E-Commerce: Doing Business on the Internet
CPSC 155b, Spring 2003

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Schedule with Lecture Notes and Handouts

Note: This schedule is tentative. Small adjustments may be necessary, e.g., to accommodate invited speakers' schedules.

Lecture notes are available in two formats. To view the PowerPoint version, you will need Microsoft PowerPoint 97/98/2000/2001/XP/v.X or the Microsoft PowerPoint viewer (free download) installed on your machine. To view PDF files, you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader (free download) installed on your machine.

Documents not available online will be distributed in class. A limited number of paper copies of online documents (for those unable to access them or print them) will be available outside the TA's office, AKW 412.

Readings marked Text are from the course textbook, Trust and Risk in Internet Commerce by L. Jean Camp (MIT Press, 2000). A preliminary online version is available.

Submit all homeworks online; see these instructions.

January 14 First day of class; Course overview	Lecture notes: PowerPoint, PDF Reading assignment for 1/16: Chapter 1 of Information Rules, Shapiro and Varian, Harvard Business School Press, 1999. [available only in print form] Executive Summary of The Digital Dilemma, National Research Council, 2000. "The Myth of Internet Time", Andrew Odlyzko, 2001.
January 16 How does the Internet work?	Lecture notes: PowerPoint, PDF Reading assignment for 1/21: Text, chapter 1. "Rethinking the design of the Internet: The end to end arguments vs. the brave new world" [PDF], Clark and Blumenthal, 2000. (Optional) "TCP and UDP", Steven Steinke, from NetworkMagazine.com. PDF version [Local PDF] for printing also available. (Optional) "How Domain Name Servers Work", from HowStuffWorks.com.
January 21 How does the Internet work? (continued)	Lecture notes: PowerPoint, PDF Reading assignment for 1/23: Text, chapter 2. Chapter 4 of Blown to Bits, Philip Evans and Thomas Wurster, Harvard Business School Press, 1999 [available only in print form]. First written homework assignment [PDF] is due in class January 28. See additional notes about the homework. Solutions [PDF] are now available.
January 23 Archetypal Internet businesses: Netscape and Amazon	Note: Professor Feigenbaum's office hours are canceled today. The TA will hold usual office hours on Wednesday. Lecture notes: PowerPoint, PDF Homework for 1/28: Reminder, first written assignment [PDF] due next class. See additional notes about the homework. Solutions [PDF] are now available.
January 28 B2C Commerce	First written homework assignment [PDF] due in class today. See additional notes about the homework. Solutions [PDF] are now available. Lecture notes: PowerPoint, PDF Reading assignment for 1/30: "The Heavenly Jukebox" [Local PDF], printed in The Atlantic Monthly, September 2000. Chapter 2 of The Digital Dilemma.
January 30 Introduction to Online Content Distribution	Lecture notes: PowerPoint, PDF Reading assignment for 2/4: Chapter 4 and Appendix G of The Digital Dilemma.
February 4 Copyright Law	Lecture notes: PowerPoint, PDF Reading assignment for 2/6: Text, chapters 3 and 4.
February 6 Peer-to-Peer File Sharing and Internet Music	Solutions [PDF] to the first homework assignment [PDF] are now available. Lecture notes: PowerPoint, PDF Reading assignment for 2/11: Text, chapter 5.
February 11 Introduction to B2B Commerce; Covisint and VeriSign	Lecture notes: PowerPoint, PDF Reading assignment for 2/13: TIA Systems at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Read through this short webpage, the Information Paper [PDF], and the FAQs [PDF]. EPIC TIA page at the Electronic Privacy Information Center. Read through the "Introduction" and "Recent News Flashes" sections of this page. Also follow the link to the letter from the ACM. The second written homework assignment [PDF], due Tuesday, 2/18, is now available online. Submit your answers electronically following these instructions.
February 13 Crypto and Security Review; XML and B2B Commerce	Note: Professor Feigenbaum's office hours are canceled today, but lecture will still take place. The TA will hold usual office hours on Wednesday. Lecture notes: PowerPoint, PDF Homework assignment for 2/18: Chapters 1 and 2 of Database Nation [available in print form only]. Second written homework assignment [PDF] must be submitted electronically by 5pm EST on Tuesday.
February 18 Invited Lecture	Second written homework assignment [PDF] must be submitted electronically by 5pm EST today. Solutions [PDF] are now available. Invited lecture by Simson Garfinkel, author of Database Nation and a student at MIT. Title: Fair Information Practices Notes: Slides for this talk are not available, but see Lorrie Cranor's slides on privacy (PowerPoint, PDF), which contain many of the relevant points. Abstract: I'm going to be speaking in class about fair information practices. I'm going to start with an overview of FIPS, starting with the origination of the credit reporting industry, the congressional hearings in the 1960s, the FCRA, Europe, Canada, and recent legislation in the US. The class should end with a discussion of information that websites collect, how the information is used, how it has been misused, and what they should be aware of in the future when dealing with online services. Short Bio: Simson L. Garfinkel is a researcher in the field of computer security and commentator on information technology. As a researcher, Garfinkel is currently a graduate student at the Laboratory for Computer Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he is working on his doctorate. Prior to joining LCS, Garfinkel founded Sandstorm Enterprises, a computer security firm that develops offensive information warfare tools used by businesses and governments to audit their systems. Prior to founding Sandstorm, Garfinkel founded Vineyard.NET, the Internet Service Provider (ISP) for Martha's Vineyard, in 1995. In 2000 he successfully negotiated the sale of Vineyard.NET to Broadband2Wireless (BB2W), a venture-funded broadband wireless ISP. When BB2W failed, Garfinkel negotiated the repurchase of Vineyard.NET from BB2W's bankruptcy court.
