The University of Texas at Austin

NSF Workshop: Research Priorities in Electronic Commerce

Organization and List of Participants

The Workshop will be divided into 5 sessions (see E. Agenda below for more details):

Introduction (Thursday morning)
BOG Session I: State of the Art Survey (Thursday afternoon)
BOG Session II: Directions for Future Research (Friday morning)
Presentation by BOG (Friday afternoon)
Consensus Session (Saturday morning)

Break-Out Groups

There are two break out sessions planned (Thursday afternoon and Friday morning). The following five BOGs are intended to give some structure in inventorying and compiling lists of research areas.

These BOGs divide EC research into five general topics, roughly following conventional disciplinary distinctions: computer/networking, economic, legal, social, and commerce. Below, we provide some general topics which may be discussed in each BOG. These examples, however, do not represent any sort of ranking nor describe current research activities but are provided only to indicate what topics we propose to cover in each BOG. We fully expect that some issues and technologies will be discussed in multiple groups when they have multi-faceted functions and applications.

BOG 1: Computer and Networking Technologies

Research areas include those with primary focus on computer hardware and software, computer engineering, telecommunications and networking infrastructure, standards and protocols, and other computing infrastructure issues. Research issues may include but not limited to:

Human-computer interactions, user interfaces
Distributed computing, large-scale networks
Component-based software, applets
Agent technologies
Bandwidth, compression and access
Digital identification

BOG 2: Economic Performance and Efficiency

Research issues may include those that influence the economic fabric of a networked society. They include issues such as the productivity gains from computer-mediated transactions, information and knowledge production and pricing, experimental methodology and verification procedure design, the economics of information, and the effects of information technology on relationships between economic agents. Research topics include but not limited to:

Digital currency and monetary control
Sustainable and efficient network pricing
Market-making mechanisms
Identifiable consumer information
Digital libraries and catalogs
Search algorithms and services
Product pricing and price discrimination
Knowledge products and knowledge engineering

For example, in the virtual environment, buyers cannot inspect product and service quality prior to making a purchase. Lacking physical means to inspect and test a product, trading partners have to rely on other means supported by technologies. To guarantee economic efficiency, then, what would be algorithmic, heuristic and satisficing models for dynamic, limited-information pricing and buying decisions? What protocols should be used to describe online information products or services to assure their quality and provide product description but not reveal the information or service? Does a form of contracting, intermediation or exchange mechanism exist for distributing digital products under quality uncertainty?

BOG 3: Privacy, Security and Legal Environment

BOG 3 focuses on the interplay between information technology and social/legal systems. What seems to be natural and fundamental components of commerce in physical markets presents new challenges in the virtual environment and requires technological considerations. For instance, unlike in physical markets, those making online transactions cannot easily verify the identity of partners or the validity of payment information. Encryption technologies and/or trusted third parties may offer a solution to such a problem. Legal liability and disclosure guidelines should also be developed making sure that they are both technologically and legally feasible. Research issues may include but not limited to:

Trusted third parties, certification authorities
Privacy, encryption, key escrow
Disclosure and liability in online transactions
Taxation on online transactions
Digitization and trading of securities and assets

BOG 4: Social and Organizational Changes

Information technology affects organizational forms and the mode of interaction among organization's members. For example, communication technologies such as bulletin boards, mailing lists and chat lines act as an enabler of online communities, where buyers and sellers congregate and exchange information. Market boundaries on the global EC are drawn not by geographical areas but by interests and preferences of the participants in online communities. To sellers, online communities represent marketing and advertising channels or focus groups for product research. Intelligent agents and data mining technologies are used to plant and gather information about products and consumers. To buyers, they not only represent a forum to exchange product information but also a platform for a collective bargaining. BOG 4 focuses on issues of basic research that deal with the effects of EC technologies on forming, sustaining and dissolving virtual communities and organizations. Research issues may include but not limited to:

Online communities and organizational theory
Trust, privacy and organizational structure
Mobile communications and real-time interactivity
Negotiation, coordination and intelligent collaboration
Telecommuting, tele-conferencing
Remote service delivery and agent adaptation

BOG 5: Market, Transactional and Payment Infrastructure

BOG 5 deals with information technology and transactional and/or market-making systems, which may include various commercial applications of IT. Technical issues in this area include market automation, algorithms for exchanging market information, effective and tractable contracting and bidding mechanisms, smart cards and payment efficiency, and others which may include but not limited to:

Auctions and trading mechanisms
Electronic payment and transaction systems
Experimental markets and trading procedures
Supply chain and manufacturing process, logistics
On demand service delivery and real-time pricing

Organizing Committee

Co-Chairs:

Andrew B. Whinston. Professor of MSIS, Economics and Computer Science, and Director of the Center for Research in Electronic Commerce, UT-Austin. (abw@uts.cc.utexas.edu)

Dale O. Stahl. Department of Economics, UT-Austin. (stahl@eco.utexas.edu)

Organizing Committee:

Arthur M. Keller. Computer Science Department, Stanford University. (ark@cs.stanford.edu)

John Ledyard. Chair of the Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology. (jledyard@hss.caltech.edu)

B. Clifford Newman. Information Sciences Institute and Department of Computer Science, USC. (bcn@isi.edu)

Tuomas W. Sandholm. Department of Computer Science, Washington University in St. Louis. (sandholm@cs.wustl.edu)

Yoav Shoham. Computer Science Department, Stanford University. (shoham@cs.stanford.edu)

Michael Wellman. Departments of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Michigan. (wellman@engin.umich.edu)

Soon-Yong Choi. Center for Research in Electronic Commerce, UT-Austin (soon@mail.utexas.edu)

List of Participants