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
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 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.
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
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:
Visit sites of
Nets, Inc. and Open Markets, Inc.
Guest speakers:
Jim Manzi, CEO,
Nets, Inc.
Submit personal URL to TA.
Shikhar Ghosh, Co-founder and Chairman,
Open Markets, Inc.
Kalakota & Whinston: ch 8.
Ali-Ahmed, Kazarian and Mayle, "CUC International: Shoppers Advantage"
(Note: now called NetMarket
Alba, et al., "Home Shopping and the Retail Industry"
Sterne: Chap 3 (skim)
Visit sites of Internet Shopping Network (www.internet.net)
and HomeRuns (www.homeruns.com)
Guest speakers:
Bill Rollinson, co-founder and VP Marketing,
Internet Shopping Network
Tom Furber, VP Hannaford Bros., Manager,
HomeRuns
Kalakota & Whinston: ch 10. (skim)
Sterne: Chap: 4, 5, 6
Visit Peapod site.
Guest speaker:
Team project #1 (Research briefing): draft presentation due.
Project team presentations of results from
the first project
Project #1 written report due.
Apr 2 Marketing strategies and the internet
Other readings to be assigned
Guest speakers:
Guest speakers: [To be announced]
Guest speaker:
Guest speakers: [to be announced]
Note: The class will vote at the beginning of the term on when to have these presentations:
May 7 Team project presentations (continued)
May 14 Team project presentations (continued)
Team project #2 (Case study and analysis):
Written report due
Below are a number aspects of electronic commerce and marketing on the internet that might make interesting topics for the research briefing that comprises the first project. A number of the topics were investigated last year but have had new developments occur since then. The list is by no means exhaustive and teams are welcome to suggest other topics or modify these..
The evolving options for local access
Search engines, agents, and filters
Servers
Electronic payment systems
Privacy
Disintermediation
Brokers
Auctions on the web
Intranets
Internet advertising
Direct marketing on the internet
Security
Relationship marketing on the internet
Business to business marketing
Pricing strategies for information goods
Successful retailing models
EDI on the web
Measuring advertising exposure
Publishing on the web
Log files and their analysis
Ad placement software
The AOL pricing debacle
Implications of the Web on international marketing
Web based communities
Desktop vs. internet based applications
Wall Street and the internet
Internet TV channel metaphor
Censorship on the Web
Net computer