February 20 C2C Commerce and eBay	Lecture notes: PowerPoint, PDF Homework: begin reviewing for first exam, given in class February 27. Solutions [PDF] to the second homework are now available.
February 25 Venture Capital	Lecture notes: PowerPoint, PDF Reminder: First exam given in class on Thursday.
February 27 Exam	First exam [PDF] in class today (solutions [PDF] are available). This exam will cover lectures through 2/20. Reading for 3/4: Text, chapters 6-8. The third homework assignment [PDF] is due next Thursday, 3/6. Consult the following for more examples of DTDs: "Examples of Document Type Definition in XML" [PDF], Sheng Zhong, Yale University, March 2001.
March 4 Portals	Lecture notes: PowerPoint, PDF Reading for 3/6: Google Reviewer's Guide Google Company Overview (including pages that are linked from here, e.g., "Company Milestones") "How Internet Search Engines Work", HowStuffWorks.com Reminder: Third written homework assignment [PDF] must be submitted online by 5pm EST on Thursday. For additional help with XML, consult the examples document linked above (see 2/27). Reading about the France vs. Yahoo case can be found in the Jurisdiction section of the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) website.
March 6 Web Searching and Google	Third written homework assignment [PDF] must be submitted online by 5pm EST today. Solutions [PDF] are now available. Lecture notes: PowerPoint, PDF Solutions [PDF] to the first exam [PDF] are now available.
March 25 Invited Lecture	The fourth written homework assignment [PDF], due 4/1, is now available. Solutions [PDF] are also available. First of two invited lectures by Brian LaMacchia of Microsoft. Title: Content Distribution, Rights Management, and Trusted Platforms Slides: PowerPoint (1.2MB), PDF (904KB) Short Bio: Brian A. LaMacchia is a Software Architect in the Windows Trusted Platforms Technologies group at Microsoft, a position he has held since June 2002. Previously Brian was the Development Lead for the .NET Framework Security infrastructure, and he began his career at Microsoft as the Program Manager for core cryptography in Windows 2000. Prior to joining Microsoft Brian was a member of the Public Policy Research Group at AT&T Labs-Research in Florham Park, NJ. He received S.B., S.M., and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT in 1990, 1991, and 1996, respectively.
March 27 Invited Lecture	Homework: fourth written assignment [PDF] must be submitted electronically by 5pm on Tuesday, 4/1. Solutions [PDF] are now available. For more information about Kleinberg's framework (question 1c), the following readings are suggested: The introduction (Section 1) of "Authoritative Sources in a Hyperlinked Environment" [PDF], Jon Kleinberg, SODA 1998. "The Structure of the Web", Jon Kleinberg and Steve Lawrence, Science, November 2001. Second of two invited lectures by Brian LaMacchia. Title: Web Services Slides: PowerPoint (5.3MB), PDF (3MB) (These are large files; do not download them over a slow connection.)
April 1 Invited Lecture	Fourth written homework assignment [PDF] must be submitted electronically by 5pm EST today. Solutions [PDF] are now available. The TA's office hours are canceled on Monday, March 31. Please send questions to Vijay by e-mail throughout the weekend and Monday; he will try to answer promptly. Invited lecture by Dr. David Cohn of IBM Research. Title: "On Demand" and E-Commerce Short Bio: Dr. David L. Cohn is Director, e-Business Solutions & Autonomic Computing at IBM's T. J. Watson Research Laboratory. He supervises a research team and directs worldwide strategy in support of e-Business on Demand, including autonomic computing, business process management and integration and the evolution of eCommerce. Prior to his current position, Dr. Cohn was Director of IBM's Austin Research Laboratory, and as Director, strategic Projects at Corporate Headquarters. Before joining IBM, he was Professor of Computer Science & Engineering and Professor of Electrical Engineering at Notre Dame.
April 3 Invited Lecture	Invited lecture by Helen Nissenbaum, Associate Professor, Culture & Communication, Computer Science and Senior Fellow, Information Law Institute, at New York University. Short bio: Helen Nissenbaum is Associate Professor in the Department of Culture and Communication and a Senior Fellow of the Information Law Institute, New York University. She specializes in social, ethical, and political dimensions of information technology. Her published works on privacy, property rights, electronic publication, accountability, the use of computers in education, and values embodied in computer systems have appeared in scholarly journals of philosophy, applied ethics, law, and computer science. She is author of Emotion and Focus (University of Chicago Press), co-editor (with D.J. Johnson) of Computers, Ethics and Social Values (Prentice-Hall), and a founding co-editor of the journal, Ethics and Information Technology (Kluwer Academic Press). Grants from the National Science Foundation and Ford Foundation have supported her research and she has served on committees of the National Academy of Sciences, National Science Foundation, UNESCO, AAAS, and the ACM.  Before joining NYU, Nissenbaum was a Member of the School of Social Science, Institute for Advanced Study, Associate Director of Princeton University Center for Human Values, and Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for the Study of Language and Information, Stanford University. She earned a B.A. (Honors) from the University of Witwatersand, Johannesburg and a Ph.D. in philosophy from Stanford University. The article on the politics of search engines [PDF] mentioned in class may be of interest.
