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COMMON WWW FORMAT FOR GROCERY TRADERS (05/01/96)
The Packaged Goods Internet Task Force is devising a common world wide web format for retailers and manufacturers who want to use the Internet as a way to dispense product information. The aim is to make it easy for retailers to find information quickly and effectively once they hook onto a manufacturer's web site.This approach to a unified interface is similar to Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) concept where all parties involved would follow a pre-defined data layout format to facilitate the easy and error-free transmission of business to business information in the buy and sell process. Increasingly, the world wide web is being seen as a cost effective and easy to use medium to dispense up-to-the-minute product information from various manufacturers.
Initially, the product details that are being incorporated into a web site could include the weight, size, packaging, nutrition values, storage requirements, special features, video demos or other forms of presentations. However, pricing will likely not be included at this stage at a manufacturer's web site for competitive and security reasons.
The task force is made up of members from such organizations as the Uniform Code Council, the Grocery Manufacturers Assoc., and industry giants such as Kraft Foods Inc., Walmart, Nabisco, The Kroger Corp., etc.
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- US BANKS TO TEST 'SMART CARDS' IN NYC
- (04/96)
- Chase Manhattan, Citibank, together with Visa and Mastercard will begin testing 'smart cards' (cards that have micro-chip embedded for handling digital cash storage) in New York City. A total of 50,000 cards will be issued and will be accepted by 500 merchants in a defined area in Manhattan. These cards are meant to be used for purchases below $20 in fast food restaurants, newsstands, pay phones, gas stations etc. Consumers can download cash into their cards via ATM terminals. Research have shown that consumers like the convenience of such cards to pay for small purchases. Merchants would benefit by reducing cash and check handling cost. Banks would enjoy providing one more service and a chance to strengthen loyalty with their customers.
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- SMART CARDS & INTERNET POINT-OF-SALE DEVICES
- (02/19/96)
IBM has entered into an agreement with an Australian company, Intellect Electronics to sell Intellect's MicroBank terminal, a user programmable intelligent device which can be used to transfer funds securely to smart cards form bank accounts at anywhere in the world using the public telephone system. The smart cards can then be used to pay for purchases at retail stores or other locations. The MicroBank is a small unit the size of a hand held calculator with a keyboard, a smart card reader and a serial port for modem/PC connection for sending payment over the Internet.
Many industry analysts seem to think the time has come for smart cards to flourish. As the British magazine Card Technology Today noted, 1996 will probably see dynamic growth in electronic commerce fueled by the establishment of international standards such as the Europay/MasterCard/Visa (EMV) standard for international bank cards, advancement in contactless card technologies (with S.E. Asia being a hotbed area for this market) and the collective works of such companies as Netscape, VISA, MC, IBM, Microsoft, RSA Data and others in pushing the fruition of Internet commerce. However, the magazine foresees that software based solutions will be implemented first before the introduction of chip embedded smart cards over the next few years.
TransPhone, LLC of Ottawa, Canada has just introduced a low cost (sub $500) unit that is specifically designed to function as an Internet or Online Services access device and a Point of Sale terminal. Dubbed as the TransPhone Appliance, the device comes complete with a handset, speaker-phone, caller ID, keypad, answering machine, magnetic card reader, two PCMCIA slots, color LCD display, keyboard, ports for mouse, printer, and other peripherals. All are controlled by a microprocessor with 512K of memory. Typically, when used in connection with the company's own Valued-Added Network, The TransPhone Service, the consumer can use the device to access the Internet or other online services, making purchases with the ease and convenience of the TransPhone Appliance. The backend processing will then interface with various credit card banks and clearinghouses.
As the company's CEO Barry Brisco noted, the TransPhone Appliance and the TransPhone Network will form the Branded Service Application which might be used as a "Post Office Terminal, an Electric Power Meter Reading/Payment Terminal, a Newspaper/Advertising Terminal, or a Home/Business Catalog Shopping Terminal." First Technology Co. Ltd., of Seoul, Korea, a consumer product manufacturer will make the TransPhone Appliance for the Canadian firm.
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- WAL-MART GOES ONLINE WITH MICROSOFT
- (02/14/96)
Anyone who still has doubts about the future of electronic commerce over the world wide web should listen to this. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. announced that they are working with Microsoft Corporation on a new online venture where customers can order merchandize via a world wide web site. According to Wal-Mart CEO David Glass, the retail giant (who posted $93 Billion in sales last year) may eventually make the store's entire inventory of 200,000 items available online if the trial project which will start in March proved to be successful. In the beginning, targeted buyers include those who either live too far away from a Wal-Mart store or do not have the time to shop.
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates said that the joint-project with Wal-Mart gives his company a chance to develop a retail transaction software named Merchant Server to be used in conjunction with Microsoft's Windows NT operating system and the Internet Information Server. A typical online vendor would use the Merchant Server to handle electronic commerce over the Internet while consumers will be given free software to access the web site and be able to keep receipts of their purchases. Gates said that Microsoft will profit only from software sales but not from sales of Wal-Mart merchandize, but "that would be nice" he added. Microsoft also plans to use new web technologies such as 3D rendering and virtual reality to create 'virtual stores' that online customers can walk-through, thereby enhancing the shopping experience. Audio help and video displays are also possible, though these presentation technologies would have to wait for faster communication modes than the current telephone line and modem connection can achieve.
