Electronic Commerce Resources

This is a collection of various bits and pieces of information relevant to electronic commerce that can be found on the Internet. If you have something you would like to add to this list, please send the information to finin@cs.umbc.edu

Mailing list for the Internet Mall

IMALL-L is a biweekly mailing of the Internet Mall list of online businesses. Send a "subscribe imall-l" message to listserv@netcom.com. A "subscribe IMALL-CHAT" message gets a companion discussion list. For a single copy of the Mall, post a "send mall" subject line to Dave Taylor (taylor@netcom.com) -- or use a "send addme" subject line for instructions on listing your own business. [NEW-LIST, 8/24/94. net-hap.] (220 shops at present, growing by dozens per month.)

Internet discount superstore

Computer Express (Sudbury, MA) has opened its "Internet discount superstore" with email, gopher, and WWW storefronts for over 3,000 computer products. Sales on CompuServe, Prodigy, Delphi, and AOL have been growing 40% per year, with 150K "shopper visits" per month. Contact info@cexpress.com, gopher cexpress.com 2600, or visit http://cexpress.com:2700/. [Ira Hirsch, (508) 443-6125. Russ Wilcox (rwilcox1@tiac.net), net-hap, 8/11/94.]

Insight Direct, Inc.

Insight Direct, Inc. (catalog@insightd.com) sells 20K hardware and software products, 24 hours/day. SofTools International (softools@delphi.com) offers 1,500 technical and scientific software packages. [Dave Taylor (taylor@netcom.com), Internet Mall, 8/1/94.]

The Internet ShopKeeper v1.0 is a WWW "mall server" providing ordering support for online storefronts. Each store item may be displayed with graphics, an audio file, demo software, etc. Orders are placed using an online "form" or entry screen that is emailed to the shop owner. Contact http://www.ip.net/shops.html or webdev@tcp.ip.net, 804.446.9060, 804.446.9061 Fax. [Internet Presence & Publishing (keith@tcp.ip.net), inet-marketing, 8/2/94.]

CyberDeals is a new shopping WWW server "offering 24-hour service" at low overhead to retailers. http://cyberdeals.com/. [David Sharma, c.i.www, 7/9/94. net-hap.]

VSERV from MCSNet (Chicago) provides small businesses with a turnkey WWW, FTP, or Gopher presence for under $100/month. Imagemaps and forms are under full client control. Karl Denninger (karl@mcs.com), 312-248-8649, or info@mcs.net, http://www.mcs.net, or gopher.mcs.net. [alt.internet.services, 8/12/94. net-hap.]

NetBank now offers a payment service for shareware and other online information services. You order $10 coupons from a 900 number, or send NetBank a check for any amount (in $.25 increments) at a 10% discount. (Mailed checks must clear before you get your email coupons.) A NetBank email server can combine or break coupons into "quarters," "dollars," etc. You send coupons (e.g., "NetCash $ 10.00 E1234H5678W") to the vendor, who sends them to NetBank to get new, validated coupons. There are no transaction fees. The vendor may spend the new coupons for online services or deposit them in a withdrawal account. The latter are cashed out by check once a month, less service charges. It's like using a foreign currency. For the FAQ, send a "netbank-faq" message to netbank- info@agents.com. [rgardner@charon.mit.edu, 7/13/94.] (Possible problems, as initially announced: Getting coupons at $10 per call is too cumbersome (and by mail is equally so); the coupons are cumbersome; security/encryption is left to users and vendors; cashing out monthly is too restrictive (especially since no interest is paid); and the service charge for cashing out exceeds 20% (to pay for 900-number charges or purchasing discounts). I'd be happier with a debit card using public-key encryption to validate transactions in any amount.)

DigiCash is starting an e-cash trial; contact ecash-beta @digicash.support.nl to participate as a possible buyer, or to stay informed of developments. David Chaum (info@digicash.nl), +31 20 665 2611, +31 20 668 5486 Fax; http://digicash.support.nl. [Ed Vielmetti (emv@recepsen.aa.msen.com), 7/14/94.]

BiblioBytes has developed an Internet Creditcard Encryptor for taking credit orders over the net. info@bb.com, 201-222-1600. [Glenn Hauman (g.hauman@genie.geis.com), small-press, 8/4/94.] (Fewer than 1% of CommerceNet customers are using encryption of card numbers. "It's a non-issue.")

NetMarket is a PGP-encryption service for Mosaic credit-card transactions. For info, connect to http://www.netmarket.com/ or telnet netmarket.com, or email/finger info@netmarket.com. A PGP-capable version of X Mosaic from NCSA is required for transactions. (Finger pgp@netmarket.com for their public key.) The NetMarket Company has so far signed up only a florist and a music CD vendor. [Guy H.T. Haskin (guy@netmarket.com), net-hap, 8/12/94.] (The NYT had an article about it on 8/12/94, D1.)

The Internet Business Center (IBC)

The Internet Business Center (IBC) offers up-to-date information about doing business on the Internet. http://www.tig.com/IBC/. It's from the Internet Group, The Internet Letter, and Internet Info. [Mike Bauer (bauer@tig.com), net-hap, 7/17/94.]

NIST's Office of Enterprise Integration

NIST has created an Office of Enterprise Integration (OEI) for information infrastructure development (NII), enterprise integration, and electronic commerce. Cita M. Furlani has been named to head the OEI, within NIST's Computer Systems Laboratory. Room 102, Bldg 415, NIST, Gaithersburg, MD 20899-0001; (301) 975-4529, (301) 948-7242 Fax. Net contact jbrooks@nist.gov. [NIST UPDATE, 8/1/94.]

Electronic Data Interchange

A repository of information on electronic data interchange including information on a number of mailing lists for discusiing these issues.

Commercial Use (of the net) Strategies Home Page

Entrepreneurs on the Web (notime@wwa.com)

How to Advertise on the Internet

A print version pf How to Advertise on the Internet can be pre-ordered at 50% discount until 8/31/94 from at380@freenet.carleton.ca.

CommerceNet

EIT lead the formation of a consortium, which applied for and has received a federal Technology Reinvestment Program grant. The consortium has created CommerceNet, an electronic commerce pilot program linking Bay Area companies to their customers, suppliers, and development partners over the Internet. You can connect directly to CommerceNet from here.

Virtual Contractor

Virtual Contractor is a WWW site brokering contract computer programming and services. You may post your needs for services, anonymously. VC will forward replies, and will maintain a blurb file from each contractor. No charge to either party. file://netcom2.netcom.com/pub/iceman/VC/VC.html. [David Cook (iceman@netcom.com), c.i.announce, 7/10/94. Ed Vielmetti. TCC 8/18]

About getting business going in Cyberspace: pointers from By Dr. Harry Tennant, tennant@metronet.com.