CS 701: Electronic Commerce

Course homepage

Announcements:

(May 7) Evaluations: An evaluation form (Word-formatted version) has been emailed to you. Please print, fill out anonymously and bring your form to the final exam.
(April 18) Clarification: the final report is due on April 26th. (The date on top of the guidelines was from last year).
(April 16) Note that we will subject your site to intensive testing following April 26 - it is your responsibility to ensure the site is up and running.
(April 16) Reminder: final reports are due April 26.
(April 10) An additional documentation requirement added to the final deliverables - see the final report guidelines.
(April 10) May 10 is final exam date for CS701. Accordingly, we will require that your sites remaining operational until 5pm, May 10.
(April 10) We are going to invite several external visitors (students in ecommerce courses offered at some other universities) to browse your sites. To let them send you comments, you need to include an email address on your site, preferably on every page. This email does not have to be "real", it could simply be the SEAS email address of one (or more) of your team members.
(April 9) The presentation schedule is now in the final report guidelines.
(Mar 27) For Phase III, allow passworded entry to your sites. Please email me (Simha) your site password before April 5.
(Mar 3) Clarification: the Phase II technical requirements are due March 8.
(Feb 11) There was a typo in the technical schedule. The requirements listed under the Phase I bullet are due for Phase I.
This website for the class will be used in tandem with the Prometheus site until all new material is uploaded into Prometheus.
Here are the team assignments.
For those of you not quite familiar with Unix, here is an elementary tutorial in postscript. The tutorial covers basic Unix, the Emacs editor and Latex. However, note that it was written for the tcsh shell and not GWU's ksh. For more information on the local Unix flavor, see the SEAS computing website

Spring 2001 information:

Instructor: This course has several instructors - Prof. Shelly Heller (sheller@seas.gwu.edu), Prof. Deepak Kumar (dkumar@seas.gwu.edu), Prof. Rob Lindeman (gogo@seas.gwu.edu), Prof. Bhagi Narahari (narahari@seas.gwu.edu), Prof. Srinivas Prasad (prasad@gwu.edu), Prof. Rahul Simha (simha@seas.gwu.edu).

Office Hours: Prof. Shelly Heller (by appt - send email), Prof. Rob Lindeman (by appt - send email), Prof. Bhagi Narahari (by appt - send email), Prof. Srinivas Prasad (by appt - send email), Prof. Rahul Simha (Mon, Tue 3.30-5.30),

Office: Prof. Shelly Heller (718), Prof. Rob Lindeman (707), Prof. Bhagi Narahari (720F or Chair's office), Prof. Srinivas Prasad (email only, or in class), Prof. Rahul Simha (Room 717, Phillips Hall).

Class Time/Place:

Thursdays, 6.10 - 8.45pm
Most lectures in Phillips 110, special lectures in Tompkins 411.

Prerequisites:

CS 141 for Computer Science students. (See undergraduate curriculum)

Course description:

Topics include: network infrastructure for e-commerce; overview of web technology; examples of web-based businesses; economics and business models of web-based businesses; the electronic storefront; security; electronic payment systems; social, legal, ethical and public policy issues; finance and business-plan creation. Students will form teams, develop a web-based business and participate in a mock economy created in class. Students will explore issues related to their disciplines, if applicable. Computer science students will have a different set of requirements from non-CS students, as they will provide technical expertise learned in their courses to interdisciplinary teams that engage in e-commerce projects. The non-CS students in the course will attend to business, social, ethical and legal aspects of the projects, and will engage in programming only up to their level of ability or interest. Teams will be formed so that each team has at least one technical student. The teams will be required to develop web-based mock businesses as a project. Course instruction will include a basic core of lectures on economics, business, and writing a business plan, and specialized lectures in advanced web technology -- for example, Java servlets -- for (only) the technical (CS) students. Thus, CS students will continue to receive instruction in web computing technology and will have significant software projects required of them, whereas students in other disciplines will be exposed to the possibilities and limitations of computing via the e-commerce application. The course is expected to provide all students with valuable interdisciplinary team work experience. Goals: This course will provide a forum for students from various disciplines to work in a team. By approximately simulating real world team compositions, it hopes to improve communication skills and foster constructive attitudes towards team work.

Textbook:

There is no official textbook for the course.

Resources:

Java references:

Books:

Java in a Nutshell, 3rd edition. D.Flanagan. (O'Reilly. ISBN 1-56592-262-X). A concise introduction to Java containing a handy but terse summary of the Java library. The 3rd edition now covers Java 1.2 and is probably one of the least expensive Java books on the market. Cost: $30 without CDROM.
Java Enterprise in a Nutshell. D.Flanagan. (O'Reilly). A companion book to the Nutshell, it contains code examples for servlets and related packages. Cost: $25 without CDROM.
Java Servlet Programming. J.Hunter. (O'Reilly). A thorough introduction to Java servlets. Cost: $40 (approx)

Websites:

HTML references:

An elementary HTML tutorial (In plain text).

