Practical implications - A useful architecture for electronic commerce providers, internet service providers (ISP) and individual clients who are concerned with their privacy and wish to minimize their dependencies on third-party security providers. Originality/value - The contribution of the PECSS model stems from the fact that, as the internet gradually transforms into a non-free service, anonymous browsing cannot be employed any more to protect consumers' privacy, and therefore other approaches should be explored. Moreover, unlike other approaches, our model does not rely on the honesty of any third mediators and proxies that are also exposed to the interests of the client. In addition, the proposed model is scalable as it is installed on the user's computer.

Notes: Purpose - To use the theory of planned behavior (TPB) as a theoretical framework to explore in depth the range of beliefs held by consumers about internet shopping in general and internet grocery shopping in particular. Design/methodology/approach - Seven focus group interviews, four in the United Kingdom and three in Denmark, were conducted among consumers with different degrees of experience with internet grocery shopping. This diversification of respondents was chosen to capture a broad range of the consumer beliefs that predict intentions to buy groceries online or not. The TPB framework was used to construct the interview guide that was followed in all focus groups. Findings - An unexpected result of the explorative study was that the seven groups consisting of more or less experienced internet shoppers differed only little in their pool of beliefs (outcome and control beliefs). Beliefs about internet grocery shopping, positive as well as negative, were remarkably congruent across groups. In the minds of consumers, internet grocery shopping is an advantage compared with conventional grocery shopping in terms of convenience, product range and price. Disadvantages, which could act as mental barriers, are, for instance, the risk of receiving inferior quality groceries and the loss of the recreational aspect of grocery shopping. Research limitations/implications - An important potential limitation of this research is the choice of focus groups as research methodology, which can prevent the elicitation of certain types of beliefs. If important beliefs concern issues of a more sensitive, personal character they are not likely to be mentioned in a focus group. Another limitation is the explorative nature of the research, which makes it impossible to attach weights to the importance of the elicited beliefs in predicting internet shopping behavior. Practical implications - The findings could be used to direct attention to consumer beliefs about internet grocery shopping which have the potential of acting as barriers to this line of e-commerce. Originality/value - To shed some light on the role of consumers in an underperforming and understudied branch of internet retailing. Barriers in the consumers' minds to shop for groceries online are identified using an established theoretical framework.

Notes: Purpose - The objective of this paper is to investigate the legal and technical reasons why a declaration of will, denoted by a digital signature, can be cancelled and how this cancellation can be technically achieved. Design/methodology/approach - Proposes a technical framework for establishing a signature revocation mechanism based on special data structures, the signature revocation tokens (SRT), and investigates the alternatives for disseminating the signature status information (SSI) to the relying parties. Findings - A relying party has to take into consideration the possible existence of a signature revocation, in order to decide on the validity of a digital signature. A scheme based on a central public repository for the archival and distribution of signature revocation tokens exhibits significant advantages against other alternatives. Originality/value - Identifies various intrinsic problems of the digital signature creation process that raise several questions on whether the signer performs a conscious and wilful act, although he/she is held liable for this action. The law faces the eventual right of the signer to claim a revocation of a previously made declaration of will, especially in cases of an error, fraud or duress.

Notes: Purpose - To analyze the relationship between corporate image and consumer trust in the context of financial services distribution. Design/methodology/approach - This paper analyzes the causal relationship that exists between corporate image and consumer trust in the financial services distribution through traditional channels, as well as over the internet. This paper also analyzes the moderating effect of relationship duration on the influence of the corporate image on trust. Findings - The results obtained show that in distribution through traditional channels no significant differences exist in the intensity of the effect of the image on trust in terms of the relationship duration. Nevertheless, significant differences in the financial services distribution over the internet have been observed. Practical implications - The significant influence that image exerts on consumer trust shows us that corporate image becomes a key tool for the management of trust in financial services distribution. Originality/value - Despite the importance that researchers have assigned to the variables of corporate image and trust, much of the work so far is in the initial phase of development. Thus, the majority of the works have been approached from a fundamentally theoretical perspective, or else the empirical testing has been carried out in an indirect way, based on factors that form part of the image or are related to it. Because of this, today there is no research that has empirically evaluated the role played by corporate image in the levels of trust of the consumer of financial services.

