From the Silk Road to the E-Road
Just as the Silk Road revolutionised trade in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, so the e-Road is poised to become the trading highway of the 21st century.
In a unique and powerful blend of leading-edge IT analysis and deep economic understanding, Robin Bloor reveals four fundamental business models explaining the nature of the new internet-based economy:
- "the hockey stick curve", providing a way to understand the extraordinary growth of web companies and the web itself;
- "the publish/subscribe mechanism", describing the empowering of the consumer by virtue of the communication methods of the internet;
- the force of automation, and its consequences in prompting innovation, and
- the electronic bazaar, describing the different buy/sell mechanisms which exist in the net economy.
'The Electronic B@zaar' concentrates on how business can exploit the internet, and provides guidelines for creating a business vision and attracting and keeping customers. It discusses various sectors of the economy in detail, and examines the potential of future technological changes. In addition, Robin Bloor provides the individual perspective of the "cyber-citizen", focusing on the diverse implications of the new world that is being created.
