Chapter – 1

Electronic Commerce Environment and Opportunities

1) What is E-Commerce? How is it different from traditional Commerce?

Ans: Electronic commerce is a way of doing business where buyer and seller com-
municate through electronic media such as fax, telephone-mail etc…
- Traditionally human being was exchanging goods to meet their needs.
- Currently, an Internet facility business organization to reach more consumers
across the globe. To do the e-business, there are 3 essential services that must go
hand- in hand promptly.
i) Communication ii) Data management iii) Security capabilities.

2) Explain e-commerce environment?

Ans: - The virtual corporation: Electronic commerce goes hand in hand with
changes that occurring in the corporate world. The 1990’s have seen the rise of a
new form of industrial organizations - the networked firm; sometimes know as the
virtual organization.
- We have in fact reached a stage where the corporation has become the network.
Rather than being based on an inflexible, hierarchical model characteristic of the
traditional organization.
- Use of communication mechanisms enables the virtual firm to focus on core com-
petencies, to engage outsourcing of noncritical administrative functions and to make
use of pools of specialised subcontractors.

- The electronic marketers: electronic marketers are defined as companies that

market their products and services to other businesses or consumers through private
on-line networks, commercial online services such as America Online (AOL); the
internet, CD-ROMs telecommunications - enhanced CDROMs, interactive televi-
sion and Web TV.
The catalyst of electronic and web commerce: The growth of the Internet in
terms of people accessing it is now being viewed as one of the greatest transforma-
tion in society in the last couple of decades. The growth of Internet access 100 per-
cent a year.

3) Explain Applications of E-commerce?

Ans: - Electronic commerce combines the advantages of computer - based
processing (speed, reliability and relatively high volume of data) with the
advantages of people - based insight (creativity, flexibility, adaptability).
- Electronic commerce enables people to review, analyse, add value, and sell a
variety of products that are represented electronically such as reference material,
textbooks and training materials, entertainment, and software.
Applications of electronic commerce can include following:
 Electronic funds transfer
 Enterprise integration
 Computer supported collaborative work.
 Govt regulatory data interchange.
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4) Explain the Benefits of e-commerce.
Ans: Benefits of electronic / web commerce
Electronic commerce increases the speed, accuracy, and efficiency of business and
personal transactions. Business-to-business electronic commerce (eg. EDI) is
already being used for cutting cost related to the purchasing process; commerce
over the internet is relatively inexpensive. The benefits of the electronic commerce
include the following:
- Reduced costs to buyers and suppliers.
- Reduced errors, time and overhead costs in information processing by eliminating
requirements for re-entering data.
- Reduced inventories, as the demand for goods and services, are electronically
linked through just-in-time inventory and integrated manufacturing techniques.
- Reduced overhead costs through uniformity; automation and integration of
management processes which enable flatter, wider and more efficient processes.
- Creation of new markets through the ability to easily and cheaply reach potential
customers.
- Optimisation of resource selection as businesses builds cooperative teams to better
tailor capabilities, to work opportunities to increase chances of success.
- Improved product analysis as businesses is able to perform product analyses and
comparisons and report their findings on the Internet and on-line.

5) What are the elements of the successful electronic market?

Ans: - (i) Utilises an existing customer base: Magazine and newspaper pub-
lishers are examples of electronic marketers that have capitalised on the relation-
ships that exists with their customer bases to build loyalty and add value to their
traditional products through electronic products.
(ii) Makes an existing market place more effective: Consumers tend to be
time-deprived; the electronic market places must be convenient, ordering must be
fast, and delivery of the purchase must take place within 24 to 48 hrs.
(iii) Brings together communities: The services must bring together buyers &
sellers who are physically scattered.
(iv) Offer decision – support information: Customers are comfortable with the
manual way the current shop.
(v) Ability to close the sale: - customers need to be able to buy the advertised
product through the electronic medium.

6) Explain Electronic marketplace technologies?

Ans: Electronic Marketplace Technologies:
- Electronic Data Interchange: EDI is the exchange of well-defined business
transactions in a computer-processable format. EDI provides a collection of stan-
dard message formats to exchange data between organizations' computers via any
electronic service. The limitation of EDI is that only B2B transactions are accom-
plished due to the high volume of the consumer base, and low per-consumer trans-
actions.

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- On-line networks and services: - On-line services provide access to informa-
tion, entertainment, communications and transaction services. In general, this term
refers to networks by companies such as America Online (AOL), Compuserve, etc
- The on-line environment presents challenges as well as opportunities to a variety
of markets
- The Internet: Web commerce: The Internet is the most popular commercial
domain for business marketers due to low-cost commercial point and clicks Internet
software and WWW browsers. The Web's ease of access as well as its multimedia
capabilities and downloadable applications (eg. with Java)
- Screen Phones: Screen phones are similar to regular telephones but have ad-
vanced features such as credit card readers, small screen, and keypads that can be
used for a variety of interactive, transactional and information services.
- Kiosks: Kiosks are displays used to provide merchandise information in a remote
location, such as a retail store or a shopping mall.

7) Explain about the security issues related to web-commerce.

Ans: - Many of the concerns about electronic commerce development, particularly
over open networks, deal with risks of possible fraud, security infractions & with
consumer privacy issues.
- Consumer demand for secure access to electronic shopping & other service is
high.
- Merchants seek simple, cost- effective methods for conducting electronic transac-
tions.
- SEPP, STT, S-HTTP encrypted/secure e-mail credit card numbers are some of the
methods available currently.

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 Chapter – 2
Modes of Electronic Commerce

1) What are the Open issues of e-commerce?

Ans: i) Taxation: - When merchants collect sales tax, which rate should the cus-
tomer be charged. The rate for the state in which customer placed the order or for
the state which customer lives.
ii) Customs: - ability to purchase & import certain types of information goods
might be subject to customs regulations, as there are restrictions on exporting
cryptography technology.
iii) Regulation: - Government bodies & regulators may enforce restrictions which
invade privacy or security
iv) Fraud: - charging card holders in case of fraud.
v) security: - Authentication, accountability all are handled differently.

2) What EDI? Explain EDI process or sellers or buyers with neat dia-
gram
Ans: - EID is defined as the Inter-organization exchange of documents in a
standardized electronic form directly between computer applications.
- In basic terms, EDI can be thought of as the replacement of paper - based purchase
orders with electronic equivalents.
- Hence, EdI’s goal is to enable easy and inexpensive communication of structural
information throughout till-6 corporate community

The key aspects of EDI are as follows:

- The utilization of an electronic transmission medium (normally a VAN) rather
than the transfer of physical storage media such as paper, magnetic tapes, and disks.
- Use of structured, formatted messages based upon agreed standards (such that
messages can be translated, interpreted and checked for compliance with an explicit
set of rules).
- Relatively fast delivery of electronic documents from sender to receiver (generally
implying receipt within hours or minutes).
- Direct communication between applications.

