CAP. 3

Question 1

Introduction

Answer 1

Defining an adequate digital technology infrastructure is vital to all start-ups and existing companies making the transformation to digital business. The infrastructure and support of different types of digital platform directly affect the quality of service experienced by users of the systems in terms of speed and responsiveness. The range of digital services provided also determines the capability of an organisation to compete through differentiating in the marketplace.

Question 2

Digital business infrastructure

Answer 2

combination of hardware such as servers and client desktop computers and mobile devices, the network used to link this hardware and the software applications used to deliver services to workers within the business and also to its partners and customers. Infrastructure also includes the architecture of the networks, hardware and software and where it’s located. Infrastructure can also be considered to include the methods for publishing data and documents accessed through applications. A key decision is which elements are located within the company and which are managed externally.
Through being aware of potential infrastructure problems, managers can work with their partners to ensure that a good level of service is delivered to everyone (internal and external) who is using the digital business infrastructure

Question 3

Supporting the growing range of digital business technology platforms

Answer 3

The desktop and laptop have been dominant for years and remain very important, but mobile access has exceeded desktop use since late 2016. Combining with these hardware platforms, there are also different software platforms that marketers can use to reach and interact with their audience through content marketing or adv:
- Desktop, laptop, and notebook platforms:
1. Desktop browser-based platform.
2. Desktop apps.
3. Email platforms.
4. Feed-based and API data exchange platforms.
5. Video-marketing platforms.
Social networks exist across all of these technology platforms so haven’t been identified separately.
Mini Case Study 3.1: Location-based marketing
- Mobile phone and tablet platforms. Since they can be used in different locations, there are many new opportunities to engage consumers through mobile marketing and location-based marketing.
The main mobile platforms are:
6. Mobile operating system and browser.
7. Mobile-based apps.
It’s important to assess whether companies are gaining similar or greater levels of business from consumers using mobile platforms as they did from desktop platforms.
The benefits that mobile connections offer to their users are:
* ubiquity
* reachability
* convenience
* security
* instant access or being always on.
There are considerable advantages in comparison to PC-based Internet access, but it’s still somewhat restricted by the display limitations.

Question 4

• Desktop, laptop, and notebook platforms

Answer 4

1. Desktop browser-based platform.
2. Desktop apps.
3. Email platforms.
4. Feed-based and API data exchange platforms.
5. Video-marketing platforms.
   Social networks exist across all of these technology platforms so haven’t been identified separately.

Question 5

• Mobile phone and tablet platforms

Answer 5

6. Mobile operating system and browser.
7. Mobile-based apps.
   It’s important to assess whether companies are gaining similar or greater levels of business from consumers using mobile platforms as they did from desktop platforms.
   The benefits that mobile connections offer to their users are:
   * ubiquity
   * reachability
   * convenience
   * security
   * instant access or being always on.

Question 6

Other hardware platforms

Answer 6

There are also other platforms through which communicate with customers, for example:
1. Gaming platforms.
2. Indoor and outdoor kiosk-type apps.
3. Interactive signage.
Box 3.1: Taking the mobile app vs mobile site decision

Question 7

Augmented reality

Answer 7

Augmented reality (AR) is an exciting concept that can help companies improve their customer experience.
Mini Case Study 3.2: Amazon opens a real grocery shop

Question 8

Digital business infrastructure components

Answer 8

The different components of digital business architecture can be conceived of as layers, with defined interfaces between each layer. The different layers can be best understood in relation to a typical task performed by a user of a digital business system.
Kampas (2000) describes an alternative five-level infrastructure model of what he refers to as the information system function chain:
1. Storage/physical. Memory and hard disk hardware components (Level IV).
2. Processing. Computation and logic provided by the process (processing occurs at Levels I and II).
3. Infrastructure. Human and external interfaces and also the network, referred to as extra-structure (Level III).
4. Application/content. Data processed by the application into information (Level V).
5. Intelligence. Additional computer-based logic that transforms information to knowledge (Level I).
Each of these elements of infrastructure presents separate management issues.