April 8 Open Source	Solutions [PDF] to the third homework [PDF] are now available. The fifth homework assignment [PDF], due 4/15, is now available. Solutions [PDF] are also available. Lecture Notes: PowerPoint, PDF Reading assignment for 4/10: Executive Summary of Who Goes There: Authentication through the Lens of Privacy. Executive Summary of IDs -- Not that Easy: Questions about Nationwide Identity Systems.
April 10 Invited Lecture	Reminder: fifth homework assignment [PDF] must be submitted online by 5pm EDT, Tuesday, 4/15. Solutions [PDF] are now available. Invited lecture by Joe Pato, Principal Scientist, Trust, Security & Privacy at the Trusted Systems Lab - HP Labs. Title: Identity Management: Enterprise, E-Commerce and Government applications and their implications for privacy Slides: PowerPoint, PDF Handouts and References: ID Card Handouts: PowerPoint, PDF Technical Report [PDF] that corresponds to the slides from the lecture. (This is a good source of written notes about the lecture.) HP Vision for FIPPs [PDF] that discusses the "Ginger example" from lecture. Abstract: Identity Management is the set of processes, tools and social contracts surrounding the creation, maintenance and termination of a digital identity for people or, more generally, for systems and services to enable secure access to an expanding set of systems and applications.   Traditionally, identity management has been a core component of system security environments where it has been used for the maintenance of account information for login access to a system or a limited set of applications. More recently, however, identity management has exploded out of the purview of information security professionals and has become a key enabler for electronic business.   As the richness of our electronic lives mirrors our physical world experience, as activities such as shopping, discussion, entertainment and business collaboration are conducted as readily in the cyber world as in person, we begin to expect more convenience from our electronic systems. We expect our personal preferences and profile to be readily available so that, for example, when we visit an electronic merchant we needn't tediously enter home delivery information; when participating in a discussion, we can check the reputation of other participants; when accessing music or videos, we first see the work of our favorite artists; and when conducting business, we know that our partners are authorized to make decisions. Today, identity management systems are fundamental to underpinning accountability in business relationships; providing customization to user experience; protecting privacy; and adhering to regulatory controls. Short Bio: Joe Pato is the Principal Scientist for the HP Labs Trust, Security & Privacy research program. He has also served as Chief Technology Officer for Hewlett-Packard's Internet Security Solutions Division. Mr. Pato's current research focus is on the security needs of collaborative enterprises on the Internet - addressing both inter-enterprise models and the needs of lightweight instruments and peripherals directly attached to the Internet. Specifically, he is looking at critical infrastructure protection and the confluence of trust, e-services and mobility. These interests have led him to look at preservation of internet communication in the event of cyber-terrorism; trust frameworks for mobile environments and how to apply privacy considerations in complex systems.
April 15 Peer Production	Solutions [PDF] to the fourth homework are now available. Fifth written homework assignment [PDF] must be submitted online by 5pm EDT today. Solutions [PDF] are now available. Lecture Notes: PowerPoint, PDF
April 17 E-Mail Abuse: Spam and Viruses	Professor Feigenbaum's office hours are canceled today in observance of Passover. Lecture will still be given at the normal time. Lecture notes: PowerPoint, PDF. This is a new version of the lecture notes, available as of 4/22/2003, that contains one extra slide with a new screenshot on how browsers ask for consent before running code. This slide does not really change the content of the lecture, and you are not responsible for this slide. The slide was added to elaborate the point made about browser security settings on the previous slide. (Optional) The New York Times just published an article about Spam [Local PDF] that discusses some of the points from lecture; it may be of interest. Solutions [PDF] to the fifth homework [PDF] are now available.
April 22 Review	Professor Feigenbaum will hold a review for Thursday's exam in class today. Please see these notes for more information about the exam.
April 24 Exam	Second exam [PDF] in class today. Please see these notes for more information on preparation. The answer key [PDF] is now available.