Notes: Describes a networked virtual environment, a type of virtualreality most commonly known as a "MUD" or a"MOO", which was used at an internationally-attendedscientific conference held on the Internet. Interviews with conferenceattendees indicated enthusiasm for the effectiveness of the medium, andrevealed how the virtual environment can be modified to improveconferencing efficacy. Such alterations included: novel input-outputcontrol management; automation of conference registration; control ofanonymous or guest connections; simplification of conference centertopography; an improved methodology for recording discussion sessions;use of moderated rooms to compensate for network lag; and providingbuffers to update late arriving participants. Concludes that networkedvirtual environments provide an inexpensive means for effectiveinternational conferencing on the Internet.

Notes: Provides a guide to the increasing number of zoos and associatedsites now using the Internet. Investigates the multiple roles of theInternet for zoos, their staff and visitors, in helping them tocommunicate science and provide a cultural service to the public, inaddition to serving as a means of marketing and publicity.

Notes: Discusses electronic peer review of academic papers on the Internet. Looks at the changes which may occur with the shift from paper to electronic media. Proposes some guidelines for authors, editors and reviewers using electronic publishing.

Notes: Outlines the principle of the Dutch auction, whereby the price begins at a high level and decreases by steps until a bid is made. Describes an integrated hardware and software system which uses Internet communications to enable remotely created bidders to participate in real-time Dutch auctions and which meets the stringent requirement that synchrony be maintained among bidders' terminals to ensure that each bidder has a fair chance to bid at the current offer price. Defines the principal functions of the system and characterizes its available resources. Illustrates implementation using a prototype design. Pays particular attention to bidder terminal synchronization, bidder authentication, and auction client security. Includes the possibility of a system variant using ISDN interconnect and PC-based bidders' terminals.

Notes: As the set of people using computers becomes larger and less cohesive, it is becoming important to educate users about their ethical responsibilities. Design of an effective campus computer ethics policy requires awareness of numerous cultural, technical and legal issues. Especially important are the cultural splits between power users and utilitarian users, and between "old world" and "new world" philosophies of computer ethics. Discusses those issues and presents the University of Georgia's ethics policy as a model to aid those developing similar policies at other institutions.

Notes: Provides a new answer to the resource discovery problem, which arises because although the Internet makes it possible for users to retrieve enormous amounts of information, it provides insufficient support for locating the specific information that is needed. ALIBI (Adaptive Location of Internetworked Bases of Information) is a new tool that succeeds in locating information without the use of centralized resource catalogs, navigation, or costly searching. Its powerful query-based interface eliminates the need for the user to connect to one network site after another to find information or to wrestle with overloaded centralized catalogs and archives. This functionality was made possible by an assortment of significant new algorithms and techniques, including classification-based query routing, fully distributed cooperative caching, and a query language that combines the practicality of Boolean logic with the expressive power of text retrieval. The resulting information system is capable of providing fully automatic resource discovery and retrieval access to a limitless variety of information bases.

Notes: Today, information technology is fundamental to the operation of most businesses, whether they are small companies or multinational corporations. In recent times, the implementation of local and wide area networks and the installation of computing equipment in office areas has brought information technology to nearly every working environment. The result is an increasing dependence on the availability, integrity and confidentiality of information stored and processed by these systems. As the trend shifts from "fortress" style central computer facilities to distributed systems located in generally less secure office environments, the risk of disruption increases, owing to lack of physical security, support services limitations and absence of site monitoring. The net result is higher business impact coupled with greater exposure. Identifies the elements that are at risk, discusses the issues businesses face when seeking to minimize exposures, suggests some practical solutions and describes some selected events that illustrate the hazards associated with having inadequate protection.

Notes: Discusses the problems created by shortfalls in the performance of certain information highway services, Asyncrous Transfer Mode, and in the behavior of users. Describes individual attempts which are being made to iron out these problems, in effect introducing a system of "policing" the network.

Notes: Refers to the growing popularity of "Fidonet" in Africa and compares it with the Internet. Acknowledges that developing countries may miss the information revolution because they lack national information infrastructures and the knowledge and skills required to provide the relevant content for them. Argues that global information should promote human development in areas such as education, health, social services and commercial activity. The Conference of African Ministers recently declared support for the building of Africa's information highway, recognizing the need for African countries to develop information networks for full Internet connectivity, enabling access to the same information systems for Africa's economic recovery and sustainable development.

Notes: The Internet is increasingly used by management professionals to support information gathering and research activities. However, the different sources of information on the Internet (i.e. electronic journals, online databases, messages posted to groups of readers, and e-mail) must be carefully utilized by the prudent manager. In particular, examines three issues surrounding the use and citation of information received via the Internet. The first issue addresses problems surrounding the accuracy and recency of information obtained on the Internet. The second issue focusses on properly categorizing the type of information received. The last issue examines how to reference properly information obtained from the Internet that is used in academic and industrial research. Concludes with a section on ethical issues related to electronic media.