Question 9

Kampas (2000) information system function chain:

Answer 9

1. Storage/physical. Memory and hard disk hardware components (Level IV).
2. Processing. Computation and logic provided by the process (processing occurs at Levels I and II).
3. Infrastructure. Human and external interfaces and also the network, referred to as extra-structure (Level III).
4. Application/content. Data processed by the application into information (Level V).
5. Intelligence. Additional computer-based logic that transforms information to knowledge (Level I).

Question 10

A short introduction to digital technology

Answer 10

The Internet enables communication between millions of connected computers worldwide, but how does the seamless transfer of data happen? Requests for information are transmitted from client computers and mobile devices whose users request services from server computers that hold information and host business applications that deliver the services in response to requests. Thus, the Internet is a large-scale client-server system.
The client computers are connected to the Internet via local Internet service providers (ISPs), which, in turn, are linked to larger ISPs connection to the major national and international infrastructure or backbones that are managed by commercial organisations.

Question 11

Domain name selection

Answer 11

Companies typically have many digital services located on different domains, particularly for companies with different domains for different countries. The domain name refers to the address of the web server and is usually selected to be the same as the name of the company, and the extension will indicate its type. The extension is commonly known as the generic top-level domain (gTLD). Common gTLDs are:
i. .com: international or American company.
ii. .org: not-for-profit organisations.
iii. .mobi: sites configured for mobile phones.
iv. .net: network provider.
v. .edu: academic institution in the US
There are also specific country-code top-level domains (ccTLDs):
vi. .co.uk: company based in the UK (it’s an anomaly).
vii. .au, .ca, .de, .es, .fi: other countries.
viii. .ac.uk: UK-based university or higher education institution.
ix. .org.uk: not-for-profit organisation focusing on a single country.
The “filename.html” part of the web address refers to an individual web page.
The list of new types of gTLDs has grown rapidly in the last few years to cover all manner of business types or specific products. These new gTLD types also include support for non-Latin characters such as Arabic or Chinese.
It’s important that companies define a URL strategy that will help customers or partners find relevant parts of the site containing references to specific products or campaigns when printed in offline communications such ad adverts or brochures.

Question 12

Uniform resource locators (URLs).

Answer 12

The technical name for a web address is uniform (or universal) resource locator (URL). URLs can be thought of as a standard method of addressing that make it straightforward to find the name of a domain or a document on the domain.
In larger businesses it’s important to develop a URL strategy so that there’s a consistent way of labelling online services and resources.
There’s further terminology associated with a URL that will often be required when discussing site implementation or digital marketing campaigns.
Box 3.2: What’s in a URL?

Question 13

Domain name registration

Answer 13

Most companies own several domains, for different product lines or countries or for specific marketing campaigns. Domain name disputes can arise when an individual or company has registered a domain name that another company claims they have the right to. This is sometimes referred to as cybersquatting.
Managers or agencies responsible for websites need to check that domain names are automatically renewed by the hosting company. Companies that don’t manage this process risk losing their domain name since another can register it if the domain name lapsed.
Mini Case Study 3.3: Is a domain name worth the money?

Question 14

Managing hardware and systems software infrastructure

Answer 14

Management of the technology infrastructure requires decisions on Layers II, III and IV.
- Layer II – systems software
A key management decision is whether to standardise throughout the organisation. Standardisation leads to reduced numbers of contacts for support and maintenance and can reduce purchase prices through multi-user licences. Systems software choices occur for the client, server and network. On client computers, the decision will be which browser software to standardise on. Standardised plug-ins should be installed across the organisation. The systems software for the client will also be decided on. When considering systems software for the server, it should be remembered that there may be many servers in the global organisation, both for the Internet and intranets. Using standardised web-server software (es: Apache) will help maintenance. Networking software will also be decided on.
Managing digital business applications infrastructure. Management of digital business applications infrastructure concerns delivering the right applications to all users of digital business services. The issue involved has long been a concern of IS managers, namely to deliver access to integrated applications and data available across the company. Traditionally businesses have developed applications silos or islands of information. These silos may develop at three different levels:
1) There may be different technology architectures used in different functional areas;
2) There will also be different applications and separate databases in different areas;
3) Processes or activities followed in the different functional areas may also be different.
Applications silos are often a result of decentralisation or poorly controlled investment in information systems, with different departmental managers selecting different systems from different vendors. This is inefficient in that it will often cost more to purchase applications from separate vendors, and also will be more costly to support and upgrade. Such a fragmented approach stifles decision-making and leads to isolation between functional units. Problems can also occur at tactical and strategic levels. To calculate customer lifetime values (CLV), some info about customers’ purchases may be stored in a marketing information system, while the payment data will be stored in a separate system within the finance department. It may prove difficult or impossible to reconcile these different data sets.
To avoid the problems of a fragmented applications infrastructure, companies attempted throughout the 1990s to achieve the more integrated position. Many companies turned to enterprise resource planning (ERP) vendors, such as SAP, Baan, PeopleSoft and Oracle.
The approach of integrating different applications through ERP is entirely consistent with the principle of digital business, since digital business applications must facilitate the integration of the whole supply chain and value chain. Many of the ERP vendors have repositioned as suppliers of digital business solutions. The difficulty for those managing digital business infrastructure is that there’s not a single solution of components from a single supplier. Manager are faced with a precarious balancing act between standardisation or core product and integrating innovative systems where applicable.
ERP systems were originally focused on achieving integration at the operational level of an organisation. Solutions for other applications such as business intelligence in the form of data warehousing and data mining tended to focus on tactical decision-making based on accessing the operational data from ERP systems. Knowledge management software also tends to cut across different levels of management.

