An important factor in the growth of the Web is electronic commerce: the ability to buy, sell, and advertise goods and services to customers and consumers. The Web is a new communications medium and, like all new media, requires us to rethink the existing solutions to age-old problems. The World Wide Web Consortium is concerned with the evolution of the medium itself. We must both understand the problems and work with our members to contribute to the solutions. The proposed Electronic Commerce Interest Group is a forum designed to allow the members to share information with the Consortium staff and other members about:
The Interest Group meets three times a year for two years, with meetings spread across North America, Europe, and Asia/Pacific. There will also be an on-going email list associated with the Interest Group. There is no required resource commitment beyond attendance at any or all of the meetings, although registration is required for each meeting.
The Interest Group has no decision-making authority and is strictly advisory to the W3C staff. Nonetheless, we expect it to be the forum from which we will draw participants in the design of briefing packages for work related to Electronic Commerce. It will also serve to help refine the requirement of any technical work in this area to be undertaken by W3C.
In the past, W3C has sponsored an "electronic commerce working group" which has had a number of meetings and which lead to the creation of the original Joint Electronic Payment Initiative (JEPI) project. That group has not met for some time, and the Electronic Commerce Interest Group is intended as a replacement.
This is a proposal for a forum in which W3C Members may exchange ideas about Electronic Commerce. The primary goal is to act as an information exchange mechanism between members and from members to the W3C staff. It offers an opportunity for the membership to inform the staff and other members of their concerns and priorities in this domain. Topics of discussion are likely to include business models, barriers to success, technical difficulties, partnering opportunities, and work in related areas.
The purpose of the Interest Group is to act as an information interchange mechanism among its participants. The Interest Group will meet roughly every four months and will expire after two years. All meetings will be announced (with a tentative agenda and time and location of the meeting) at least four weeks prior to the meeting. Informal reports from the meetings will be provided to the W3C staff and the full Advisory Committee shortly after each meeting.
Between meetings, Interest Group members may use archived e-mail lists to raise questions or discuss issues related to Electronic Commerce and the role of the W3C. The Interest Group will be supported by a Web page that will have this briefing package, links to the email lists, and meeting logistics. As part of the Web page, we are investigating methods for encouraging interactive discussions, membership comments, responses and feedback.
The Chairperson of the Interest Group will be a W3C staff member (initially Jim Miller, Domain Leader for Technology and Society). No decisions that affect the W3C can be made within the Interest Group, however proposals may be created and submitted to the full membership for voting if appropriate. The face-to-face meetings will be organized by the Chairperson to be consistent with their agendas and maximize the Staff's ability to learn from the forum.
W3C staff will be assigned as follows:
Interest Group Chairperson: 5% (Jim Miller)
Administration: 5% (Susan Hardy)
Staff funding for this Project will come from W3C membership dues.
Each member company choosing to participate in the Interest Group is expected to identify one or more individuals who will contribute to the group discussions. Members may send any number of representatives to meetings of the Interest Group, but space constraints may limit the total number of participants. No a priori commitments to the Interest Group are required. Commitments to aid in the conduct of the business of the Interest Group -- such as hosting a meeting, helping with a report or proposal -- will be welcome. While the representative from a member organization can change from meeting to meeting (especially because of the geographic rotation of the meetings) it is best to avoid this if possible.
Note: With the exception of the first meeting, all of the meetings of the Electronic Commerce Interest Group are full day meetings. The day prior to each meeting is a meeting of the Policy Interest Group, and the following day is a meeting of the Security Interest Group. Each year, one meeting is co-located with the International World Wide Web Conference and held on the Saturday following the conference. The remaining meetings are on a Wednesday. Hosts are encouraged to sponsor a full week of meetings and will have an opportunity to suggest additional events, which they find particularly important, for Monday and Friday.
Friday 11 April 1997 Santa Clara, CA, USA (6th
International World Wide Web Conference). See accompanying Call for
Participation for details.
