Jay Strozdas, Chapter 2 homework, January 22, 2004, MIS 200, section 5
Question/ Assignment Response
1
Why are business models important in
e-commerce?
Business models show how a company generates
revenue, including the architecture of the business,
benefits involved and sources of revenue. When you
know how a company is structured and how it makes
its money, you are better able to apply the
appropriate technology to help the business make
more money. E-commerce can impact the efficiency
of a company and its competition in different ways
depending on how the company is structured and
what it does. By looking at the business model, it is
easier to see how e-commerce will affect specific
companies or markets.
2
Locate a website for a government
agency, local, state, federal, or from
another country. What do you
observe in terms of the site’s
organization, content, and usefulness?
The site I went to was Kentucky.gov (my home
state). The page first attracts people by having
pictures relevant to the state. Then on the left it has a
menu full of different options such as government,
education, business, travel, etc. By clicking on any
of these options you are brought to a page with
multiple resources on that topic from laws to a ‘how
do I’ section. If the menu options don’t work for you
there is an easy search option at the top of the page.
Overall the site was easy to navigate, appealing to the
eye and fast to switch pages. This site does a nice
job of successfully illustrating government-to-
constituent e-business.
3
Please list three things that might
cause different individuals to have
unequal access to e-commerce
technologies. What technical or social
steps can be taken to reduce unequal
access?
-no computer
-little knowledge of the internet or computer software
-limited availability in certain areas (i.e. cable access
is not available in all rural areas)
To reduce unequal access, programs need to be in
place to ensure computers are available in all public
schools and libraries. In addition to that, free
tutorials could be offered at public places to provide
an internet 101. Some people are not able to access
certain e-commerece because their computers are not
fast enough (i.e. using a dial-up connection). To
keep this inequality down, satellite like services
could be provided in rural areas to allow for faster
connections where cable (or DSL, etc.) is not
available.