Question 15

The development of customer experiences and digital services

Answer 15

Web services or Software as a Service (SaaS) refer to a highly significant model for managing software and data within the digital business age. The web services model involves managing and performing all types of business processes and activities through accessing web-based services rather than running a traditional executable application on the processor of your local computer.

Question 16

Benefits of web services or SaaS

Answer 16

SaaS are usually paid for on a subscription basis. The main business benefit is that installation and maintenance costs are outsourced. Cost savings are made on both the server and client sides, since the server software and databases are hosted externally, and client applications software is usually delivered through a web browser or a simple application downloaded by web.

Question 17

• Application programming interfaces (APIs)

Answer 17

Organisations have sought to keep proprietary info within their firewalls for security reasons and to protect their intellectual property. But in the Internet era, this strategy may limit opportunities to add value to their services or share info via other online companies and their web services to increase their potential reach.

Question 18

Challenges of deploying SaaS

Answer 18

Disadvantages of the SaaS: it will have less capability for tailoring to exact business needs than a bespoke system.
The most obvious disadvantages of using SaaS id dependence on a third party to deliver services over the web, which has potential problems:
* Downtime or poor availability if the network connection or server hosting the application or server fails.
* Lower performance than a local database.
* Reduced data security since data would be backed up locally by in-house IT staff. Companies using SaaS need to be clear how back-up and restores are managed and the support available for handling problems.
* Data protection: since customer data may be stored in a different location it’s essential that it’s sufficiently secure and consistent with new data protection and privacy laws.
These potential problems need to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis when selecting SaaS providers. Disaster recovery procedures are particularly important. Managers need to question service levels as services often are delivered to multiple customers from a single server in a multi-tenancy arrangement rather than a single-tenancy one.
A related concept to web services is utility computing, which involves treating all aspects of IT as a commodity service, where payment is according to usage. A subscription is usually charged per month according to the number of features, users, volume of data storage or bandwidth consumed. Discounts will be given for longer-term contracts. This includes not only software, but also using hardware. An earlier term is application service providers (ASPs).
Box 3.3: Is my SaaS single-tenancy or multi-tenancy?

Question 19

Cloud computing

Answer 19

Cloud computing: the cloud referred to is the combination of networking and data storage hardware and software hosted externally to a company, typically shared between many separate or distributed servers accessed via the Internet. The access can be from any location. But there are issues to consider about data stored and served from the clod: is it secure, backed up, always available?
From the POV of managing IT infrastructure, these changes are dramatic, since traditionally companies have employed their own information systems support staff to manage different types of business applications such as email. Costs associated with upgrading and configuring new software on users’ client computers and servers are dramatically decreased.
Many smaller business and start-ups use cloud computing services to provide web-based services at low cost with the flexibility to meet short-term or longer-term growth in demand for their services.
Mini Case Study 3.4: How a business benefits from the cloud
Mini Case Study 3.5: Businesses that sit on Amazon’s AWS
Mini Case Study 3.6: Do you really need to come to work? Virtual businesses