Coursework and Course Policies

NOTE: The contents of this page may change slightly over the semester, and additions may be made to the page. In particular, the point-weightage and due-dates are approximate at this time, and may change.

Coursework:

Note-taking: 15 points.
Complete business plan: 20 points (includes: financial model, marketing plan and business model).
Creating a working website: 30 points.
Final presentations and final reports: 25 points.
Weekly questions: 5 points.
Final exam: 15 points.

Details:

Note taking:

Each student will be required to participate in a note-taking exercise: you will be assigned a lecture that you will transcribe into HTML. The purpose is twofold: (1) you will help in creating material for your colleagues to use in lieu of a textbook; (2) in creating a coherent account of a lecture, you will not only enhance your learning experience, but will also practice writing.
Examine the list of note-taking assignments below to find out which lecture you have been assigned, and look at the note-taking guidelines for submission.

Business Plan

Each team will be responsible for creating a business plan around which to build their website.
The business plan is to be submitted in two parts. The first part is a simple 2-page outline describing the business, together with an overview of the business model; this part will be due early in the semester. The second part is a complete business plan due in the middle of the semester.
Read the Business Plan Guidelines for more information.

Marketing Plan

Each team will be responsible for creating a marketing plan in addition to their business plan.
Like the business plan, the marketing plan is to be submitted in two parts. The first part is a simple 1-page outline; this part will be due early in the semester. The second part is a complete marketing plan due in the middle of the semester.
Read the Marketing Plan Guidelines for more information.

Operational site:

Each team will build and demonstrate a working website with features that implement their business plan.
There will be a preliminary "design" evaluation towards the middle of the semester, and a final evaluation at the end of the semester.

Site evaluation:

Apart from checking that the site features work in a technical sense, we will evaluate the quality of the site from the point of usability, correlation with business plan, creativity, novelty, attractiveness etc.
This evaluation will only take place at the end of the semester.

Final report:

Each team will submit a final report at the end of the semester.
Read the Final Report Guidelines for more information.

Important dates: lectures, due dates etc (subject to change)

Thu, Jan 18: Introduction - Prof. Lindeman
Thu, Jan 25:
Technology overview for non-CS majors (Olga Gelbart, Phillips 110, powerpoint-slides).
Notes: Caroline Jung, Colleen Rooney
Java Servlets for CS majors (Prof. Simha - in Tompkins 411, no notes required).
Thu, Feb 01:
Business plans - Prof. Prasad (powerpoint-slides)
Notes: Amy Marra, Judith Phruksaraj
Thu, Feb 8:
Marketing plans - Prof. Prasad
Notes: Ramnik Dhaliwal, Amit Kapoor
Business plan outline (1 page) due Thu Feb 16
Thu, Feb 16:
Mobile agents and Ecommerce for non-CS students (Olga Gelbart - in Phillips 110, (powerpoint-slides),
Notes: Brion Tingler, Daniel Lee
Java Server Pages for CS students - Prof. Kumar (no notes required, Tompkins 411)
Marketing plan outline (1 page) due Thu Feb 23
Phase I technical requirement due Thu Feb 23 (See the technical schedule for details).
Thu, Feb 23:
Computing infrastructure for large-scale financial systems - Jacob Lindeman (Fidelity Corp.) (PDF-slides),
Notes: Scott Herman, Sam Leiber
Host: Prof. Lindeman
Thu, Mar 01:
Part 1: Commercial ecommerce software: S.Bhargava (powerpoint-slides)
Part 2: Secure payment systems - Prof. Muftic. (PDF)
Notes: Howard Sherman, Ray Tiong
Host: Prof. Simha
In-class mid-semester review of sites, Thu Mar 8
Phase II technical requirement due Thu Mar 8
Thu, Mar 8:
Search Engines - Paul Ryan (GoTo.com) (powerpoint-slides),
Notes: Matt Norris, George Brieger
Host: Prof. Kumar
Thu, Mar 15:
Parts 1 and 2: Policy, Law and Ethics in Ecommerce: Prof. Martin, Edwin Behrens.
(Click here for more info and readings list)
Notes: Witold Chrabaszcs, Alex Rud
Host: Prof. Narahari
Thu, Mar 24: No class - Spring Break
Thu, Mar 29:
Part 1: Information Security Policy - Prof. Hoffman (powerpoint-slides)
Part 2: Intellectual Property Rights: Prof. Millien (PDF-slides)
Notes: Sergei Mikhailov, Chris Vanderveer
Host: Prof. Simha
Phase III technical requirement due Thu Apr 5
Complete business plan due Thu Apr 5
Complete marketing plan due Thu Apr 5
Thu, Apr 5:
Data Mining - Prof. Narahari (powerpoint-slides)
Notes: Saiyd Copeland, Jon Rosen
Thu, Apr 12:
B2B - Barry Lerner (VP, Exostar).
Notes: Phil Wassibauer
Host: Prof. Kumar
Thu, Apr 19: Team presentations.
Final website ready, and final report due Thu, Apr 26
Thu, Apr 26: Team presentations.