MGTC50 

Building Internet  Commerce Ventures

A 3rd year undergraduate course in the 
Division of Management, 
University of Toronto at Scarborough

For the section(s) taught by Tim Richardson                 Monday evenings, 19:00 (7:00 pm) - 21:00 (9:00 pm)

SECTION A
© by W. Tim G. Richardson
Section A Section B Section C Section D Section E
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This page last updated 2004 Jan 9
 
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p. 1
"This book takes you from being a casual Internet user to understanding how the Internet works. It describes what each significant piece of software and hardware does, and how all these pieces fit together. It provides a power-packed, uet understandable introduction to all the Internet technologies"

Some of these technologies are

  • the inter connected network of computers from universities, companies and government agencies (the Internet)
  • software
    • for running databases of customer information and inventory and manufacturing information
  • networks switches and hubs
  • encryption software to keep purchase information (credit cards) and email communication confidential and protected from "bad guys"

    • multimedia support for the many new types of audio and streaming video content on web pages
     
    . The things that makes understanding these technologies difficult, is that we are in a constant state of change. Many standards are thrown off as PCs and connectivity gets faster. Larger storage space effected content creation and database construction..

    WTGR
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Schneider and Perry warn that "Any business that engages in electronic commerce and that hopes to compete in the future must quickly adapt to new Internet technologies as they become available"
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    . Therefore what we will try to keep in mind in this course is not so much memorizing the details of existing circumstances, but rather learning enough about the existing circumstances, and keeping a wary eye on future developments, so that we can contribute effectively to any business we become involved to allow that business to change, adapt, and be as competitive as possible.

    WTGR

    Schneider and Perry "The frenetic pace of the Web and technology requires that business be nimble and accept inevitable changes in the way they conduct business on the Web."
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Chapter 1
Electronic Commerce, 3rd Edition, Schneider

p. 13 - 16
Advantages of Electronic Commerce (MGTD06)
Disadvantages of Electronic Commerce (MGTD06)
International Electronic Commerce (MGTD06)
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. Much of Chapter 1 and Chpt 2 in the Scheider book is actually discussed in MGTD06. In MGTC50 you are responsible for the parts that deal with the techonological aspects and the origins of the Internet.

WTGR
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Origins of the Internet p. 27-28 (MGTC50)
- DARPA
- New Uses of the Internet
- commercial use of the Internet
- emergence of the World Wide Web p. 31
    - Tim Berners-Lee, invention of HTML
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Chapter 2
Electronic Commerce, 3rd Edition, Schneider

p. 39
Technology Overview (MGTC50).
"... all of these hardware and software technologies are in a constant state of change - often rapid change. Businesses that engage in electronic commerce must implement new Internet technologies as they become available. The rapid pace of change in these technologies requires that businesses be nimble and willing to acept changes..."
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. It's not just the Internet that causes business to have to deal with fast change - even before the Internet there are many examples of how business that adopt new technologies quickly, were able to have a competitive advantages - one example is businesses that adopted and used fax machines extensively in the late 1980's and early 1990's.

WTGR
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"This chapter introduces you to the hardware and software technologies that make electronic commerce possible"

Packet Switched Networks p. 40
Data Transmission Protocols p. 42
- IP Addresses p. 42
- Domain Names p. 44
Internet Services Protocols p. 45
Internet Utility Programs p. 46
Internet Applications P. 49 - its more than just email
- Telnet
- FTP p. 52 
Mark-up Languages p. 53
- HTML p. 54
- XML p. 55
Intranets p. 69
Extranets P. 6
VPN's Virtual Private Networks p. 70
Connectivity p. 72
 

. A combination of reading Chpt 2 in E-Commerce 3rd Ed. and Chpt 1 and Chpt 2 in i-Net+ Guide to Internet Technologies, 2nd ed. would be very good grounding for MGTC50

WTGR
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Chapter 1

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i-Net+ Guide to Internet Technologies
by Jean Andrews
This is the technical book we will use in MGTC50 
We used the 1st edition in 2001 and will be using 2nd edition in 2002

To be successful in working in the e-business community you should know and understand most of the material in the early chapters of this book. It is expected that many people might already know some of this material - however if most of it is new to you, 
- what is a URL,
- what is a browser,
- how to make bookmarks, 
- saving files off the web, 
- search engines, 
then you should read these parts.