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- VISA & MASTERCARD SET FOR INTERNET COMMERCE
- (02/01/96)
Visa International Inc. and MasterCard International Inc. have teamed up with a common industry standard that would make credit card transactions secure on a public network such as the Internet. This agreement ended many squabbles between opposing parties such as Netscape and Microsoft who accused each other of wanting to set their own standard to dominate a market that may worth $22 billion by the turn of the century according to a market research firm. The lack of a single unifying standard has hampered the growth of electronic commerce over the Internet.
A set of specifications for the Visa-Mastercard standard, known as Secure Electronic Transactions, or SET will be published as early as mid-February. Initial tests will be carried out separately by the two giant credit card companies with a joint testing later in the year to ensure interoperability. A working system is to be expected by the end of 1996. The objective is to get the Internet payment method to be as efficient as the present systems used in retail point-of-sale applications. The final software which incorporates SET will be available free to software developers. Netscape and Microsoft have agreed to include SET into future versions of their Internet software. Other industry supporters include IBM, GTE Corp. and many electronic payment software developers.
The encryption coding scheme is based on the public & private key concept to be developed by RSA Data Security, a leading company in cryptography. A public key is used to scramble the consumer's credit card data for safe transport over the Internet so that when the message got to the intended financial institution, the data could then be decoded with a matched private key. Keys are essentially pieces of software that contain mathematically-derived codes. Merchants will also be given the means to authenticate the consumer as the legitimate card user. Since the technology employed will only conceal credit card information and not other computer messages, this security standard can be exported to other countries, a move that has always been a concern for the US government as encryption technology is often used for military and espionage purposes i.e. spying on your enemy's secretly transmitted messages.
Visa and Mastercard, two of the world's largest credit card companies together provide services to more than 740 million credit card holders internationally.
- NETSCAPE & VERIFONE'S NET CASH PACT
- (01/26/96)
Netscape Communications Corp. and VeriFone Inc. said that they are working together to make electronic commerce more secure for merchants, banks and consumers. Though other companies such as DigiCash, VISA, Microsoft and others have been working on the problem for some time, the lack of a unifying standard for payment processing and a widespread concern about the lack of security over an open public network such as the Internet has hampered the growth of electronic commerce in the world wide web environment.
Just last December, The W3 Consortium called for a multi-industry participation in the exploration of Internet payment negotiation protocols that can be used to take care of transaction processings with credit and debit cards, electronic cash and checks etc. W3 is an industry consortium responsible for the development of common standards for use in the World Wide Web environment. Makers of web servers, web browsers, payment software developer and merchants were invited to join the W3 initiative. A demonstration of viable technologies is scheduled in June this year.
The Netscape, Verifone pact calls for a bundling of technologies from the two companies. Netscape is the developer of the world's most popular Internet browser software while Verifone is a company who develops retail payment systems. Verifone processes about 75% of all credit card transaction in the U.S. and about two thirds globally.
- IRS SAYS "SEE YOU ON THE WEB"
- (01/19/96)
You can surf but you cannot hide. Your favorite government agency, the IRS is on the web: 'http://www.irs.ustreas.gov'. The web site was launched on 01/08/96 in an effort to take some of the workload off the telephone help line. At their site, you can download tax forms or find all sorts of tax-related information. Future enhancement could allow you to file tax returns via the web.
- ELECTRONIC COMMERCE OVER THE WEB
- (01/18/96)
Anonymity and security are big issues in electronic commerce over a huge public network like the Internet. Many people do not like their spending habits being monitored and this concern for privacy has driven vendors to come up with various forms of electronic cash in which you get tokens or debit cards from your bank to pay for your purchases. DigiCash is one company promoting this idea.
For secure on-line transaction processing, encryption are often employed. For example, CyberCash has a system that make use of "cyber wallets", a software available for free to the merchants and the consumer. When the consumer buys something over the Internet, credit card data are encrypted and sent to the issuing bank directly. The merchants never get to see the credit card number. A similar idea is also developed by Portland Software. Some consumers tend to prefer this approach than just relying on various web sever software such as Netscape's Secure Sever to provide security. Though the general public may not know it, this skepticism is justified with actual facts. Recently, two California students were able to break into 'encoded' messages send over the web with Netscape's popular Navigator browser, though Netscape promised a free-for-all solution to correct this problem by increasing the size of the encoded key digits from 30 to 300.
Data scrambling requires matching keys for decoding. A pioneering company, RSA has been synonymous with data encryption. IBM recently plans to use RSA's technologies as a data encryption standard for communication over any network for their full line of hardware products from mainframe to notebook computers. It has not been an easy road for RSA to gain marketshare worldwide in the begining. At one time, the US National Security Agency was strongly against the export of encryption technologies fearing that it might be used as weapons in military intelligence warfare. However, the demand for electronic commerce over the Internet (and with so many US companies being major players in such a market) the US government is changing its mind and beginning to ease export control on such technologies.