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- Above diagram illustrates process involved in typical sellers & buyers transactions
- Pre- purchasing activity is supported by white/yellow pages, supplier directories
online pricelist, and offer details.
- Post- purchasing activity is cheque writing & dispatch process.

3) Explain Benefits of EDI.

Ans: - i) EDI is a replacement for paper-based purchased order.
ii) It enables easy in-expensive communication
iii) It is secured in inventory, transport, administration & cash management.
iv) Faster handling of truncations results in increase cash flows.
v) Elimination of Re-keying the data.
vi) Key punching error is avoided and the accuracy of the data increases.
vii) EDI is likely to contribute to relocate of functions between business patterns.

4) Explain Status of EDI.

Ans: - The cost factors for implementing EDI include the following are:
- Reaching a legal agreement between the parties regarding responsibilities and dis-
pute settlement (this phase may involve expensive lawyers).
- Building and installing the EDI system.
- Modifying and interfacing with the existing computer system.
- Obtaining network services.
- Testing & installations.
- Training

System Approach
There are a number of ways in which computers can be set up to support EDI. A
single dedicated PC can be used as the company's link to the outside world.
i) Application Software: - Using P.C with dialog we can start EDI.
ii) Message translator: - software is available that provides all necessary func-
tions, such as communication protocol & message translator.

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iii) Routing Manager: - Used to establish communication links, whenever data
exchange is required.
iv) Communication handler: - It is possible to print the messages, so that infor-
mation can be a handler.

5) Explain the Opportunities of e-commerce.

Ans: - Online web selling
- Virtual malls
- Advertising
- Home banking & financial services
- Catalogue publishing
- Interactive ordering
- Searching engines
- Direct marketing

6) Explain about Migration to open EDI.

Ans: - Migration to open EDI:
- The open EDI concept is initiated with the intention to reduce the setup and rollout
cost of EDI.
- The open nature of the Internet means that along with the development of EDI
standard EDI software should drop in price.

Approach: The development of open EDI enables several types of rollout strate-
gies. Generally, users can be classified into two groups.
- The first group is composed of users (individuals or companies) who are not cur-
rently EDI users.
- This presents three migration paths to users.
(i) A non-user becoming a private network/ VAN user. This is the most common
migration when companies are considering the additional use of EDI.
(ii) A current EDI user who wishes to make a transition to open EDI.
(iii) A non- EDI user who can make a direct transition to open EDI.

The factors driving migration are as follow:

i) The cost of using EDI services.
ii) The demands of customers.
iii)The opening up of market opportunities

7) Explain about Migration from Non-EDI to EDI operation.

Ans: - Migration from non-EDI to EDI:
- The operation is generally driven by the demands of dominant organizations. Eg.
Sub contractors to major industrial establishments using EDI are at times forced to
adopt the technology in order to continue doing business.
- Migration from EDI to open EDI may also take place because firms wish to take
advantage of lower costs on the assumption that, because of the economies of scale
(large number of users),

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- The Internet remains considerably less expensive than the use of VANs. Migration
from EDI to open EDI for many firms is due to cost factor.

8) Explain Internet and WWW tools.

Ans: - The Internet is simply a network, that is set of interconnected routers. It is
set of local & international links. It in itself has no content. Organizations that con-
nect their servers to the internet & allow accessing them provide the content.

Tools are:
i)File Transfer protocol (FTP):
- FTP can provide an inexpensive method to deliver information to customers, par-
ticularly for long technical materials such as manuals, specifications, Frequently
Asked Questions.
- FTP is the way most Internet users get files from another Internet host (servers).
FTP allows a user to log on to a remote host (server) but restricts the user to a lim-
ited set of commands

ii) Telnet:
- Telnet is a utility allows users a log into a remote system just as though they were
logging into a local system.
- Once logged in, the users have the same access to the system as though they
logged in from a terminal attached directly to the system.
- This method requires computer skills. Also, the logged - in party tends to get ac-
cess to a lot of the system capabilities, including OS access

iii)WAIS: WAIS is an acronym for ‘Wide Area Information Service’. Though

world wide web is a user - friendly interface for browsing data, it has somewhat
limited search capabilities.
- WAIS allows users to search for specific data they are interested in WAIS
searches the documents in a list of servers for one or more keywords.
- WAIS is often used in conjunction with WWW servers as the companion search
engine. Refer chapter 8 for more information on WAIS.

iii) Gopher: Gopher is one of the information search and retrieval tools that pre-
ceded the widespread use of WWW. Gopher's use is now commonly integrated with
the most sophisticated browser interfaces.
- The important aspect of Gopher is, it can be easily implemented. It can be de-
scribed as document delivery tool.

iv) World Wide Web: The world wide web is the most user - friendly informa-
tion service on the Internet.
- WWW has the ability to incorporate FTP, WAIS, Gopher, e-mail and FTP appli-
cations through one user interface.
- WWW applications are available since the early 1990s before that, a user would
need an FTP client to connect to an FTP archive, a WAIS client to search a WAIS
server, and a Gopher client to get to a Gopher server.
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 Chapter – 3
Approaches to safe Electronic Commerce

1) Explain SEPP (Secure electronic payment protocol) process & Archi-

tecture in detail.
Ans: - Secure Transactions:
SEPP Process: SEPP assumes that the cardholder and merchant have been com-
municating in order to negotiate terms of a purchase and generate an order.
- These processes may be conducted via a WWW browser;
- Alternatively, this operation may be performed through the use of electronic mail,
via the user's review of a paper or CD - ROM catalogue or other mechanisms.

i) Cardholder: This is an authorised holder of a bankcard supported by an issuer

and registered to perform electronic commerce.

ii) Merchant: This is a merchant of goods, services and/or e-products who accepts
payment for them electronically and may provide selling services and/or electronic
delivery of items for sale (eg. e-products).

iii) Acquired: This is a financial institution that supports merchants by providing

services for processing credit-card-based transactions.

iv) Certificate Management System: This is an agent of one or more bank card
associations that provides for the creation and distribution of electronic certificates
for merchants, acquirers and cardholders.

V) Banknet: This represents the existing network which interfaces acquirers, issu-
ers and (now) the certificate management system.

Messages for SEPP - compliant processing of payment transactions.

A Purchase Order Request
Authorization Request
Authorization Response
Purchase Order Inquiry
Purchase Order Inquiry Response

Additional messages for the on-line customer.

 Initiate
Invoice
Purchase Order Response (with Purchase Order Status).

Messages for off-line (ie. e-mail) transactions or transactions sent to merchant non-
on-line with the acquirer
Purchase Order Response (acknowledgement without authorization).

