A web presence is now as mandatory in a business as a tax ID. Although tax laws are complex and subject to change, at least they only change once a year at a predictable time and there are experts embodied in software and in carbon that can help you sort them out. The solutions to the problems of e-business change several times a year, are subject to the whims of employee defections and customers that can be extremely fickle; often have no precise solution and you are racing against competitors just as determined as you are. Fortunately, there are also alternatives in the area of e-business as well.
Many of those alternatives are embodied in this book, which was written at the level of managers rather than those who construct the IS solutions. Some of the solutions, such as always make sure you hire and retain good people are slightly above the level of "duh", and yet in many cases the simple is the most overlooked.
The emphasis throughout is on architecture and strategy. With the rapid pace of e-business development, where you can flame up and flame out in weeks, you must build your systems so that they are as open ended on the high side as possible. The advice put forward here is a prescription for sound management of what is now the most complex of all the mandatory facets of a business. Furthermore, there are also several places where the author puts forward danger signals to help identify whether analysis paralysis is setting in.
There is one excellent example concerning how to create solutions. When presented with a problem about shortening a winding road, there is the simple solution of connecting the endpoints. However, if it is necessary to visit the intermediate points on the old road, this solution is hardly optimal. Sometimes incremental, seemingly partial solutions are the most effective.
If you are a manager looking for guidance in how to start, build, maintain or expand an e-business structure, then this book will help a great deal. No magic formulas or absurd hype, just sound fundamental principles that will improve your chances for success.

This book is a light, high-level view of architecture. It doesn't pretend to be a comprehensive "how-to" or highly technical tome. Instead, it breaks down the complexities of developing an architecture into a set of guiding principles and seven discrete steps. Products are not mentioned and technology is subordinated to broad discussions instead of specifics.

It starts with an extremely brief, but informational, description of the characteristics of e-business and some of the challenges and opportunities that set it apart from an architectural requirements standpoint. This is followed with an in-depth discussion of the "essence of architecture" that sets the tone and pace for the rest of the book. I like this because there is a vast difference between a definition, which can be succinctly described, and an essence, which is more a philosophy. The philosophy given by the author is sensible and lays the foundation for the principles and seven steps of defining the architecture that follow in later chapters. Especially valuable is way architecture is broken down into views: component, design, blueprint and framework. Also included in the essence section are two chapters, one addressing object-oriented methods and the other on project scope. Each contained a wealth of information and some sound points of view and advice. Regardless of your knowledge or experience I recommend reading through these two chapters because of the fresh ideas that pop up throughout them. It forced me to see things in ways that I do not normally observe.

The seven-step solution building process encompasses the eight chapters of Part II. The first chapter, introduction, gives guiding principles and these are worth printing on a large poster and memorizing. The process itself is (1) business modeling, (2) IS modeling, (3) Current IS analysis, (4) IS architectural planning, (5) implementation planning, (6) deployment and (7) review. In one respect there is nothing new or unique about this process, but the value in reading through each of the chapters is how clearly the approach is described and how the supporting information is developed. The writing here (and illustrations) exemplify clarity. I gained a lot, too, from the many lists and tables.

Part III is titled "Let's Get Practical" and is where the author ties together loose ends by addressing the use of consultants, methodologies (good and bad) and reuse. There is a lot of wisdom and advice here as in the rest of the book - much of it delivered with humor and always with good sense.

Overall, this is an excellent book. It's well written, filled with information and puts you in the right frame of mind to tackle architecture in a methodical manner. What it does not do is provide technical details or espouse any particular product or technology - there are other books for that.

This slim, 288-page book addresses architecture as a set of principles and a seven-step approach. It's filled with common sense, and will provide you with the big picture and high-level steps that will place architecture into a coherent context.

First, the principles and approach really are aligned to e-business although they can also be applied to any system or enterprise application. Second, the book may appear to be basic, but the author manages to get you think out of the box every step of the way. An example is the scope-trade off discussion in chapter 4 where you are shown an illustration of a road improvement project that depicts an ideal (and not so feasible) solution and some alternatives. In a single, simple illustration and a few paragraphs the whole concept of scope trade-off crystallizes and comes into sharp focus. Another example is a text box on page 37 that describes how the author and his wife, both IS professionals, attempted to devise a check book system for personal use. The story drives home the fact that even professionals and prime stakeholders can get requirements wrong.

Among the things I like most are: the seven-stage process itself and associated principles, which make you step back and look at architecture as its most basic level; the discussion of architecture and its relationship to object-orientation is one of the best compare and contrast pieces on the topic I've read; and the discussion on component-based software engineering is concise and completely aligned to that approach to both e-business in general and architecture in particular.

