IBM is creating a new, $10M Institute for Advanced Commerce to fund industry/academia research on global electronic commerce (including information economies, online auctions, and electronic payments). [WSJ, 05Dec97.]

There are lots of e-commerce sites: news stories, futurist essays, surveys, economics papers, standards, RFCs, etc. You might check for an analysis of over 1K sites. [Network News, 07Dec97.]

TechKnow Times is an e-newsletter about Internet and online marketing, Web sites and their design, and online technology and culture. Send a "subscribe" message to , or browse back issues at . [Thom Byxbe , net-hap, 25Sep96.]

"ego" is a new $995 software/hardware/services system for setting up a PC-based e-commerce Web site. It includes a firewall, Java Virtual Machine, and 25-person email server, but can be set up in 30 minutes. It's from Encanto Networks Inc. (Santa Clara), a startup headed by former Novell CEO Bob Frankenberg. [IBD, 09Dec97. EduP.]

Click2U software can create malls with any number of storefronts and products, for $900. . [Network News, 16Nov97.]

Online merchants say that fraudulent credit card numbers are given for as much as 20% of software downloads. Sometimes it's people downloading for resale, to get the money. Sometimes it's people -- often in poor parts of the world -- who can't afford to pay for the software. And often it's just a teenage boy with no use for the software, downloading it for the thrill and for status with peers -- somewhat like baseball cards. Unfortunately, such sales can drive a merchant out of business. [NYT. SJM, 11/18/97.] (Cyber Source runs a risk-scoring service for online transactions, said to be able to reduce fraud to less than 5%. The score costs $.50-$1 per transaction.)