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Following Task performed by Acquirer:
i) Authenticate the merchant.
ii) Verifies the Acquirer.
iii) Decrypt the payment instruction from buying cardholder.
iv) Formats authorization request to the issuer & receives the response.
v) Response to the merchant with a validates authorization request response.

SEPP Architecture

In the above diagram, the buying cardholder workstation is based on the World
Wide Web browser. Through this web browser, the buyer can shop and conduct ne-
gotiations with the merchant system offering items for sale.
- The merchant’s website is hosted on the web server.
- Two designs of cardholder work stations are supported.
(1) The electronic payment system is integrated into the WWW browser.
(2) An alternate system called "bolt-on payment software may be provided along-
side an independent browser to implement the payment process.
-Functions added to traditional WWW browsers to support electronic payments in-
clude encryption and decryption of payment data, certificate management, and au-
thentication, and support for electronic payment protocols.
- The certificate request server issues the authentication certifications for clients.
- The buying cardholder must obtain authentication certificate from the certificate
request server before making the transactions, as the cardholder's credentials are
verified by the merchant (through acquirer).
-Another important interface in the buying cardholder's system is with the merchant
system. This interface supports the buying cardholder's segment of the payment
protocol, which enables the buying cardholder to initiate payment, perform inquir-
ies.

2) Explain in detail Secure Electronic Transactions (SET)?

Ans: - Secure Electronic Transactions(SET)

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- Provide for confidential payment information and enable confidentiality of order
information that is transmitted with payment information.
- Ensure integrity for all transmitted data.
- Provide authentication that a buyer is a legitimate user of a branded (e.g. Visa,
MasterCard, American Express) bankcard account.
- Provide authentication that a merchant can accept bank card payments through its
relationship with an appropriate financial institution
- Ensure the use of the best security practices and design techniques to protect all
legitimate parties in an electronic commerce transaction.
- Ensure the creation of a protocol that is neither dependent on transport security
mechanisms nor prevents their use.
- Facilitate and encourage interoperability across software and network providers.

Step 1: Cardholder requests purchase.

Step 2: Merchant contacts payment gateway for authorization.
Step 3: Payment is authorized.
Step 4 Cardholder is notified of authorization.
Step 5: Merchant requests payment capture from the gateway.
Step 6: Token is issued to the merchant.
Step 7: Merchant redeems token for transfer into its bank account.
- SET offers buyers more security than is available in the commercial market. In-
stead of providing merchants with access to credit card numbers,
- SET encodes the numbers so only the consumer and financial institution have ac-
cess to them.
- Cardholders, merchants and the financial institution each retain SET certificates
that identify them and the public keys associated with their digital identities.
- A third party provides digital certificates to the card issuing financial institution;
the institution then provides a digital certificate to the cardholder

3) What is a Certificate for Authentication? Explain

Ans: - A digital certificate is a foolproof way of identifying both consumer & mer-
chants.
- It acts as a network version of a driver.
- The digital certificate issued by a certificate authority such as Cyber trust,
NORTEL etc..
- VeriSign’s digital certificate come in 3 classes:
Class 1: - This includes fewest checks on the user’s background; only his or her
name & e-mail address verified.
Class 2: The issuing authority checks PAN, ADDRESS, DOB.
- Used for an online subscription.

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Class 3: It verifies information as in class-2, in addition, it requires organization
ID, other information. This is used for E-bank, corporate database access, E-
commerce server software validation.
Chapter – 4
Payments and Security

1) What is Electronic Payment? What are the payment related issues for
successful e-commerce?
Ans: - Electronic payment systems are becoming central to on-line business process
innovation as companies look for ways to service customers faster and at a lower
cost.
- Emerging innovations in the payment for goods and services in electronic com-
merce promise to offer a wide range of new business opportunities.

The Following issues must be addressed to meet the demands of success-

ful electronic commerce:
i) What form and characteristics of payment instruments - e.g. Electronic cash,
electronic cheques credit/debit cards - will consumer use?
ii) In on-line markets, how can we manage the financial risk associated with various
payment instruments - privacy, fraud, mistakes, as yell as other risks like bank fail-
ures?
iii) What security features (authentication, privacy, anonymity) need to be designed
to reduce these risks?
iv) What are the step - by - step procedures and institutional arrangements that form
the fabric of the electronic payment business processes that link consumers and
organizations?

2) What EFT? Explain briefly about categories of EFT.

Ans:- EFT is defined as "Any transfer telephonic instrument, computer or magnetic
tape so as to order, instruct, or authorise a financial institution or debit or credit an
account”.
- EFT utilises computer and telecommunication components both to supply and to
transfer money or financial assets.
- The transfer is information-based and intangible. Thus EFT stands in marked con-
trast to conventional money and payment models that rely on physical delivery of
cash or cheques.

EFT can be segmented into three broad categories.

(1) Banking and financial payments
Large - scale or wholesale payments (e.g.. Bank- to - bank transfer).
Small - Scale or retail payments (e.g.. ATMs and cash dispensers.)
Home banking (e.g. bill payment)

(2) Retailing payments

Credit cards (eg. VISA or MasterCard).
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Private label credit/debit cards.
Charge cards (eg. American Express)

(3) On-line electronic commerce payments

Token-base payment systems.
Electronic cash (eg. Digicash).
Electronic cheques (eg. NetCheque).
Smart cards or debit cards.

3) What is electronic Token? Mention its types.

Ans:- Digital Token-based Electronic Payment Systems:
- Electronic tokens are new forms of financial instruments developed to avoid the
physical presence of transacting party.
- Electronic tokens representing electronic cash or electronic cheques designed as
electronic analogs of various forms of payment backed by a bank or financial insti-
tution.
- In other words, electronic tokens are equivalent to cash that is backed by a bank.
Electronic tokens are of three types:
(1) Cash or real-time: -Transactions are settled with the exchange of electronic
currency. An example of on-line currency exchange is an electronic cash (e-cash).
(2) Debit or prepaid: - Users pay in advance for the privilege of getting informa-
tion. Examples of prepaid payment mechanisms are stored in smart cards and elec-
tronic purses that store electronic money.
(3) Credit or postpaid: - The server authenticates the customers and verifies with
the bank that funds are adequate before purchase. Examples of postpaid mecha-
nisms are credit/debit cards and electronic cheques.

4) What is E-cash? Explain properties of e-cash.

Ans:- Electronic Cash (e-cash):
- E-cash combines computerised convenience with security and privacy that im-
prove on paper cash. Its versatility opens up a host of new markets and applications.
- E-cash presents some interesting characteristics that should market it an attractive
alternative for payment over the Internet.
- E-cash focuses on replacing cash as the principal payment vehicle in consumer-
oriented electronic payments.
- Paper cash remains the dominant form of payment for three reasons:
(1) Lack of trust in the banking system.
(2) Inefficient clearing and settlement of noncash transactions.
(3) Negative real interest rates paid on bank deposits.