Question 20

• Virtualisation

Answer 20

Virtualisation is another approach to managing IT resources more effectively. It is mainly deployed within an organisation.
Virtualisation essentially lets one computer do the job of multiple computers, by sharing the resources of a single computer across multiple environments. Virtual servers and virtual desktops allow to host multiple operating systems and multiple applications. So, virtualisation has benefits:
* The ability to run many operating systems on a single machine;
* Splits individual system resources between many virtual machines;
* Stops faults and security breaches at the hardware level;
* Maintains system performance;
* One can save the current state of a virtual machine for later use;
* Virtual machines can be moved and reused as easily as moving and copying files;
* Any virtual machine ca be moved to a real server.

Question 21

• Service-orientated architecture (SOA)

Answer 21

The technical architecture used to build web services is known as a service-orientated architecture. This is an arrangement of software processes or agents that communicate to deliver the business requirements.
The main role of a service within SOA is to provide functionality, and this is provided by:
1. An interface with the service that is platform-independent. The interface is accessible through applications development approaches such as Java and accessed through protocols such as SOAP (used for XML-formatted messages).
2. The service can be dynamically located and invoked. One service can query for the existence of another service through a service directory.
3. The service is self-contained. The service can’t be influenced by other services; rather it will return a required result to a request from another service, but will not change state. Within web services, messages and data are typically exchanged between services using XML.
The examples of web services imply a user interacting with the web service. But with the correct business rules and models to follow, there’s no need for human intervention and different applications and databases can communicate with each other in real time. Many banks have legacy systems not easy to replace, and so they rely on introducing SOA to connect them to more contemporary banking systems. The concept of the semantic web mentioned and business applications of web services such as CRM, SCM and ebXML are also based on a SOA approach.

Question 22

Selecting hosting providers

Answer 22

It’s common practice to use a specialist hosting provider to manage this service. It can be difficult to distinguish some hosting providers from organisations that provide other services such as cloud or SoaS.

Question 23

Managing service quality when selecting Internet service and cloud hosting providers

Answer 23

Service providers who provide access to the Internet are usually referred to as ISPs. They may also host the websites that publish a company’s website content. But many organisations will turn to a separate hosting provider to manage the company’s website and other digital business services accessed by customers and partners, so it’s important to select an appropriate hosting provider.

Question 24

ISP connection methods

Answer 24

A user may connect to one ISP, which will them transfer the request to another ISP connected to the main Internet backbone.
High-speed broadband is now the dominant home-access method rather than the previously popular dial-up connection.
However, companies should remember there’re still Internet users who have the slower dial-up access.
Broadband commonly uses a technology known as ADSL, which means that the traditional phone line can be used for digital data transfer. It is asymmetric since download speeds are higher than upload speeds. Small and medium businesses can also benefit from faster continuous access than was previously possible.
The higher speeds available through broadband, together with a continuous always-on connection, have transformed use of the Internet. Information access is more rapid, and it became more practical to access richer content.

Question 25

ISP connection methods

Answer 25

• Issues in management of ISP and hosting relationships
• Speed of access
• Availability
• Service level agreement
• Security

Question 26

• Issues in management of ISP and hosting relationships

Answer 26

The primary issue is to ensure a satisfactory service quality at a reasonable price. As the customers and partners of organisations become more dependent on their web services, it’s important that downtime be minimised. But severe problems of downtime can occur, and the consequences need to be avoided or managed