Wednesday 3 September 1997 Brussels, Belgium
Wednesday 7 January 1998 Seattle, WA, USA (Microsoft host)
Tuesday 21 April 1998 Brisbane, Australia (7th International
World Wide Web Conference)
Wednesday 21 October 1998 Boston, MA, USA (W3C/MIT host)
Wednesday 24 February 1999 Geneva?, Europe
Saturday 5 June 1999 Toronto, Canada (8th International World Wide
Web Conference).
Wednesday 22 September 1999 Tokyo?, Japan?
This Interest Group does not expect to depend on any pre-existing intellectual property, although members and W3C staff are free to discuss their own property under the usual rules for public disclosure. No specifications will be produced. Ownership of white papers, presentations, etc. directly resulting from the Interest Group is jointly held by the authors and the W3C.
Jim Miller <JMiller>
WebmasterElectronic Commerce Interest Group
Dear Advisory Committee Member,
This Call for Participation (CFP) and respective briefing package ( http://www-swiss.ai.mit.edu/~jmiller/ecommerceig.htm) constitute the W3C Staff's suggestion for creating an effective discussion forum. The goal is to discuss facilitating electronic commerce on the Web and define W3C's role in this area.
Key points for consideration:
PARTICIPATION
The first meeting will be held in conjunction with the 6th International World Wide Web Conference. There is a full Electronic Commerce track planned for Tuesday-Thursday April 8-10. April 11 is the "Developers Day" and has a full track devoted to Electronic Commerce as well. Much of the technical work that W3C had intended to present at the first Interest Group meeting has been folded into the early part of the Developers Day agenda in exchange for meeting space at the conference from 2:30pm to 5:30pm. Thus, the first meeting of the Electronic Commerce Interest group will be held:
Friday 11 April 1997
2:30pm to 5:30pm
Santa Clara Convention Center
Santa Clara, CA
USA
Registration for the Developers Day is done directly with the Conference (W3C is not directly affiliated with the conference committee), and a fee is required. Registration for the W3C Electronic Commerce Interest Group meeting is done through the URL http://www.w3.org/SOMETHING and must be completed by 6pm EST on Friday 4 April 1997 (one week prior). There is no fee for participation in the Interest Group, and the Interest Group meeting is open only to W3C members (and special guests invited by the Chairperson of the group).
Agenda:
2:30pm to 2:45pm: Introduction
Jim Miller, W3C Domain Leader for Technology and Society
2:45pm to 3:15pm: Keynote and questions
Bob Wientzen, President of the Direct Marketing Association
3:15pm to 4:15pm: Technology Update
GCTech, IBM, Microsoft, OpenMarket, Ericsson
4:15pm to 4:30pm: Barriers to Electronic Commerce
Hewlett-Packard
4:30pm to 5:15pm: Moderated Discussion
Randy Whiting (CommerceNet), moderator
5:15pm to 5:30pm: Closing Remarks
Jim Miller, W3C
Future meetings:
Wednesday 3 September 1997 Brussels, Belgium
Wednesday 7 January 1998 Seattle, WA, USA (Microsoft host)
Tuesday 21 April 1998 Brisbane, Australia (7th International
World Wide Web Conference)
Wednesday 21 October 1998 Boston, MA, USA (W3C/MIT host)
Wednesday 24 February 1999 Geneva?, Europe
Saturday 5 June 1999 Toronto, Canada (8th International World Wide
Web Conference).
Wednesday 22 September 1999 Tokyo?, Japan?
PROCEDURE:
PARTICIPATION PROPOSAL FORM
First Name:
Last Name:
Email Address:
Employer:
Mark if you plan to participate in the Electronic Commerce Interest Group. The success of this interest group depends on your active participation.
[ ] Electronic Commerce Interest Group
We will be willing to provide the following personnel resources to participate in the Electronic Commerce Interest Group:
We have intellectual property rights related to the Electronic Commerce Interest Group, and will dispose of them as follows:
We will participate only under the following conditions:
Other items to be considered by the W3C Director: