Commerce and the Internet :: Internet E-Commerce Business Essays

Commerce and the InternetIntroduction The company I work with wants to get on the web. Few of the staff are experienced computer users, unless they know how to make the machines spit out invoices, purchase orders, reports, letters and pretty packaging designs. They know that everyone is on the web nowadays, they want to do it, but theyre tardy in undertaking the project, and the subject has ignited a series of internal power struggles among the staff. This paper is a broad exploration of communication issues related to a venial businesss desire to utilize the internet . As a speech communications major, I am interested in studying all facets of communication. What I hand over learned in four short weeks is that the subject of commerce on the internet is complex and widely misunderstood -- even feared -- by many members of our community. doubting Thomas Sebeok, in his paper Communication states that because the concept of communication is so central to our contemporary ci vilization, and because of the intensive social shaping of technology by governments and commercial interests, our get along with has increasingly come to be characterized as the information society. (11). I posit that this intensive social shaping of technology, and the multiplicity of information communicated therein, is straining our human force to accurately decode messages due to entropy (the measure of disorder in the system) created by a blind rush for profits. Yet, if the power of money does not lie in the coin, nor that of justice in the buildings that house our courts or the people that operate the system, (Plotkin) where do they lie? This presentation will tell my story, humbly state an opinion, and possibly suffer further questions for readers. Fear and Loathing in Canoga Park My employers company has experienced meteoric growth over the past year. In the scramble to keep up with the demands of a burgeoning business, I was employed as an administrative assistant an d given the task of researching for, designing and purchasing a sophisticated infranet and automated voice accouterments system for the workers to use. The telephones and computers had to be compatible, to accommodate a planned telemarketing department. The system was designed with security in mind -- a simple DOS based write up package was provided via diskless workstations to the sales staff, while the administrative staff received WIN 95 executive workstations, but could drop into the DOS loop when necessary.