Question 27

• Speed of access

Answer 27

A site or digital business service fails if it fails to deliver an acceptable download speed for users. In the broadband world this is still important as digital business applications become more complex and sites integrate rich media.
Content needs to load within two seconds, otherwise site experience suffers. Users are also more likely to consider high product price, shipping costs and problems with shipping. Retailers using mobile devices are impatient and more likely to leave more quickly than those using desktops or laptops.
In 2010, Google introduced speed as a signal into its ranking algorithm. The average desktop page size is 2,331KB.
Speed of access to services is determined by the speed of the server and the speed of the network connection to the server. The speed of the site governs how fast the response is to a request for information from the end-user. This will be dependent on the speed of the server machine on which the website is hosted and how quickly the server processes the information. Web server software won’t greatly affect the speed at which requests are answered. The speed of the server is mainly controlled by the amount of primary storage. Many of the search-engine websites now store index data in RAM. Companies will pay ISPs according to the capabilities of the server.
Important aspect of hosting selection: the server is dedicated or shared (co-located)? If it’s shared, performance and downtime will be affected by demand loads on these other sites. But a dedicated server package can cost 5 to 10 times the amount of a shared plan.
For high-traffic sites, servers may be located across several computers with many processors to spread the demand load. New distributed methods of hosting content, summarised by Spinrad (1999) have been introduced to improve the speed of serving web pages for very large corporate sites by distributing content on servers around the globe, and the most used is Akamai.
The speed is also governed by the speed of the network connection, the network bandwidth: this is the website’s connection to the Internet and the bandwidth of the customer’s connection to the Internet will affect the speed with which web pages and associated graphics load. The term is so called because of the width of range of electromagnetic frequencies an analogue or digital signal occupies for a given transmission medium.
Bandwidth gives indication of the speed at which data can be transferred from a web server along a particular medium. Bandwidth can be thought of as the size of a pipe along which info flows. The higher the bandwidth, the greater the diameter of the pipe, and the faster the info is delivered. Many ISPs have bandwidth caps, even on unlimited Internet access plans, for users who consume high volumes of bandwidth.

Question 28

• Availability

Answer 28

The availability of a website is an indication of how easy it is for a user to connect to it. In theory it should be 100%, but sometimes, for technical reasons, the figure can drop below

Question 29

• Service level agreement

Answer 29

To ensure the best speed and availability, check the service level agreement (SLA) carefully when outsourcing website hosting services. The SLA will define confirmed standards of availability and performance measured in terms of the latency or network delay when info is passed from one point to the next. The SLA also includes notifications to the customer detailing when the web service becomes unavailable, with reasons why and estimates of when the service will be restored

Question 30

• Security

Answer 30

It’s an important issue in service quality.

Question 31

Intranet applications

Answer 31

Intranets are used for supporting sell-side e-commerce from within the marketing function and to support core supply chain management activities. Today, they’re typically deployed as web-based services supplemented by messages and alerts delivered by email, or when users login to a company network. Advantages of a marketing intranet:
* Reduced product lifecycles.
* Reduced costs through higher productivity, and savings on hard copy.
* Better customer service.
* Distribution of info through remote offices nationally or globally.
Intranets are also used for internal marketing communications since they can include:
* Staff phone directories;
* Staff procedures or quality manuals;
* Info for agents;
* Staff bulletin or newsletter;
* Training courses.
Intranets can be used for more than publishing info. Web browsers also provide an access platform for business applications, which were traditionally accessed using separate software programs. This can help reduce the total cost of ownership (TCO) of delivering and managing information systems. Applications delivered through a web-based intranet or extranet can be cheaper to maintain since no installation is required, upgrades are easier and there are fewer problems with reconfiguring software. Applications include tools for workgroups to collaborate on projects, self-service human resources, financial modelling tools and a vehicle-build tracking system.
Intranets need to include a suitable technology to enable staff to create and manage content. Content management system (CMS) features are built into intranet and extranet systems to achieve this.
The management challenges of implementing and maintaining an intranet are similar to those of an extranet (Arora, 2012).
Box 3.7: Can the cloud save money?

Question 32

Advantages of a marketing intranet:

Answer 32

• Reduced product lifecycles.
• Reduced costs through higher productivity, and savings on hard copy.
• Better customer service.
• Distribution of info through remote offices nationally or globally.

Question 33

Intranets are also used for internal marketing communications since they can include

Answer 33

• Staff phone directories;
• Staff procedures or quality manuals;
• Info for agents;
• Staff bulletin or newsletter;
• Training courses.

Question 34

Extranet applications

Answer 34

From a user POV, an extranet is straightforward. Extranets are used to provide online services restricted to business customers. The usage of the term extranet, referring to electronic b2b communication, is most typical, as noted by Vlosky et al. (2015): “There’s still some confusion over the exact definition on an Extranet, but the most commonly accepted seems to be a ‘network that links business partners to one another over the Internet’. By allowing ongoing access to your own profile, you’re effectively soft locked-in to their service, cause you don’t want to have to place all your personal info into another service. Business benefits of an extranet:
* Integrating the supply chain using ordering, order tracking and stock control in an online environment.
* Cutting the cost of making documentation available to end-users and business partners.
* Allowing collaborative and speedy development of materials and documents between partners, suppliers and customers.
* Improving the customer experience providing access to info for customers, which they use to solve problems.
* A single entry point into the organisation for all outsiders.
* Ensuring consistency, safety and security of service for external users.
* The provision of ‘only for registered users’ propositions, unavailable to people not registered or not customers.
* The inevitable growth of the virtual company as all resources used by employees, partners and customers alike don’t require ‘being on the premises’.
Many of the management issues involved with managing extranets are similar to those for intranets. 5 key questions when reviewing an existing extranet or when creating a new:
1. Are the levels of usage sufficient?
2. Is it effective and efficient?
3. Who has the ownership of the extranet?
4. What are the levels of service quality?
5. Is the quality of the information adequate?
Extranets are used extensively to support supply chain management as resources are ordered from suppliers and transformed into products and services delivered to customers.
When a new customer order is received through its extranet, it automatically triggers a scheduling order for the warehouse, an order acknowledgement for the customer and a shipping status when the order is shipped. To enable different applications on the intranet to communicate, middleware is used by systems integrators to create links between organisational applications or between different members of a supply chain.
Middleware is an old term pre-dating the Internet and is now more often referred to as enterprise application integration (EAI) (AIIM, 2001). Such applications include a sales-order processing system and a warehousing system; it now also includes software programs from different organisations.
Mini Case Study 3.7: How a digital business and its customers share resources

Question 35

Business benefits of an extranet:

Answer 35

• Integrating the supply chain using ordering, order tracking and stock control in an online environment.
• Cutting the cost of making documentation available to end-users and business partners.
• Allowing collaborative and speedy development of materials and documents between partners, suppliers and customers.
• Improving the customer experience providing access to info for customers, which they use to solve problems.
• A single entry point into the organisation for all outsiders.
• Ensuring consistency, safety and security of service for external users.
• The provision of ‘only for registered users’ propositions, unavailable to people not registered or not customers.
• The inevitable growth of the virtual company as all resources used by employees, partners and customers alike don’t require ‘being on the premises’.

Question 36

5 key questions when reviewing an existing extranet or when creating a new:

Answer 36

1. Are the levels of usage sufficient?
2. Is it effective and efficient?
3. Who has the ownership of the extranet?
4. What are the levels of service quality?
5. Is the quality of the information adequate?

Question 37

Encouraging use of intranets and extranets

Answer 37

Intranets and extranets are often a change to existing methods of working for business people, so encouraging usage is often a challenge. They may be launched to a great fanfare, but if their content is neglected, their usage will dwindle (Castagno, 2016). Common warning signs:
* Staff usage of the intranet is low and not growing;
* Majority of content out of date, incomplete or inaccurate;
* Intranet is very inconsistent in appearance, particularly across sections managed by different groups;
* Almost all info on the intranet is reference material, not news or recent updates;
* Most sections are used solely to publicise the existence of the business groups within the organisation.

Question 38

Streaming TV

Answer 38

The growth of streaming TV is one of the most exciting developments in recent years. It will become increasingly essential for marketers and ad agencies to learn how to exploit streaming TV to reach online audiences.

Question 39

Voice over IP (VoIP).

Answer 39

Voice over IP (VoIP) can be used for transmitting voice over a LAN or on a wider scale. VoIP enables phone calls to be made over the Internet. IP enables a single network to handle all types of communications needs of an organisation. VoIP is proving increasingly popular for reducing the cost of making phone calls within an office and between offices, particularly internationally. The VoIP Report (Vorodi, 2017) cites that after initial investment, the cost of managing a converged VoIP communications system could be between 50 and 75% lower than managing separate voice and data systems. In the longer term, major telecommunications companies are replacing their existing vice networks with IP networks and new businesses are sprouting up to sell and manage VoIP networks. Other benefits:
* Click-to-call.
* Call forwarding and conferencing to people.
* Unified messaging.
* Hot-desking.
* Cost control.
Several options:
1. Peer-to-peer.
2. Hosted service.
3. Complete replacement of all telephone systems.
4. Upgrading existing telephone systems to use VoIP.

