This book describes the transformation of telecommunications from national network monopolies to a new system, the network of networks, and the glue that holds it together, interconnection. By their very nature, monopoly-owned networks provided a small number of standardized, nationwide...

From its first glimmerings in the 1950s, the software industry has evolved to become the fourth largest industrial sector of the US economy. Starting with a handful of software contractors who produced specialized programs for the few existing machines, the industry grew to include producers of...

Software platforms are the invisible engines that have created, touched, or transformed nearly every major industry for the past quarter century. They power everything from mobile phones and automobile navigation systems to search engines and web portals. They have been the source of enormous...

In the financial sector, cryptographic algorithms are used as fundamental techniques for assuring confidentiality and integrity of data used in financial transactions and for authenticating entities involved in the transactions. Currently, the most widely used algorithms appear to be two-key...

This paper examines a model in which advertisers bid for "sponsored-link" positions on a search engine. The value advertisers derive from each position is endogenized as coming from sales to a population of consumers who make rational inferences about firm qualities and search optimally....

This paper asks the question: Can we see evidence of General Purpose Technologies in patent data? Using data on three million US patents granted between 1967 and 1999, and their citations received between 1975 and 2002, we construct a number of measures of GPTs, including generality, number of...

The information and communication technologies (ICT) sectors are in a process of technological convergence. Determinant factors in this process are the liberalisation of the telecommunications markets and technological change. Many firms are engaged in a process of mergers and alliances to...

We examine some of the factors that might influence the quality of information produced in discussion groups on the internet, such as USENET and the WELL. In particular, we look at the impact of various different pricing structures, and compare regimes in which anonymity is enforced with regimes...

Lots of business experts have great ideas about the ways in which Web technologies can be used to enhance customer/partner relationships, increase market share, enhance competitive advantage, etc. However, many of these e-business ideas never take shape simply because it was so difficult to...

Article purpose is to highlight the benefits of adopting modern technologies such as XMLDOM, a technology that enables standards for fast and consistent data transfer on the web. For this reason the article contains a case study, representing the main part of a much wider project achieved by the...