--- begin forwarded text
X-Authentication-Warning: rmc1.crocker.com: newshare owned process doing -bs
Date: Tue, 24 Nov 1998 13:26:29 -0500 (EST)
From: IIPC Webmaster <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
X-Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: IIPC Update <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: NEWS: UMass, IBM helping bid for consensus on info payments
MIME-Version: 1.0
Status: U
_________________________________________________________________
UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS LAUNCHES MULTI-DISCIPLINE
E-COMMERCE CENTER; IBM PROVIDES TECH SUPPORT;
INFO PAYMENT TRIALS TO INVOLVE CLICKSHARE, OTHERS;
ROUNDTABLE SUMMIT CONFERENCE PLANNED FOR FEB. 28-MARCH 2
AMHERST, Mass., Nov. 24, 1998 -- A pioneering effort to help
build industry consensus around new ways to charge for digital
information delivery was announced Tuesday by University of
Massachusetts researchers.
The Internet Information Payments Collaborative (IIPC.NET) is
part of a broader electronic-commerce research center formed by
computer science, business and economics faculty, researchers say.
"Internet development is a group effort, and we think public-
private collaboration among academic and business researchers is to
everyone's advantage," says Dr. Leslie D. Ball, a professor at the
Isenberg School of Management who is co-directing both initiatives.
The info-payments effort is the first of a broader research
initiative at UMass called the Interdisciplinary Center for Electronic
Commerce (ICEC). International Business Machines Corp. has
contributed "significant hardware and software resources" to the
ICEC, Ball added.
"Publishers are confused by the array of unproved options for
managing and selling information on the Internet," says Stephen C.
Mott, IIPC's other co-director. "We provide a way to pool research-
and-development around finding a common infrastructure for on-demand
purchase of digital information, including words, sounds and
pictures."
The payments collaborative plans a summit conference Feb. 28-
March 2. (See: www.iipc.net/conference/). It will also study and
market-test information-payment technologies, including one offered
by a Massachusetts-based startup, Clickshare Service Corp., which is
an IIPC technology collaborator.
Both Mott and Ball said they saw the need for the IIPC
emerging from the failure of several pioneering information-payment
protocols to gain a critical-mass of commercial adoption.
They said it is clear the market for information sales needs a
forum for developing consensus on an operating structure. The
network operating structure needs to support competitive yet
interoperable marketing and pricing beyond subscriptions and
advertising sales, they added.
Ball says the collaborative plans an initial budget of
$400,000 derived from a three-tiered corporate sponsorship
structure. It will assess after a nine-month research-and-trial
program whether to disband, continue or merge with an existing
standards body.
Ball joined UMass in September after more than a decade with
Computer Sciences Corp., most recently running a multi-million
dollar practice group within the El Segundo, Calif.-based
information-technology consultant.
Mott is a consultant and former senior vice president for
electronic commerce with MasterCard International Corp. who
preceding his business career with a stint in journalism at Dallas
and Washington, D.C. dailies. He is also a director of Clickshare.
Clickshare has provided initial resources to help establish
the IIPC but the company will not control IIPC's research or
recommendations, and relationships with other technology partners
are likely, said Ball. He said publishers, banks, telcos and ISPs
are among potential sponsors expressing interest in joining the
collaborative.
An established, not-for-profit technology-transfer
organization chartered and controlled by UMass faculty will manage
IIPC's technical work at the direction of IIPC's member steering
committee. The Applied Computing Systems Institute of Massachusetts
Inc. (ACSIOM), is based adjacent to the Amherst campus.
-- 30 --
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
Dr. Leslie Ball, Room 202-D, Isenberg School of Management, University
of Masssachusetts-Amherst, Amherst, MA 01003, 413-545-5654,
[[EMAIL PROTECTED]]; or Stephen C. Mott, CSI Management Services
Inc., 203-968-1967; [[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
_________________________________________________________________
The Internet Information Payments Collaborative
c/o The Applied Computing Systems Institute of Massachusetts Inc.
Massachusetts Venture Center
100 Venture Way
Hadley MA 01035
(413) 587-2180
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
--- end forwarded text
-----------------
Robert A. Hettinga <mailto: [EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Philodox Financial Technology Evangelism <http://www.philodox.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'
