Introduction To The 1998 HICSS Minitrack On Formal Aspects Of Digital Commerce

Global information infrastructures are rapidly becoming a reality. Such worldwide networks help companies to operate not only on a local or regional level, but also on a global level. Especially for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) this would o er tremendous opportunities to do global business electronically. Digital commerce includes all aspects of the conduct of commerce (i.e., doing business in the broadest sense) which are essentially mediated by computer and communications systems. This includes all phases of commercial activity, including marketing, opportunity nding, sales, negotiation, contract formation, monitoring of contracts, customer support, etc. The purpose of this minittrack on formal aspects of digital commerce is to focus research and foster discussion on digital commerce, especially formal, technological, theoretical aspects. We understand the term electronic commerce to include all types of commerce through electronic media, including electronic mail, multi-media and the like. Indeed, given the current convergence of computer networks with other forms of communication media, the notion of electronic commerce might also include various forms of images, audio and video (e.g. the digital counterparts to fax, telephone, and television). By digital commerce, we mean to focus on the subset of electronic commerce where the communication is recognized symbolically (\understood") by the computer|enabling applications where the computer is able to make inferences about the content and structure of the communication, and thereby facilitate and mediate commercial trade. More speci cally, this implies that the symbols of the communication are for-