Properties of Electronic Cash: - E-cash must have the following four

properties:
(1) E-cash must have a monetary value: - it must be backed by either cash
(currency), the bank authorized credit or a bank certified cashier’s cheque.

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-When c-cash created by one bank is accepted by others, reconciliation must occur
without any problems.

(2) E-cash must be interoperable: that is. exchangeable as payment for other e-
cash, paper cash, goods or services, lines of credit, deposits in banking accounts,
bank notes or obligations, electronic benefits transfers, etc..
- Most e-cash proposals use a single bank.

(3) E-cash must be storable and retrievable: Remote storage and retrieval (eg.
from a telephone -or personal communications device) would allow users to ex-
change e-cash from home or office or while travelling.

5) What is an Electronic cheque? Explain its advantages.

Ans: - Electronic Cheques
Electronic Cheques are another form of electronic tokens. They are designed to ac-
commodate the many individuals and entities that might prefer to pay on credit or
through some mechanism other than cash.
- In this model, the buyers must register with a third party account server before
they are able to write electronic cheques.
- The account server also acts as a billing service. Once registered, a buyer can then
contact sellers of goods and services. To complete a transaction, the buyer sends a
cheque to the seller for a certain amount of money.
- These cheques may be sent using e-mail or other transport methods. When depos-
ited, the cheque authorizes the transfer of account.

Advantages:
i) They work in the same way as traditional cheques, thus simplifying customer
education.
ii) Electronic cheques are well suited for clearing micropayments: their use of con-
vention cryptography (symmetric encryption) makes it much faster than systems
based on public-key cryptography (e-cash).
iii) Electronic Cheques create a float and the availability of float is an important re-
quirement for commerce. The third-party accounting server can make money by
charging the buyer or seller a transaction fee or a flat rate fee, or it can act as a bank
and provide deposit accounts and make money on the deposit pool.
iv) Financial risk is assumed by the accounting server and may result in easier ac-
ceptance. Reliability and scalability are provided by using multiple accounting
servers.
- A prototype electronic cheque system called "NetCheque" was developed at In-
formation Sciences Institute (ISI) by Clifford Newmann.
- Net Cheque will include software for writing and depositing cheques independent
of other applications to be called automatically when integrated with other systems.

6) What is Smart Card? Explain Its types.

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Ans: - Smart cards are credit and debit cards and other card products enhanced with
microprocessors capable of holding more information than the traditional magnetic
stripe.
- Smart cards are basically of two types:
i) Relationship-based smart cards.
ii) Electronic purses. Electronic purses, which replaces money, arc is also known as
debit cards and electronic money.

i) Relationship-based smart cards: - A relationship-based smart card is an en-

hancement of existing card services and for the addition of new services that a fi-
nancial institution delivers to its customers via a chip-based card or another device.
- These new services may include access to multiple financial accounts, value-
added marketing programs, of other information cardholders may want to store on
their card.

ii) Electronics purses and Debit Cards: - The electronics purse works in the
following manner: After the purse is loaded with money, at an ATM or through the
use of an inexpensive special telephone.
- It can be used to pay for coffee vending machine need only verify that card is au-
thentic & enough money available for a cup of coffee.
- Electronics purses would virtually eliminate for change or small bills in a busy
store or rush hour toll booth. And waiting for a credit card to be approved.

7) Explain Credit Card-Based electronic payment system.

Ans: - Credit card-based electronic payment systems
The credit card payment on online networks can be categorized as follows:

(i) Payments using plain credit card details: The easiest method of the ex-
change of unencrypted credit cards over a public network such as telephone lines or
the Internet.
- The low level of security inherent in the design of the Internet makes this method
problematic authentic is also important. Without encryption, there is no way to do
this.

(ii) Payments using encrypted credit card details: It would make sense to en-
crypt our credit card details before sending them out, but even then there are certain
factors to consider. One would be the cost of a credit card transaction itself.
- Such cost would prohibit low-value payments (micropayments) by adding costs to
transactions.

(iii) Payments using third party verification: One solution to security and
verification problems is the introduction of a third party: a company that collects
and approves payments from one client to another.
- After a certain period of time, one credit card transaction for the total accumulated
amount is completed. Some of the companies involved in online credit card
processing: VISA, MasterCard, American Express etc.
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Encryption and Credit Cards:

- Encryption is instantiated when credit card information is entered into a browser

or other electronic commerce device and sent securely over the network from buyer
to seller as an encrypted message.
- To make a credit card transaction truly secure and non-refutable, the following se-
quence of steps must occur before actual goods, services or funds flow.
(1) A customer presents his or her credit card information (along with an authentic-
ity signature or other information such as mother's maiden name) securely to the
merchant.
(2) The merchant validates the customer's identity as the owner of the credit card
account.
(3) The merchant relays the credit card charge information and signature to its bank
or online credit card processors.
(4) The bank or processing party relays the information to the customer's bank for
authorization approval.
(5) The customer's bank returns the credit card data, charge authentication and au-
thorization to the merchant.

- In this scheme, each consumer and each vendor generates a public key and a se-
cret key (also called private key).
- The public key is sent to the credit card company and put on its public key server.
The secret key is re-encrypted with a password and the unencrypted version is
erased.

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8) Explain the process of OTPP for buying online information.
Ans:

- OTPP to refer ‘Online Third Party Processors’. OTPPs have created a 6 steps
process that they believe will be a fast and efficient way to buy information online:
(1) The consumer acquires OTPP account number by filling out a registration form.
This will give the OTPP a customer information profile that is backed by a tradi-
tional financial institution such as a credit card.
(2) To purchase a product online, the consumer requests the item from the merchant
by quoting his/her OTPP account number.
(3) The merchant contacts the OTPP payment server with the customer's account
number.
(4) The OTPP payment server verifies the customer's account number for the ven-
dor and checks for sufficient funds.
(5) The OTPP payment server sends an electronic message to the buyer. This mes-
sage could be an automatic WWW form that is sent by OTPP server or could be a
simple e-mail. The buyer responds to the form or e-mail in one of the three ways:
Yes, I agree to pay; No, I will not pay; or Fraud, I never asked for this.
(6) If the OTPP payment server gets a Yes from the customer, the merchant is in-
formed and the customer is allowed to download the material immediately. The
OTPP will not debit the buyer's account until it receives confirmation of purchase
completion.

9) Explain the Risk Involved in the Electronic payment system.