Question 40

Widgets

Answer 40

Widgets are tools made available on a website or on a user’s desktop. They provide some functionality or real-time info.
Site owners can encourage partners to place them on their sites to educate people about your brand, possibly generate backlinks for SEO purposes and help engage with a brand when not on the brand owner’s site. Widgets offer partner sites the opportunity to add value to their visitors through the gadget functionality or content, or to add to their brand through association with you (co-branding). Main types of widget:
1. Web widgets.
2. Mobile widgets.
3. Desktop and operating system gadgets.
4. Social media widgets.
5. Facebook applications.
6. Browser extensions.

Question 41

Examples of XML applications

Answer 41

A widely adopted XML application is the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative, which has been active in defining different forms of metadata to support information access across the Internet. An important part is defining a standard method of referencing web documents and other media resources. If widely adopted, this would make it more efficient to search for a document produced by a particular author in a particular language in a particular date range. It has mainly been applied within content management systems to assist in knowledge management for data on intranets and extranets rather than on the public Internet.
The significance of XML is indicated by its use for facilitating supply chain management.
Another widely adopted application of XML is ebXML, coordinated by Oasis. The original project was intended to define business exchange using 5 standards:
* Business process;
* Core data components;
* Collaboration protocol agreements;
* Messaging;
* Registries and repositories.
Oasis defines 3 types of transaction that form business processes:
1. Business transactions.
2. Binary collaboration.
3. Multi-party collaboration.

Question 42

Oasis defines 3 types of transaction that form business processes

Answer 42

1. Business transactions.
2. Binary collaboration.
3. Multi-party collaboration

Question 43

Semantic web standards

Answer 43

The semantic web is a concept promoted by Tim Berners-Lee and the WWW Consortium to improve upon the capabilities of the current WWW. Semantic is the study of the meaning of words and linguistic expressions. The semantic web is about how to define meaning for the content of the we to make it easier to locate relevant information and services rapidly. Finding info on a particular topic through searching the web is inexact since there isn’t a standard way of describing the content of web pages. The semantic web describes the use of metadata through standards such as XML, RDF and the Dublin Core to help fin web resources more readily. Another benefit is that it will enable data exchange between software agents running on different server or client computers.
Agents are software programs created to assist humans in performing tasks. In this context they automatically gather info from the Internet or exchange data with other agents based on parameters supplied by the user.
The most visible application of the semantic web is Google’s Knowledge Graph, used to improve and enhance search engine results for a user’s query; it appeared in 2012 and provides info in a panel to the right of search results known as the Knowledge Panel. Google’s systems attempt to provide meaning around a query and deliver a meaningful result from different sources.

Question 44

Microformats

Answer 44

Microformats are a practical example of the way the semantic web will develop. Data can be exchanged through standard microformats, used to incorporate data from other sites into the Google listings

Question 45

Internal and external governance factors that impact digital business

Answer 45

The Internet is quite different from all previous communication media since it’s less easy for governments to control and shape its development.
Esther Dyson (1998): describes Internet governance as the control put in place to manage the growth of the Internet and its usage. The global nature of the Internet makes it less practical for a government to control cyberspace. Dyson describes different layers or jurisdiction:
1. Physical space comprising individual countries in which their own laws such as those governing taxation, privacy and trading and advertising standards hold.
2. ISPs – the connection between the physical and virtual worlds.
There are established non-profit-making organisation that control different aspects of the Internet, and are called ‘supra-governmental’ organisations since their control is above government level

