Instructor:   Joan Feigenbaum
Course title:  E-Commerce: Doing Business on the Internet
Time: TTh 1-2:15
CR/D/F:  No
Starred:  No
Office Hours: AKW 512, Tues 2:30-3:30, Thurs 11-12
Prof. Feigenbaum's Assistant: Judi Paige (email: judi.paige@yale.edu)
     Phone: 432-1229, Room: AKW 509
TA: Charles Chiou (email: charles.chiou@yale.edu)
     Office Hours:  Mon 4:00-5:00, Wed 1:00-2:00
     Phone: 432-1266, Room: AKW 301
TA: Sheng Zhong (email: sheng.zhong@yale.edu)
     Office Hours:  Thur 2:30 - 3:30, Fri 1:00 - 2:00
     Phone:  432-4091, Room: AKW 514

Brief Description:  Introduction to Electronic Commerce.   Emphasis on Internet business.  Underlying technological developments.  Business models.  Legal, social, and political implications.

Expanded Description: Computers, communication networks, and a wide variety of newer, rapidly developing technologies are an increasingly important part of the ways in which individuals, companies and organizations of all kinds conduct business. These technological changes present challenges that must be faced not only by techologists but also by lawyers, policy-makers, economists, entrepreneurs, ethicists, and many other stakeholders.  Potential topics to be addressed from both technical and non-technical points of view include but are not limited to: information ownership; online privacy rights; intellectual property, digital copyright, and fair use; monopoly, monopsony, and antitrust. Students at all levels of technological expertise and inclination may take the course; projects and assignments will be designed to ensure appropriate choices for students with a wide range of backgrounds.

Prerequisites:  No formal course pre-requisites other than computer literacy and Internet literacy.  Non-science-majors are welcome.

Course requirements:  Homework assignments, two hour exams, and a final paper or project on a topic of the student's choice. No final exam.

Required reading:
(1) The Digital Dilemma: Intellectual Property in the Information Age, National Research Council, 2000, R. David (ed.)

(2) Information Rules: A Strategic Guide to the Networked Economy, Shapiro and Varian, 1998, Harvard Business School Press, Boston.

(3) A modest number of relevant, current articles and web sites.

 Possible Topics For Final Paper or Project

 Lecture Notes - January 9, 2001 (PowerPoint format, pdf format)

Reading assignment for January 11, 2001:
Executive Summary and Chapter 1 of  The Digital Dilemma.
Chapter 1 of Information Rules.

Lecture Notes - January 11, 2001 (PowerPoint format, pdf format)

Reading assignment for January 16, 2001:
Appendix C of  The Digital Dilemma.
"Rethinking the Design of the Internet: The end-to-end arguments vs. the brave new world" (Clark & Blumenthal)
Optional: Some of the other articles on http://www.sobco.com/e.132/reading/arch.html

Homework Assignment 1 - due January 23, 2001

Solutions to Homework Assignment 1

Lecture Notes - January 16, 2001 (PowerPoint format,  pdf format)

Reading assignment for January 18, 2001:
Chapters 2, 3, and 5 of Information Rules.

Lecture Notes - January 18, 2001 (PowerPoint format,  pdf format)

Homework Assignment 2 - due February 1, 2001

Solutions to Homework Assignment 2

Lecture Notes - January 23, 2001 (PowerPoint format,  pdf format)

Reading assignment for January 25 and 30, 2001:
Appendix E of  The Digital Dilemma.

Lecture Notes - January 25, 2001 (PowerPoint format,  pdf format)

Lecture Notes - January 30, 2001 (PowerPoint format,  pdf format)

Reading assignment for February 1 and 6, 2001:
Chapters 4 and 5 of  The Digital Dilemma.
Optional: Chapter 4 of Information Rules.  Three articles about "trusted systems" and digital copyright:
"Shifting the Possible," by Mark Stefik.
"Trusted Systems," by Mark Stefik.
"Letting Loose the Light," by Mark Stefik.

