The Information Industry always gives new buzz words to talk on. The other day I had visited Vaishali a restaurant which is at times called the heartline of Pune. While I was relishing my SPDP, I was pleasantly surprised how a group of teenagers sitting next to me were discussing the Y2K problem. Yes ! Y2K, Internet, NET TV, Cyber Café are just one of the many computer related jargon, that one finds are common discussion issues.

Many a times, one feels left out in such discussions. Not because you are not aware of the issue but simply because you are not clear with the concept. In my second article for Pune Times, I am trying to clear a new buzzword "ECOMMERCE".

FTP stands for File Transfer protocol. FTP lets the user establish a connection to a remote system and then transfer files to and fro. For ease of use the user can define connection profiles that can be used to connect to Frequently used FTP servers. FTP will eventually display local and remote directory the same way local files and directories are displayed in Windows.

Gopher is an internet access protocol tool. It allows you to browse through large amounts of information residing on the Gopher system called Gopher Space. Gopher Space does not provide automatic linking to other Gopher Space sites. A major drawback as compared to http.

Hyper Text Transfer Protocol is synonymous with Internet. This protocol allows the user to switch from one site to another immediately with a single mouse click. This facility has made Internet a very user friendly medium and hence you find most internet sites are based on http protocol.

As you know most companies have their information on the Internet. So what ? A lot of companies also advertise through the print and electronic media. Why such a hue and cry over advertisement through Internet ????

The answer is simple. The medium of internet allows you to have an interaction with the advertisement which no other media provides. The difference is made clear through this example. An Internet user can book his airline ticket through the Internet but the same is not true for a TV or Radio Advertisement. This Interactive mode is something that has made internet a popular media for Advertising and selling. The business arising because of the Internet is called as ECommerce.

The most common Ecommerce application is that of a Cyber shopping mart. Internet users can view a department store site and get to know the items on sale. The physical location of the Departmental store is irrelevant. Once the site is set up on any Internet server, any internet user across the globe can visit the site and order the items. Imagine now Indian craftsman would be able to sell their products across the globe.

Hotel Booking and city tours and guides is another example. Travelling to a foreign city was always difficult. This was so not because of the alien environment, but because It used to be difficult getting hotel rooms at reasonable rates. Information on Public transport systems was not also available. Due to lack of information travellers used to end up travelling by the costly cab. Now all this information is available on the internet. You can book your hotel rooms from anywhere in the world. Tourist information is available on the net.

Other applications are Banking, Airline Reservation, Trading of Financial instruments such as shares, bonds etc..

1. It allows companies to reduce the cost of sales and open new markets

2. Speed and simplify order accuracy, approval, processing, tracking and delivery.

3. Link manufacturers and suppliers on the same network

There are several estimates floating around about the potential of this medium for facilitating trade. Going by IDC figures, in 1997 alone more than $ 10 billion in transactions were executed over the Internet. This is just 0.05 % of the global trade. This is where the potential lies. IDC forecasts that by 2001, Ecommerce will surge to over $ 220 billion. Another group Forester predicts that the total transactions would be around $ 300 billion by 2001.

Ecommerce is not just going to give a boost to trade and industry it is also going to boost the requirements for IT professionals also. Two parallel technologies are in operation. One based on UNIX Server and the other on NT Servers. The NT technology uses MS - BackOffice server along with ASP ( Active Server Pages). Development can be done in Visual Basic , VB script, JavaScript etc..

Though JAVA language is considered a pioneering software in the field of internet, it's role is diminishing fast.

The older technology uses CGI, PERl. This technology works on UNIX servers. Programming in CGI / PERL is difficult as it requires indepth knowledge of object oriented programming.

CORBA and COM /DCOM are parallel technologies for object handling. Corba is cross platform whereas COM/DCOM is supported by Microsoft products.

The author is Director, Fands. The views mentioned in the article are his personal views. He can be reached at  sandeep@fandsindia.com