Question 46

The Net neutrality principle

Answer 46

Net (or network) neutrality is based on the organic way in which the Internet grew during the 1980s and 1990s. The principle enshrines equal access to the Internet and the web, threatened by two different forces:
- Desire by some telecommunications companies and ISPs to offer tiered access to particular Internet services. The wish of the ISPs is to potentially offer a different quality of service, based on the fee paid by the upstream content provider. So, potentially, ISPs could charge companies such as TV channels more cause they stream content such as video content, which has high bandwidth requirements.
Concerns over tiered access to services appear strongest in the US, where two proposed Bills to help achieve neutrality, the 2006 Internet Freedom and Nondiscrimination Act and the 2006 Communications Opportunity, Promotion and Enhancement Act, did not become law. The ISPs were strong lobbyists against these Bills and subsequently it has been alleged that provider Comcast has discriminated against users accessing peer-to-peer traffic from BitTorrent (Paul, 2007). In UK, ISPs offer different levels of access at different bandwidth but this is a matter of commerce and pricing rather than secretive an arbitrary choice.
- Wish by some governments or other bodies to block access to certain services of content.
Box 3.8: Is Net neutrality in danger and does it matter?
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN, www.icann.org). The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers is the non-profit body formed for domain name and IP address allocation and management. These were previously controlled through US government contract by IANA and other entities.
The independence of such bodies raises several questions, such as who funds them and who they answer to – are they regulated? In 2002 ICANN had just 14 staff and a 19-member volunteer board of directors chaired by Dr Vinton Cerf, considered father of the Internet. Funding is through the fees charged for domain registration by commercial companies. The policy statements on the sites suggest that ICANN policy is influenced by various stakeholders, but the main control is an independent review body of ten people.

Question 47

The Internet society (www.isoc.org).

Answer 47

The Internet society (ISOC) is a professional membership society formed in 1992. It summarises its aims as: “To provide leadership in addressing issues that confront the future of the Internet, and is the organization home for the groups responsible for Internet infrastructure standards, including the Internet Engineering Task Force and the Internet Architecture Board”.
A key aspect of the society’s mission statement is: “To assure the open development, evolution and use of the Internet for the benefit of people throughout the world”.
Although it focuses on technical issues of standards and protocols, it’s also conscious of how these will affect global society.

Question 48

The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF, www.ietf.org).

Answer 48

This is one of the main technical bodies; it’s an international community of network designers, operators, vendors and researchers concerned with the development of the Internet’s architecture and its transport protocols such as IP. Significant subgroups are the Internet Architecture Board (technical advisory group of ISOC with a wide range of responsibilities) and the Internet Engineering Steering Group (responsible fir overseeing the activities of the IETF and the Internet standards process).

Question 49

The World Wide Web Consortium (www.w3.org).

Answer 49

It’s responsible for web standards. Today it focuses on improving publishing standards such as HTML and XML. It also aims to promote accessibility to the web

Question 50

Telecommunications Information Networking Architecture Consortium (TINA-C, www.tinac.com)

Answer 50

It takes a higher-level view of how applications communicate over communications networks. It doesn’t define detailed standards. Its principles are based on an objective-oriented approach to enable easier integration of systems: “The purpose of these principles is to ensure interoperability, portability and reusability of software components and independence from specific technologies, and to share the burden of creating and managing a complex system among different business stakeholders, such as consumers, service providers, and connectivity providers”.
Although established since the 1990s, it has had limited success in establishing solutions branded as “TINA-compliant”.

Question 51

How can companies influence or take control of Internet standards?

Answer 51

It can be argued that companies seek control of the Internet to gain competitive advantage. The existence of global Internet standards bodies arguably means that it’s less likely that one company can develop proprietary standards. Today, companies such as Microsoft have to lobby independent organisations to have their input into standards such as XML. Businesses can protect their interests in the Internet by lobbying these organisations or governments or subscribing as members and having employees involved with development of standards.
Many remain worried about the future control of the Internet by companies. The “World of Ends” campaign illustrates some of the problems where control can limit consumer choice and stifle innovation. But the future of the Internet is assured cause the three core principle espoused in the World of Ends document remain true:
* No one owns it.
* Everyone can use it.
* Anyone can improve it.

Question 52

Open-source software

Answer 52

The selection of open-source software to support digital business applications is a significant decision for anyone managing technology infrastructure for a company. Open-source software is now significant in many categories relevant to digital business, including operating systems, browsers, web servers, office applications and content management systems.
The Open Source Initiative explains its benefits: “The basic idea behind open source is very simple: When programmers can read, redistribute, and modify the source code for a piece of software, the software evolves. People improve it, people adapt it, people fix bugs. And this can happen at a speed that, if one is used to the slow pace of conventional software development, seems astonishing. We in the open source community have learned that this rapid evolutionary process produces better software than the traditional closed model, in which only a very few programmers can see the source and everybody else must blindly use an opaque block of bits”.
Case Study 3.1: Innovation at Google (2017 update)