Notes: Examines the challenges that shopping and other commercial transactions on the Internet pose for the retail industry. An increasing number of shopping malls, selling an ever-widening selection of products, are becoming available on the Internet. There are, however, still a number of challenges facing the Internet retailer and shopper. These include: locating the shops, comparison shopping, security, especially in relation to financial transactions, the customer base and profile, the nature of the shopping experience, and legal and marketplace control or lack of them. It is possible to make money on the Internet without selling, but by using the Internet to support other business processes. Currently, many retailers are exploring the potential of the Internet, but the market is still in its infancy. Retailers do, however, report increasing sales and a positive contribution to marketing from visibility on the Internet.

Notes: Electronic publishing needs a strong input of marketing thinking. Technological hype has created a sales fetish which has little evidence to support its claims. The substantive benefits when a broader perspective is taken for authors and readers are very significant, including considerably faster publication and much wider dissemination via Internet. Archival knowledge and current awareness/browsing of the body of knowledge and information require quite different marketing approaches. Little attention has been given to their discrete needs. Draws comparisons from retailing theory and from the emerging range of experimental cases from Internet pioneers to identify robust strategies for short- and medium-term action by publishers. They imply a determined effort to avoid hard selling and product-driven mindsets in favor of exploitation of the scope for interactive and integrated marketing to authors and readers alike.

Notes: Proposes the "cyberpunk librarian" as an identity for the librarian able to operate in the emerging cyberspace. Describes the properties and culture of this electronic frontier. Reviews a broad range of literature to identify future directions for libraries and librarians who will have to seek a response to the major social impact of technology-driven change. Argues that librarians are presented with an opportunity to reaffirm and assert their professional values and beliefs. They can help to shape a vision of cyberspace that provides benefits to society and individuals based on a fair and equitable distribution of information resources.

Notes: Briefly assesses the growth and impact of the Internet, which provides an opportunity for all businesses to use it as a cheap source of communication for more focussed strategic advantage. Outlines some of its benefits and disadvantages if it is used in this way.

Notes: Outlines the reasons for the formation of an Internet-based bank in 1995. States that financial services providers must take any opportunity to provide easier customer access.

Notes: Defines intellectual property rights and infringement. Looks at the current relevant legislation; assesses the extent to which right owners can seek redress, and prevent adaptation of a work, making of transient or incidental copies and the storing of works in any medium by electronic means. Discusses how the inherent territoriality of law and remedy relates to the online world.

Notes: Discusses some of the problems designers face in building catalogs in large networks and relates them back to the resource discovery problem. Currently many catalogs tend to be built in an ad hoc fashion - which leads to a great variety in the quality of publicly accessible network catalogs. Furthermore, the research surrounding these catalogs tends to focus on narrow technical issues - resulting in difficult-to-use catalogs. Addresses this problem by providing a usability framework based on the library science and human computer interaction literature, and demonstrates some of those principles via an example of a prototype. Results are interesting to resource discovery tool developers in that a framework for understanding the general resource discovery problem is provided and some techniques for dealing with those problems are presented.

Notes: Reviews the growth of TayNet, a local service provider which was established to support the development of businesses in Tayside by providing local access to the Internet. Describes the computer, communication and software components of the TayNet Point of Presence along with the technical and end-user evaluation of the pilot phase. Provides sample performance figures along with connection statistics for 45 active participants during an audit week. Describes technical problems experienced and end-user requested features and end-user perceptions and opinions of TayNet and the Internet.

Notes: Explains how the NASA Technical Report Server, a World Wide Web report distribution NASA technical publications service, has been modified for performance enhancement, greater protocol support and human interface optimization. Results include: parallel database queries, significantly decreasing user access times by an average factor of 2.3; access from clients behind firewalls and/or proxies which truncate excessively long Uniform Resource Locators; access to non-Wide Area Information Server (WAIS) databases and compatibility with the Z39-50.3 protocol; and a streamlined user interface.

Notes: Looks at the possible directions in which the information superhighway could take us, considering both the benefits of increased knowledge and subsequent increased participation and also the dangers such as the excess of raw information. Suggests that this information needs to be structured and packaged if it is to have a positive effect. Considers these points in a global sense in terms of humanity as a whole.