Quite a bit of the material discussed in the text in Chapter 1 & 2 will not be discussed in class, but the topics are covered adequately in the text + you can also click on the screen capture above to take you to the  www.witiger.com/ecommerce/internethistory.htm

You do not have to understand in detail the points about the history of the internet, etc., but this is information which would help you put in to perspective some of the changes that are still ongoing.
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http://www.witiger.com/ecommerce/ISPs.htm click on this screen capture to go to a special Witiger section on ISPs
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Chapter 2

 

Chapter 2

 
 
 

Chapter 2

Chapter 2


 
 
 

 

 Schneider and Perry book page 39 - 48
Andrews book page page (63-88 2nd ed.) (61-78 1st ed.)

Some of the topics in Chpt 2 in the Andrews i-Net Guide book are covered in the link to  www.witiger.com/ecommerce/internethistory.htm , particularly the parts about TCP/IP

  • IP Addresses, 32-bit numbers
    • will have to be replaced by 128-bit numbers eventually
    • 0-255.0-255.0-255.0-255
    • examples www.witiger.com = 66.39.57.202
    • each of the four numbers is called an octet
    • the first part identifies the network, the last part identifies the host
    • "It's important to understand how the bits of an IP address are used in order to understand how routing happens on the Internet" Andrews page 61
  • URL Uniform Resource Locator
  • HTTP - Hyper Text Transfer Protocol - developed in 1991
  • Domain Names
    • alphabetic names are used because the assigned IP numbers are difficult to remember
    • companies may change their IP address but not the alphabetical name of the domain Andrews page 65
    • the relationship between domain names and IP addresses is tracked by Domian Name Service
    • how to obtain and register a Domain Name will be discussed in detail later on in this course
  • SMTP, POP and IMAP
    • Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, Post Office Protocol, Interactive Mail Access Protocol
  • FTP - File Transfer Protocol, transfers files between TCP/IP connected computers
    • it will be necessary for students in this course to know how to use FTP in order to get your web pages on to a server
  • Finger - allows you to obtain information on other users in the network
  • Ping - tests the connectivity between Internet hosts
    • with your computer turned on, and connected by modem to an ISP (your browser does not have to be open) simply type "ping" at the DOS prompt, followed by a domain - below is a screen capture example of what you will get
  • Trace Route - sends data packets to every computer on the path
  • Telnet - an application that allows you to log on to a remote computer to obtain info and files
  • Markup languages, HTML, XML
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HTML
basics		 HTML basics can be viewed at  http://www.witiger.com/senecacollege/BCS500.htm
This is a course taught at another institution but you are free to use these pages to teach yourself HTML cause the pages for the course are hosted by Prof. Richardson on his own domain.
http://www.witiger.com/senecacollege/BCS500.htm
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. It is not advisable for MGTC50 students to spend a lot of time learning the HTML tags so you can "hard code" your own pages - it would be kewl, but,, too time consuming, better to know a few tags just so you can understand how to use them, and to understand how things can go wrong with a WYSIWYG editor.

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HTML 

Chpt 6		 Chpt 6, page 139 Creating Stores on the Web

"Learn to Write HTML at the source code level"

  • A demonstration will be given in class by the professor
"Using a Web authoring tool such as Microsoft FrontPage or Dreamweaver, or HoTMetaL can help you avoid learning HTML, to some extent. But although these products make creating Web pages as easy as using a word processor, they don't eliminate all need for HTML knowledge. You still will often need to modify HTML code directly rather than simplyusing a visual editor." For the most flexibility it is best to learn HTML at the code level and then use an HTML text editor to make the simple parts if the page.
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