Ans: - One essential challenge of e-commerce is risk management. The operation of
the payment systems incurs three major risks:
(i) Fraud or mistake (ii) Privacy issues and (iii) Credit risk.
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i) Risks from Mistake and Disputes and Consumer Protection: - All elec-
tronic payment systems need some ability to keep automatic records.
- Once information has been captured electronically, it is easy and inexpensive to
keep. Features of the automatic records include.
(a) Permanent storages (b) accessibility and traceability
(c) A payment system database
(d) Data transfer to payment maker, a bank or monetary authorities.
- The need for record keeping for purposes of risk management conflicts with the
transaction anonymity of cash.

ii) Managing Information Privacy: - The electronic payment system must en-
sure and maintain privacy.
- All details of a customer's payment can easily be aggregated where, when and
sometimes what the consumer buys is stored.
- This collection of data tells much about the person and as such can conflict with
individual's right to privacy.
- Users must be assured that knowledge of transactions will be confidential, limited
only to the parties involved and their designated agents if any.
- Privacy must be maintained against eavesdroppers on the network and against
unauthorized insiders.

iii) Managing Credit Risk: - Credit risk is a major concern in net settlement
systems because a bank's failure to settle its net position could lead to a chain
reaction of bank failures.
- The digital central bank must develop policies to deal with this possibility.
Various alternatives exist, each with advantages and disadvantages.
- A digital central bank guarantee on settlement removes the insolvency test from
the system because banks will more readily assume credit risks from other banks.

10) Explain Designing Electronic payment System.

Ans: Designing Electronic Payment Systems
The following issues must be addressed for any new payment method to be certified
successful.
i) Privacy: - A user expects to trust in a secure system; just as the telephone is a
safe and private medium free of wiretaps and hackers, electronic communication
must merit equal trust.
ii) Security: A secure system verifies the identity of two-party transactions through
'user-authentication' and reserves flexibility to restrict information/services through
access control. Today's bank robbers need, just a computer system and a little
ingenuity to steal money.
iii) Intuitive Interfaces: The payment interface must be as easy to use as a
telephone. Generally, users value convenience more than anything.
iv) Database Integration: With home banking, for example, a customer wants to
play with all his accounts. To date, separate accounts have been stored in separate
databases.
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Sunil Mahesh
v) Brokers: A "network banker" — someone to broker goods and services, settle
conflicts and facilitate financial transactions electronically — must be in place.
vi) Pricing: One fundamental issue is how to price payment system services, e.g..
should subsidies to be encouraged users to shift from one form of payment to an-
other, from cash to bank payments, from paper-based to e-cash.

11) What is E-mail? Explain e-mail working & Secure E-mail Technolo-
gies.
Ans: - E-mail: it is the use of electronic messaging technologies to allow computer
users to communicate with each other for a variety of purposes.
- An electronic message can consist of a single line text; or some other document
encompassing text, video, sound, images, or some other document as an attachment.
- Due to the quick and inexpensive form of communication, email has become a
primary means of communication within corporations as well as among individual
users.
- Corporate electronic mail systems now support electronic commerce, group
discussion, scheduling and workflow applications, widespread use is forcing users
to examine the reliability and performance of their e-mail infrastructures, including
security.
- E-mail messages pass through a series of hosts and/or routers that direct them to
their intended destinations; this creates the possibility of a security liability.
- There are several protocols designed and implemented for the same e-mail
communications through the Internet.
- E-mail allows one to transmit messages and other files (through the Internet) to
people located anywhere in the world.

The electronic mailbox centralizes many mail-related activities such as:

i) Messages can be sent to multiple parties simultaneously and instantaneously
without having to retype individual letter.
ii) Someone receiving a message may forward the message to another destination
with or without comment.
iii) Messages can be filed electronically for future reference.
iv) Mail can be accessed and sent from anywhere around the world. Multiple copies
can be sent in different formats.

12) Explain MIME, S/MIME & MOSS.

Ans: - i) MIME: - Specifies how to store multiple types of information within the
same file. It supports binary, text, audio, video & other formats.
- MIME specification was described in RFC-1521.
- MIME defines mail body part structure and content types that provided our
SMTP-compatible way to encapsulate documents in e-mail messages while support-
ing multipart content types including text, audio, image, video and even application
data. MIME also provides support for several content-transfers encoding including
base 64, which enables 8-bit binary data as 7 bit ASCII data.

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Sunil Mahesh
ii) S/MIME (Secure MIME): - Developed by RSA in 1993. It is secure multiple
part e-mail based on PKCS standards.

iii) MOSS (MIME object security service): - It describes how to perform

Multipart/Signed & Multipart/Encrypted.
- It is the next generation of Privacy Enhanced Mail (PEM).

iv) SMPT: - It performs message transmission function, but only supports seven-
bit ASCII transmissions and limit the maximum message size. It is standard for
internet mail.

v) PKCS: Public key Cryptography standards:- Describes how to sign & en-
crypt massage & distribute/manage keys.

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 Chapter – 5
Consumer Oriented E-commerce

1) Explain Mercantile Process Models.

Ans: - Mercantile process models: (Mercantile - Having to do with trading or
merchants):
- The mercantile processes define the interaction between consumers and merchants
for on-line commerce. This is necessary because, to buy and sell goods, a buyer,
seller, and other parties must interact in ways that represent some standard business
processes.
- A well-established standard process for processing credit card purchases has con-
tributed to the widespread usage of credit cards, but the cost of processing the on-
line transactions is ever increasing.
- Here, we need new mercantile processes to be designed and implemented for cost-
effective processing. Also, if each business firm follows different process model
then consumers inconvenience will increase.

Mercantile Process Models from the consumers perspective:

The online buyers expect quality, convenience, value, low price, and control. To
meet these expectations, a business process model from consumers' perspective is
framed.
- It consists of seven activities that can be grouped into three phases: pre-purchase
phase, purchase consummation and post-purchase interaction.

-Here is the diagram to illustrate these phases:

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Sunil Mahesh
Now let us learn about each phase in detail:
i) Pre-purchase preparation: There is a common misconception among sellers
that attractive WebPages would tempt buyers to go for purchase quickly, but there
are many types of customers.
They are:
(i) Impulsive buyers: Who purchase products quickly
(ii) Pattern buyers: Who purchase products often making some comparisons.
(iii) Analytical buyers: Who do more research before making the decision to pur-
chase products or services? Normally consumers search for product information at
first and then a comparison of alternatives; also look for price negotiation and then
finally decide to buy.
- The time taken to go through these steps is called purchase deliberation.

There are several types of purchasing are:

i) Specifically planned purchases: The need was recognized on entering the store
and the shopper bought the exact item planned.
ii) Generally planned purchases: The need was recognized, but the shopper decided
in store on the actual manufacturers of the item to satisfy the need.
iii) Reminder purchases: The shopper was reminded of the need by some store in-
fluence.