Lecture Notes - February 1, 2001 (PowerPoint format,  pdf format)

Lecture Notes - February 6, 2001 (PowerPoint format, pdf format)

Hour Exam 1 - February 8, 2001

Solutions to Hour Exam 1

Reading assignment for February 13, 2001:
C. Mann,  "The Heavenly Jukebox."
Appendix G of  The Digital Dilemma.

Reading assignment for February 15 and 20, 2001:
Chapter 6 of  The Digital Dilemma.
 Benkler and Lessig's Amici Brief in MPAA v. 2600

Lecture Notes - February 13, 2001 (PowerPoint format, pdf format)

Lecture Notes - February 15, 2001 (PowerPoint format, pdf format)

February 20, 2001:  Guest lecture by Ernest Miller, Resident Fellow,
Information Society Project, Yale Law School

Short bio:  Ernest enlisted in the US Marine Corps in 1986, graduated with honors from the US Naval Academy in 1992 and served five years as a naval officer in Asia before attending Yale Law School.  He interned for the Center for Democracy and Techology and the Department of Justice.  As a fellow of the Information Society Project, he writes on cyberlaw policy issues and assists the Electronic Frontier Foundation in cyber civil liberties litigation.

Homework Assignment 3 - due March 1, 2001

Solutions to Homework Assignment 3

Lecture Notes - February 22, 2001 (PowerPoint format,  pdf format)

Lecture Notes - February 27, 2001 (PowerPoint format,  pdf format)

Lecture Notes - March 1, 2001  (PowerPoint format,  pdf format)

Reading assignment for the week of March 19, 2001:
How XML Enables Internet Trading Communities and Marketplaces  by Robert Glushko
Entering the 21st Century: Competition Policy in the World of B2B Electronic Marketplaces
        Executive Summary, Chapters 1 and 2: Required
        Chapter 3: Optional

Lecture Notes - March 20, 2001  (PowerPoint format,  pdf format)

Homework Assignment 4 - Due March 27, 2001

Solutions to Homework Assignment 4

Examples of Document Type Definitions in XML

March 22, 2001:  Guest lecture by Robert Glushko of CommerceOne

        Abstract:  XML as the Foundation for eMarketplaces and Market-to-Market Interoperability
        Traditional models for electronic business are based on long-term, tightly coupled, and point-to-point
        relationships, often centered around a dominant enterprise that imposes proprietary integration
        approaches on its trading partners.  In contrast, XML enables open, loosely coupled, "eMarketplace"
        models based on standard message components.  An eMarketplace architecture based on XML document
        exchange among buyers, suppliers, and service providers is a natural, efficient, and robust model for
        integrating market participants.  Furthermore, this XML architecture makes document exchange between
        marketplaces fundamentally the same as within a marketplace, which enables a network of marketplaces
        to interconnect and interoperate.

Lecture notes from R. Glushko's talk  (PowerPoint format,  pdf format)

March 27, 2001:  Guest lecture by Bradley Kuszmaul of Akamai Technologies

        Title:  Some Problems Related to Content Distribution: How Akamai Delivers Content

Optional reading assignment for April 5, 2001:
Chapters 5 and 10 of "Code" by Lawrence Lessig.
Cryptography Policy and the Information Economy by Matt Blaze
My Life As An International Arms Courier by Matt Blaze

March 29, 2001:  Question-and-answer session in preparation for Hour Exam 2

Hour Exam 2 - April 3, 2001

Solutions to Hour Exam 2

April 5, 2001:  Guest lecture by Matt Blaze of  AT&T  Labs

Lecture Notes - April 10, 2001 (Powerpoint format,  pdf format)

Lecture Notes - April 12, 2001 (Powerpoint format,  pdf format)

Lecture Notes - April 17, 2001 (Powerpoint format,  pdf format)

April 19, 2001:  Final projects/papers are due in class.

Lecture Notes - April 19, 2001 (Powerpoint format,  pdf format)