Last updated: 9/4/99
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General Description:
AGS 3360
eCommerce: Using the Web to Find and Service Customers

Electronic Commerce – eCommerce – is one of the fastest-growing segments of the national economy. Would you like to learn how to set up your own web site to find, service and sell to customers? Are you already doing online business, but wanting to improve your web site, or wanting to learn about other options? Or are you a consumer, wanting to know what is going on behind the scene and whether or not you can trust the Internet and online merchants? In this course you will learn about the methods necessary to set up an online store, why it is so popular, what new developments are likely, and how our lives could change as a result. You will also set up an online store using our web server. While there will be no actual sales, all information will be acquired and tracked, and customer tracking will be implemented.

May be taken with or without the course Computers, the Internet and Society.

eCommerce: Using the Web to Find and Service Customers has a large on-line component. You will need an Internet connection to take this course. You can use the free Internet connection that Wayne State University offers all registered students, but any other Internet connection will also do, such as

• America On Line
• Prodigy
• Compuserve
• Mindspring
• Internet connection through other school or college
• Computer lab at Wayne State University or other school or college, connected to the Internet
• Computer at work. You should make sure that your employer approves of this usage. Note that if your employer has an intranet with a firewall, you may need a special account from your employer, to get access to the public Internet.

We will use the following Internet technologies in this course:

• Email for turning in assignments and getting them back
• World Wide Web for postings such as syllabus and assignments
• Web-based computer conferencing for class discussions

Taught over the Internet with six class meetings. Meets on Wednesdays: 9/8, 9/15, 10/6, 10/27, 11/17 and 12/15. Keep other Wednesdays available for computer lab work.

The graduate version of this course, ISP 5500 Section 982 Call Number 90569, involves extra reading and assignments.

For further information, or for questions or comments, contact the Instructor as follows:

David R. Bowen
Tel (WSU): (313) 577-1498
Tel (home): (248) 549-8518
Tel (Ford): (313) 390-2155
Email: drbowen@cll.wayne.edu

Textbooks: (are at the Barnes and Noble campus bookstore or can be obtained elsewhere):

1. David Kosiur, Understanding Electronic Commerce, Microsoft Press, Redmond WA. 1997.
2. Gordon McComb, Web Commerce Cookbook (with CD-ROM), John Wiley & Sons, New York, NY, 1998.
3. Patricia B. Seybold, Customers.com, Times Business/Random House, New York, NY. 1998.
4. Elizabeth Castro, HTML for the World Wide Web, Peachpit Press, Berkeley CA. 1998.

I have been to the bookstore and seen all of the textbooks on the shelves. They are copies in two different sections: under AGS 3360 and under ISP 5500. The enrollment is higher than I expected, so, the campus bookstore may be out of some of these books. They should be available at any of the large bookstores like Borders or Barnes and Noble, or available online at www.Amazon.com

A detailed syllabus and an assignment schedule have been posted.