Consumer search experience: It is necessary to understand the nature of

search and discovery in the context of online shopping so that the motivation behind
the various types of search is known. (e.g. impulsive purchasing, compulsive shop-
ping, window shopping or browsing).

The online shopping experience can be categorized into two, they are:
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(i) Utilitarian: - This behaviour has been portrayed as task-related and rational,
the i.e. product is purchased in a deliberate and efficient manner.
(ii) Hedonic: - This type of searching is fun and playfulness rather than task com-
pletion. Here the purchase of the product is incidental to the entire experience of
shopping.

b) Mercantile Process using Digital Cash: In this scenario, a bank (or a con-
sortium of banks) mints electronic currency also called e-cash.
- Such currency is simply a series of bits that the issuing bank can verify to be valid.
This currency is kept secure by the use of cryptographic techniques.
- The e-cash is similar to paper currency and has the benefits of being anonymous
and easily transmitted electronically.
The following is the generic mercantile protocol based on the use of e-cash.
(i) Buyer contacts seller to purchase products/services.
(ii) Seller states price
(iii) Buyer sends e-cash to the seller.
(iv) Banker shows ‘green signal’ to the seller.

2) Mercantile models from the merchant's perspective:

An organization must frame a set of operating standards for service and productiv-
ity (more profit at less cost).
- If the service standards are met with minimal expense, then the company is suc-
cessful in the delivery of products.
- This is possible if only when these three principles are maintained.
(i) A company's ability to take the position of the low-cost provider.
(ii) It's stress on benchmarking service.
(iii) It's emphasis on responsiveness as well as continuous improvement.

The following diagram illustrates the generic steps:

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Sunil Mahesh
i) Order Planning and Order Generation: The order planning is the first step
in the business process.
- The workforce in the production department drafts a capacity plan that specifies
how much money will be spent, how many people will be hired.
- The sales force or marketing unit may have a different forecast. Sometimes, lack
of internal communication can cause the final result to differ significantly from
what is actually needed.

ii) Cost Estimation and Pricing: Pricing is the bridge between customer needs
and company capabilities, but most companies do not understand how to execute
order-based pricing in online markets.
- Order-based pricing is difficult to work but proper execution will fetch a greater
profit. Often, battles erupt between engineers who do the estimation, accountants
who tabulate costs, management that oversees pricing, and the sales force that actu-
ally quotes a price.

iii) Order Receipt and Entry: - After an acceptable price quote, the customer
enters the order receipt. This order is done by customer service.

iv) Order Selection and Prioritization: - The customer service representatives

are also responsible for choosing which orders accept & which to decline.
- Companies can gain more money by the way they handle order prioritization that
is which order they execute faster.

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Sunil Mahesh
v) Order fulfilment and delivery: - During this phase, the actual provision of
the product or service is made.
- This is a most difficult phase to implement. E.g: different parts of an order mat be
created in different manufacturing are merged at one site.
- In service operations, it can mean sending individuals with different talents to the
customer site.

Chapter – 6
Inter Organizational Commerce

1) What is EDI? Explain benefits of EDI.

Ans: - Electronic Data Interchange: EDI developed in the 1960s as a means of
accelerating the movement of documents pertaining to shipments and transporta-
tion.
- Electronic data interchange is the transmission in a standard syntax of unambigu-
ous information of business between computers of independent organizations.
- Electronic data interchange is the interchange of standard formatted data between
computer application systems of trading partners with minimal manual intervention.

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Sunil Mahesh
- Electronic data interchange is the electronic transfer from one computer to another
of computer processable data using an agreed standard to structure the data.

Benefits of EDI
i) EDI saves time, cost and due to automated transfer of information errors are nil.
ii) EDI transactions produce acknowledgements of receipt of data; this facility can
eliminate invoice i.e., paperwork.
iii) EDT reduces postage bill as no papers are sent across.
Iv) EDI can improve customer service by enabling quick transfer of business docu-
ments. Inventory maintenance is done efficiently with the help of EDI.

2) Explain the Applications of EDI.

Ans: - EDI Applications in Business:
(i) Railway rolling stock monitoring.
(ii) Cargo plans for container ships. (iii) Ship berthing/scheduling notices.
(iv) Notification of the presence of hazardous/dangerous goods on
ships/trains/planes.
(v) Exchange of CAD/CAM documents.
(vi) Tender tracking
(vii) Lodgement of law court documents
(viii) Airline ticket settlements etc.

- Originally, EDI was used as expeditor of the transfer of trade goods.

- EDI for insurance claims processing, manufacturing, and retail procurement.
- EDI has shaped a company's marketing and distribution efforts by helping to cre-
ate new distribution channels, develop new merchandising and market research
methods and introduce better customer service.

Applications of EDI in Legal Security:

- Issues of legal admissibility and computers security are important aspects to be
considered for companies involved in trading through EDI.
- Companies that deal through EDI take the service of a lawyer during the design of
an EDI application so that the appropriate evidentiary/ admissibility safeguards are
implemented.
- Analyzing the security requirements of particular applications can be aided by
considering the security characteristics the application should possess as well as the
sensitivity level for each.
- Assume that the message sent through EDI is delayed due to transmission delay
(routing problem), or message is lost due to network failure; nobody can be held re-
sponsible for business losses caused by this error.

3) Write Note on Value Added Networks (VAN).

Ans: - Value Added Networks (VAN):
- A VAN is a communications network that typically exchanges EDI messages
among trading partners.

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Sunil Mahesh
- It also provides other services including holding messages in 'electronic mail-
boxes' interfacing with other VANs and supporting many telecommunication
modes.
- A VAN's 'electronic mailbox' is software in which a user deposits EDI transac-
tions and then retrieves those messages when convenient.
- It works much like residential personal mailboxes.
- VANs have allowed companies to automatically and securely exchange purchase
orders, invoices, and payments.

The following diagram illustrates the EDI process:

- Company A places an EDI message for trading partner manufacturing company B

in the VAN mailbox at a due date and time of its choosing.
- The VAN picks up the message from the mailbox and delivers it to the trading
partner B's mailbox, where it will remain until trading partner B responds to trading
partner A in the same fashion.
- The cycle repeats itself on a weekly, daily or even hourly basis as needed. This
service is generally referred to as mail-based EDI.
- The disadvantage of EDI-enabling VANS is that they are slow and high-priced,
charging by the number of characters transmitted.
- Some of the VAN service providers are: AT, British Telecom, Cable & wireless,
GEIS
Chapter – 7
Advertising and Marketing

1) Define terms Marketing & Advertising.

Ans:- Marketing is a way of managing a business so that each important business
decision is made with full knowledge of the impact it will have on the customer.
- It requires drawing a management plan that views all marketing components as
part of a total system that requires effective strategy, planning, organization, leader-
ship and control.
- Marketing deals with all steps between determining customer needs and supplying
them at profit.
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Sunil Mahesh
Advertising is the process of reaching the customer using a broadcast or direct
mass campaign played to influence purchasing behaviour.
- Advertising plans are conceived within the parameters user by a marketing plan.

