Topics and Readings for:

Cases and Books:

A course pack that includes the cases and the article on writing a business plan is available from the CMU bookstore.  A number of books are listed as required reading and more may be added as the course progresses.  None of these is a textbook per se, but all of these are valuable reading for students interested in electronic commerce.  Given the number of books, you may want to share them with one or two other people to cut down on the expense.  The books are available from many on-line bookstores.  You may want to use a shopping bot such as dealpilot or bestbookbuys to find the best prices.

Lecture 1 (January 17): Overview

Recommended reading:

The New New Thing: A Silicon Valley Story  by Michael Lewis
Triumph of the Nerds (Video, available through Hunt Library)
Nerds 2.0.1 (Video, available through Hunt Library)

Handouts:

Syllabus, Lecture 1 slides

Lecture 2 (January 19):  Business to Consumer

Required reading:

Broadvision (case)
The Promise of One to One (A Love Story) by Chip Bayers
Permission Marketing by Seth Godin  (You can get the first 4 chapters for free.  I would suggest buying the book.)

Handouts:

Lecture 2 slides

Lecture 3 (January 24):  Business to Consumer

Required reading:

Hotmail (case)
Customers.com by Patricia Seybold, skim the introductory chapters and read all of the case studies.

Handouts:

Lecture 3 slides

Lecture 4 (January 26):  Business to Consumer

Required reading:

Information Rules by Hal Varian and Carl Shapiro, read chapters 2, 3, and 5

If your last name begins with the following letter, read:
A-D:  Homework from Video to Women's Clothing
E-K:  Homework from Department Stores to Perfume
L-P:  Homework from Flowers to Newspapers (formerly Gardening Supplies)
Q-Z:  Homework from Jewelry to Consumer Electronics

Handouts:

Lecture 4 slides

Lecture 5 (January 31):  Non-Profits

Required reading/viewing:

Nonprofit Motive, from Wired
Museum of Modern Art's website (take a look around and see what they have to offer)
Peninsula Community Foundation's Center for Venture Philanthropy website (read about Venture Funds 1 and 2)
Select 3 other non-profit sites to look at.  If you want ideas about types of nonprofits, see the homework page.

Handouts:

Lecture 5 slides

Lecture 6 (February 2): Non-Profits

Required reading:

United Way of Massachusetts Bay (case)

Handouts:

Lecture 6 slides

Lecture 7 (February 7): Non-Profits

Required reading/viewing:

I would recommend that you read all of the homeworks.  If your last name begins with the following letter, at a minimum read the following nonprofit homeworks:
A-D:  Disaster relief, Foodbanks, Job training, Children
E-K:  Elderly, Religious organizations, Charitable foundations
L-P:  Zoos, Botanical gardens, Ballet companies, Modern dance
Q-Z:  Symphony, Art museums, Theater companies, Disease specific health

Handouts:

Lecture 7 slides

Lecture 8 (February 9): Business to Business

Required reading:

Dell (case)

Net Gain by John Hagel and Arthur Armstrong.  I expect any of you who are doing B2B business plans to have read this.  I would also strongly recommend that other project groups have at least one member read it.

Handouts:

Lecture 8 slides

Lecture 9 (February 14): Business to Business

George Johnson had to postpone until the 16th.

Required reading/viewing:

Chemdex (case)

QRS, a big B2B player in the apparel industry

Let's Get Vertical, a very nice short Business 2.0 article that Juan Cukier posted to the bboard.

Handouts:

Lecture 9 slides

Lecture 10 (February 16):  Business to Business

Guest Lecture by George Johnson of the Software Engineering Institute on B2B startups.  His current startup focuses on secure collaboration over the internet.  Two previous startups failed.

Required reading:

Background on secure collaboration over the internet

I would recommend that you read all of the B2B homeworks.  This is an area that many of you probably know relatively little about, so it is important to gain knowledge about as many B2B sites as you can.  If you only have time to look at two, look at Oil and Gas and Aerospace.

Handouts:

George Johnson's slides

During lecture we are going to look at the Oil and Gas and the Aerospace presentations.

No Lecture February 21 (President's Day)

Lecture 11 (February 23): Government

Required reading:

Recommended reading:

Handouts:

Lecture 12 (February 28):  Government

Required reading:

China's Electronic Commerce Initiative (case)

Recommended reading:

Handouts:

Lecture 13 (March 1):  Government

Required reading:

Recommended reading:

Handouts:

This page and its subordinate pages are copyrighted © 2000 by Karen Clay, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania USA. They are made available only for non-profit educational use. All other rights are reserved.