Course Instructors:

Professor Thomas W. Malone, E53-333, 253-6843, malone@mit.edu

Professor John D. C. Little, E56-308, 253-3738, jlittle@mit.edu

Admin. Assistant:

David B. Fitzgerald III, E53-330, 253-4950, dfitz@MIT.EDU

Teaching Assistants:

Oliver Chow (assignments, grading), 661-7853, OliverChow@aol.com

Stephen Buckley (course webmaster), 253-7636, sbuckley@mit.edu

Class Time: Wednesdays, 2:30 - 5:30

Class Place: Room: E51-335

Class Home Page: http://ccs.mit.edu/15963

Office Hours: By appointment

Course description

This seminar will examine the progress and potential of the Internet, World Wide Web, and other forms of computing and telecommunications technology for the marketing of goods and services. Much is happening in this area and the rate of new development borders on the astonishing. Our plan is to scan the environment with the help of student projects, guest speakers, readings, and lectures. Class dicussions and guest speakers will take up both technology and marketing issues.

Readings

Readings packets with required readings are available from Graphic Arts, E52-045. Occasional additional readings will be handed out in class.

The following books are required:

Kalakota, R. & Whinston, A. B. Electronic Commerce: A Manager's Guide. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1997.

Sterne, J. Customer Service on the Internet. New York: Wiley & Sons, 1996.

The following documents are available on reserve in Dewey Library:

Spring 1996 15.967 Collected Research Briefings (6 copies)

Spring 1996 15.967 Collected Case Studies (6 copies)
(A summary of the 1996 15.967 Case Studies is available)

Assignments and other course activities

Team projects

Project work will be undertaken by student teams of approximately four people. Groups will carry out two projects during the term and give presentations on them. The first project is a research briefing. Its purpose is to develop up-to-date information on a relevant technology or other aspect of electronic commerce and marketing and to share it with the rest of the class and others. Since the field is changing so fast, such an environmental scan can help bring together the latest information for everyone. The output of the briefing will be an informational website as well as an oral presentation and written report. The first project is due a week before spring break. The appendix to the syllabus has a sample list of potential briefing projects.

The second project is a case study built around an existing or proposed activity in electronic commerce or marketing. Typically, the project might analyze a specific site, describing its underlying business model and strategy, indicating what was working, what was not, and how the site or business model might be improved. Alternatives might include analyzing a group of sites or an industry or a prospective business opportunity. The second project will be reported orally and in writing at the end of the term.

Team advisors

Each team will have the option of working with a "company advisor" from one of the companies sponsoring the MIT Initiative on "Inventing the Organizations of the 21st Century." Teams will be able to draw upon their company advisors for suggestions of sites to study, questions to ask, places to look for information, and ways of presenting their results. In some cases, for example, company advisors may suggest sites to study in their own organizations, their customers' organizations, or other organizations they would like to understand better.

In addition to learning from the results of their own team's work, advisors will also be invited to the sessions at the end of the semester durung which all the tieams will be presenting their work. In this way the advisors will get to know groups of students at MIT, which may be of value for recruiting or other networking purposes.

The exact nature and intensity of the relationship between teams and advisors will, of course, vary depending on the individuals involved, and some teams may choose not to have an advisor at all. However, we expect that, in many cases, both students and advisors will find this a valuable experience.

Class preparation and participation

The readings provide preparation for the outside speakers and classroom discussion. In addition to doing the readings, students should access and contribute to class information and discussions on the couse web site

Personal web pages

It is highly desirable that each student in the course have at least some hands on experience with the technology of web pages. Many students will already have their own home page, but those who do not are asked to bring one up. A lab session will be arranged for those who would like instruction.

Informal dinners with speakers

Many of the outside speakers have been invited to go to dinner with a small group of students after class and several have accepted. The plan is to invite 6-8 students on a sign-up basis. Priority will be first-come-first-serve except that individuals doing projects for which a speaker has special relevance will be given extra preference.

Credit and grading

This is a 9 unit course (3-0-6 H-level grad credits). Grades will be assigned on the following basis:

Class participation	20%
Personal web site	5%
Team projects Background briefing (including web presentation)	25%
Case study and analysis	50%.

I. INTRODUCTION

Feb 5 Course overview and Internet technology

Kalakota & Whinston: ch 1 (skim), 2 (skim), 3,4. (skim), 3, 4.

Berners-Lee, T. et al, The World-Wide Web, Communications of the ACM, August 1994, pp. 76-82. (skim)

Guest speaker:
David Clark, Senior Research Scientist, MIT Laboratory for Computer Science

Feb 12 Frameworks for electronic commerce

Malone, T. W., Yates, J., & Benjamin, R. I. Electronic markets and electronic hierarchies, Communications of the ACM, 1987, 30, 484-497.

Hoffman, D. L., Novak, T. P., & Chatterjee, P. Commercial Scenarios for the Web: Opportunities and Challenges. Journal for Computer Mediated Communication, 1, 3 (Dec 1995). Also available at: http://shum.huji.ac.il/jcmc/vol1/issue3/hoffman.html.

Malone, T. W., Crowston, K., Lee, J. and Pentland, B., Dellarocas, C., Wyner, G., Quimby, J., Osborne, C., & Bernstein, A. (1997). Tools for inventing organizations: Toward a handbook of organizational processes. Working Paper. Cambridge, MA: MIT Center for Coordination Science.

Sterne: Introduction, Chap. 1, Chap. 2

Submit names of team members and tentative topic for first project to TA

Feb 19 Software for electronic commerce

Case Studies:

Open Markets, Inc. (HBS Case No. N9-195-205) (skim)
Open Markets, Inc.: Managing in a Turbulent Environment
(HBS Case No. 9-196-097). (skim)


Visit sites of Nets, Inc. and Open Markets, Inc.

Guest speakers:

Jim Manzi, CEO, Nets, Inc.
Shikhar Ghosh, Co-founder and Chairman, Open Markets, Inc.

Submit personal URL to TA.