2) Explain Online Advertising Patters.

Ans: - On-Line Advertising Patterns:
Two different advertising models in the online world: active or push-based advertis-
ing and passive or pull-based advertising.
1) Active or Push-based Advertising: There are two types of push-based adver-
tising:
The broadcast model and Junk email (direct and unsolicited advertising).

a) The Broadcast Model: Broadcast messages provide a means for reaching a

great number of people in a short period of time.
- The broadcast model basically mimics the traditional model, in which the cus-
tomer is exposed to the advertisement during TV programming. The broadcast
model typically uses direct mail, spot televisions or cable television.

b) The Junk Mail Model: Direct mail advertisers use targeted mailing lists to
reach highly specialised audiences.
- The disadvantage of direct mail includes relatively high cost per contact, the need
to obtain updated and accurate mailing lists.

2) Passive or Pull-based Advertising: Apart from the negative response it

evokes, push- based advertising simply misses the fundamental point of interactiv-
ity marketing, adaptability, flexibility and responsiveness.
- The online pull-based advertising includes:
A Bill Boards: The billboard model refers to information placed where it will
come to the attention of customers in the course of other activities and does not re-
quire active search eg. web pages set up by many different commercial ventures.

 Catalogue or Yellow Pages Directory Model: The catalogue model is the

least intrusive model but requires active search on the part of the customer.

3) What are Guidelines for Advertising & Marketing?

Ans: - Guidelines for Advertising on the Internet:
(i) Don't send intrusive messages. People should not receive a commercial message
they either haven't asked to receive or do not want to receive.
(ii) Don't sell consumer data without the express permission of the user.
(iii) Advertising should appear only in designated newsgroups and list servers.
(iv) Conduct promotions and direct selling only under full disclosure. Marketers
should be free to offer promotions on the network.
(v) Conduct research only with the informed consent. Marketers should be able to
conduct consumer research so long as respondents are made fully aware of the con-
sequences of answering the research questionnaire.
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Sunil Mahesh
(vi) Never use Internet communication software to conceal activities. Marketers
should never gather data from users without asking for permission.
- These guidelines seem a middle ground between being completely non-
commercial and a complete free-for-all.

Chapter – 8
Consumer search and Resource discovery

4) Explain WAIS (wide area information service engine).

Ans:- Wide Area Information Service (WAIS) Engine:
- The program Wide Area Information Service or WAIS (pronounced ways) enables
users to search the contents of files for any string of text that they supply.
- An extremely versatile service, WAIS uses an English-languages query front end
to a large mixed collection of databases that contain text based documents.

What does WAIS do?

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Sunil Mahesh
WAIS lets users search the full text of all the documents on a server. Users on dif-
ferent platforms can access personal, company and published information from one
interface-text, pictures, and voice or formatted documents.

How does WAIS work?

The servers take a user's question and do their best to find relevant documents. The
user then enters a query, which can be a list of keywords or even sentences in plain
English.
- After entering the search string and the target database, the user specifies the
maximum number of hits WAIS can return for a given query.

Search Engine: WAIS is a sophisticated search engine. The purpose of a search

engine in any indexing system is simple: to find every item that matches a query.

5) What is Information filtering? What are the typical features of the fil-
tering process?
Ans: - Information Filtering:
- Information Filtering describes a variety of processes involving the delivery of
information to people who need it.
- This technology is needed as the rapid accumulation of information in electronic
databases makes it necessary that consumers and organizations rely on computing
methods to filter and take required information.

- To distinguish information filtering from searching, the necessity to list the filter-
ing process steps arises:
i) Filtering systems involve a large volume of data.
ii) Filtering involves removal of data from an incoming stream, rather than finding
data in that stream.
iii) Filtering access the information that comes as a result of a search query.
iv) Filtering is based on descriptions of individual or group information, preferences
often called profiles.
v) Filtering systems deals primarily with textual information.

Chapter – 9
Electronic Publishing

1) Write a note on Electronic Publishing.

Ans: - Electronic Publishing: - EP is the use of computers, rather than a
traditional mechanism to produce and distribute information.
- This electronic mode of storing information helps to eliminate paper work, thus
saving precious trees.
- EP products involve the manipulation of electronic material (text, image, video
clip) during each of the three main parts of the product lifecycle: authoring,
dissemination, and retrieval.
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Sunil Mahesh
- EP includes information that is made available off-line (CD-ROM, DVD) on on-
line (LAN, WAN, Internet etc.).
- EP excludes fax and another unedited email, video conferencing—contents. By
using the internet.
- EP is becoming more prevalent because publishers are constantly looking to in-
crease profits by reducing costs. EP is increasingly becoming easier to undertake.

2) Write a note on S-HTTP.

Ans: - S-HTTP (Secure HTTP):
- It is an extension to the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) that allows the secure
exchange of files on the World Wide Web.
- Each S-HTTP file is either encrypted contains a digital certificate or both. For a
given document, S-HTTP is an alternative to another well-known security protocol,
Secure Sockets Layer (SSL).
- A major difference is that S-HTTP allows the client to send a certificate to authen-
ticate the user whereas, using SSL, only the server can be authenticated.
- S-HTTP is more likely to be used in situations where the server represents a bank
and requires authentication from the user that is more secure than a user id and
password.
- Secure Hypertext Transfer Protocol (S-HTTP) is an obsolete alternative to
the HTTPS protocol for encrypting web communications carried over HTTP.

3) Write a note on Smart Cards.

Ans: - Smart Cards:
- Smart cards have been in existence: since the early 1980s and hold promise for se-
cure transactions using existing infrastructure.
- Smart cards are credit and debit cards and other card products enhanced with mi-
croprocessors capable of holding more information than the traditional magnetic
stripe.
Smart cards are basically of two types:
i) Relationship-based smart cards
ii) Electronic purse: which replace money, are also known as debit cards and elec-
tronic money.

i) Relationship-based smart cards: A relationship-based smart card is an en-

hancement of existing card services and /or the addition of new services that a fi-
nancial institution delivers to its customers via a chip-based card or another device.
- These new services may include access to multiple financial accounts, value-
added marketing programs, of other information cardholders may want to store on
their card. The chip-based card is but one tool that will help alter mass marketing
technologies to address each individual financial requirement.

4) Write a short note on Message Digest.

Ans: - A message digest is a value generated for a message that is unique to that
message.

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Sunil Mahesh
- A message digest is generated by passing the message through one-way crypto-
graphic functions i.e one that cannot be reversed.
- Message digests are designed to protect the integrity of a piece of data or media to
detect changes and alterations to any part of a message. They are a type of cryptog-
raphy.
- Message digest hash numbers represent specific files containing the protected
works. One message digest is assigned to particular data content.
- Message digests are encrypted with private keys creating a digital signature.
- Message digests protect one-way hash algorithms taking random data and trans-
mitting a set length hash value

Chapter – 10
Web Design

1) What is Website? How you develop a Website? Mention its tools, tech-
nique and methods.
Ans:- A website is a collection of related web pages, including multimedia content,
typically identified with a common domain name, and published on at least one web
server.
- A website may be accessible via a public Internet Protocol (IP) network, such as
the Internet, or a private local area network (LAN), by referencing a uniform re-
source locator (URL) that identifies the site.
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Sunil Mahesh
- Web pages, which are the building blocks of websites. Typically composed
in plain text interspersed with formatting instructions of Hypertext Mark-up Lan-
guage (HTML).

Steps to Develop Website:

Step 1: Choose Your Website Platform: - Before you start worrying about
colour schemes and domain names, you’ve got to decide what platform you’re
going to build your website with.
: HOSTING YOUR SITE:
Web hosting is like rent for your website, including the pages, images, documents,
and other resources needed to display that site.
- Web hosting uses a web server, which is where you put that website resource so
others can access the through the Web. You can build a fully functional website on
your personal computer.

STEP 2: REGISTERING A DOMAIN NAME: - A domain name is a friendly

URL people can type into their browser to get to your website.
Some examples of domain names include: webdesign.about.com

STEP 3: PLANNING YOUR WEBSITE:

I) Navigation design: How users will move around your site affects
its information architecture as well as the overall usability of that site. Plan out the
pages a site, create a sitemap, and develop a navigational structure from there.
ii) Content: As the saying goes, "content is king" online. The quality of your site's
content will play an important role in its success.
- Content is everything that your pages will contain, such as text, images, video and
more.

STEP 4: DESIGNING AND BUILDING YOUR WEBSITE:

2) Explain Web Design Process.

Ans: - Web Design Process:
- The size of a website varies from tiny to very large i.e. few HTML pages to sev-
eral thousand pages.
- The tiny or very small sites are usually built by the single developer where no
strong site building methodology is adopted.
- The unplanned sites exhibit some common problems such as broken links,
Malfunctioning, script etc.
- The code developed using this method leads to a maintenance problem. The suc-
cess factors for hosting and maintaining huge sites are as follows:
 Planning
Top Down Design
Implementation a Testing
Deploying a site in a structured manner.

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Sunil Mahesh
Note: Ad hoc is the term used to refer unplanned and temporary arrangement made
to accomplish a task.

Basic Web Process Model: There are various phases involved in website devel-
opment just like any other software.
- The process model must help the developers in the following ways:
To address the complexity of the site.
To minimise the risk of project failure.
To deal the near certainty of change.
To deliver the site quickly
- The 'waterfall' model is the most common model adopted in software engineering.
- This model describes the phases in the lifetime of the software.
- Though most web developers adopt the waterfall model for site development,
- The waterfall approach makes the developers plan everything but it requires vast
experience.

The following diagram shows the waterfall model:

3) Explain SITE Types & Its Architecture.

Ans: - SITE TYPES: There are several ways to categorise websites. The fol-
lowing three are the general categories of websites:

A Public Website: An Internet website also called external website is one that is
not explicitly restricted to a particular class of users.
An intranet website: It is private to a particular organisation, generally run
within a private network rather than on the Internet at large.
An Extranet site: This type of website is available to a limited class of users,
but is available via the public Internet.
- The major difference between the three basic site categorizations is an audience.
- The public website designers know little about the users whereas the designers of
private websites can meet every user of the site and take input.

- The following list shows the grouping types:

Interactivity
Frequency of change
Time of Page Creation
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Sunil Mahesh
Size
Technology Usage
i) Grouping by Interactivity: Sites may allow users to just view the content or
modify to some extent.
- A 'static site' is one where content is relatively fixed and users are unable to affect
the look or scope of the data they view.
- Accessing a static website is like reading a paper magazine where users normally
flip back and forth between pages.

ii) Grouping by Frequency of Change: The contents of the site may be

changed over time. Changes may happen daily, weekly, monthly and so on.
- The sites that never change are said to be static.

SITE Architecture:
There are two structural aspects of my website. They are:
i) Logical structure: The logical structure will describe documents that are
related documents i.e. link between documents.
ii) Physical structure: The physical structure describes where a document actu-
ally lives i.e, the documents directory path on a web server or its location in a data-
base.
- The designers must hide the real path. In other words, users should not be shown
the physical file structure of the site.
- There are four main organisational models used in websites. They are:
a) Linear b) Grid c) Hierarchy d) Web

a) Linear Model: The linear form is very common in many sites. The information
is presented in a linear fashion just like the flow of textbook contents.
- This model is adopted whenever a step by step procedure is necessarily in linear
order.

4) Explain Navigation Theory and Practice.

Ans: - Navigation Theory and Practice:
- Navigation is a journey to move from one place to another place through a path.
- In large websites, voluminous information is organised in a very complex struc-
ture. In addition to this sites are interlinked. Site users are usually interested in
reaching a specific page quickly.
- For this, designers must place the navigational elements clearly and appropriately.

There are really only five general areas for navigational elements in a
web page.
top, bottom, left, right and centre.
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Sunil Mahesh
i) Top Navigation: In most of the websites, 'navigation choices are placed at the
top of the screen because they will be shown immediately.
- Page contents are normally downloaded in top-down order.
- Also traditionally in graphical user interfaces, menus are placed at the top of the
screen.
- The disadvantage of this navigational style is scroll problem.
- When the user reaches the bottom of the page again, scroll up to the top of the
page for the link is a tiresome job.

ii) Bottom Navigation: Placing navigation controls at the bottom of pages is less
preferred as it forces scrolling unless page content is less.
- Using frames or other technologies, it is possible to fix navigation at the bottom of
the screen that appears on the screen.

iii) Left Navigation: This style of page design is very common because most
readers will scan information from left to right.
- This helps to navigate directly to the reading path of the user.
- Sometimes, left navigation controls distract reading and also occupies more screen
area.
- To have navigational controls at the left side of the page without gobbling screen
area, few approaches are adopted.

They are:
Contents must be placed in such a way that only scrolling should be possible
(without panning across the screen).
Open a new window for wide content.

iv) Right Navigation: Recently, placing navigational elements at the right side of
the screen has become popular.
- This style facilitates limiting mouse travel because navigation controls are nearer
to scroll bar.
- Right navigation has serious drawback i.e. depending on a user's monitor or
browser size, the distance from left to right of the screen may vary greatly.
- Right navigation is highly discouraged but not ruled out.

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Sunil Mahesh