This book reminds me of those written by Gerald Weinberg on that it focuses on deeper aspects of a subject than mere technology. True, the technical aspects of this book are lightweight, but the underlying principles and approach are anything but. If you're seeking low-level technical information on architecture pass this by. If you want to read a book that will inspire you to think out of the box, organize the important elements of architecture and infuse massive doses of common sense, this book is a treasure and has my highest recommendation.

Before reviewing the actual content, it is appropriate to mention that I teach a variety of computer courses for a technical college...and, therefore, read lots of books.

This text looks at business trading over the Internet from a process perspective. Marketing and Web page development are mentioned, but the focus of the content is on the technological "hoops" that are jumped through in order to complete e-commerce transactions.

The book includes chapters on Internet development history, packet-switching, server hardware and software considerations, security issues, payment systems, and marketing strategies (including the development of a business plan).

Instructionally, this book is current and a quality read (a little dry perhaps, but consider the material). The authors use many examples throughout and include many company and product names.

For someone in IT or management, this is a wonderfully balanced survey of e-commerce business structure and transaction process. The material presented will thoroughly get the reader up to speed on all of the aspects of ecommerce including most of the non-technical and semi-technical terminology. This really bridges the gap between IT professionals and traditional managers.

I feel that this is one of the better books I've ever used and recommend it highly for managers or instructors.

This is, without a doubt, the best and most current textbook on electronic commerce that is available today (and I understand these authors are planning to have a second edition of the book completed by February 2000 - which should be even MORE current).

The book offers a balanced business-technology approach to the subject of e-commerce and include a great overview of both relevant technologies and business/revenue models. The book includes important issues like legal and international concerns and even has a great little section on managing and staffing Web development projects in the last chapter.

This is the only book on e-commerce that I have seen that actually creates and uses a theory-based organizing framework (they build on Porter's work on value chains). Even though the book was clearly designed to be used in the classroom (it has problem assignments, exercises, and an extensive list of references at the end of each chapter), I think this book would be an excellent resource for a business manager that wanted to learn what all of this e-commerce stuff was all about OR for a techie that wanted to learn something about the business end of e-commerce.

The book is a very easy read and is remarkably interesting (even the chapter on security theories is pretty hard to put down... and that is some dull stuff, usually). The book includes bolded company names throughout and each of those names is included on the book's Web site as a hyperlink to the company site. This is very useful because you can see the examples that the book mentions come to life (if you can read the book while you're in front of your computer)...

I would recommend this book to any reader that wants to learn more about electronic commerce than you would find in a light overview book. This book gets into details, but in a very readable way.

a very good textbook which covers both technology & management topics.

I've been using this book for a couple of months now and I have found it pretty invaluable. It manages to give a good technical explanation (I mean at the designer/programmer level) as well as include information on the big picture. It covers, in considerable detail, role based security, RBAC, RAD, both EJB and CORBA solutions, and ends with a discussion of how you might build an integrated security system for a fictitous company called eBusiness.com

On the downside there are several minuses which will hopefully be corrected in a future edition
1. The UML diagrams are incorrect, in that they nearly all have the aggregation symbol at the wrong end
2. The fact that the book was written by several authors shows, in that the same idea shows up in several places in the book, without correlation. Not that there's anything contradictory about that. It would be nice if the different "definitions" or explanations were somehow collected in one place. For example, there's two discussions of security servers, with neither one aware of the other. The second discussion (p. 331-332) is not even referenced in the index.
3. There's very little discussion of performance issues. This is a particular sore point, considering they spend considerable amount of space discussing (even promoting) EJB security with no mention of its downside (its too slow)

All in all, though, I highly recommend this book be read by architects, and app developers as well as product managers before diving into security development for your application

A very good book explaining how applications are secured in real world. The focus of this book is quite different from all others and does not cover network security or protocols about which a lot of staff already written.
Contrary - it explains how application must be design to prevent unauthorized access to sensitive data. It is a reality that modern application being build on distributed technologies actually provides more services for the data that enterprise already has. It is a bonus and a threat, because it is another hole for an attack. This book explains how defend in this situation. Must have for project managers of EIS integration.
Book contains not just general ideas - it is a practical guide and somehow a reference for different approaches to security for EJB and CORBA.
Unique chapters are about integrating of EJB and CORBA security. This is a reality that different technologies co-exist and it can work for you or against of you.
I would recommend this book to s/w architects, project managers and professionals working on enterprise systems integration.

Up to now, this book is unique in its kind, as it really covers the security aspects of distributed applications as we see them more and more these days. The authors do not only cover (very new) technologies and standards from the domain of EJB and CORBA, they also make us aware of their integration with legacy systems and network security. I liked the way they try to pass their knowledge and experience to the reader. Despite the fact that it is written by three persons, the book is of a consistent style. An example application serves troughout the book to explain the coved topics. Altough it is a small and simple application (real world is tougher...), it shows amazingly well what problems have to be dealt with in the enterprise. The book won't give you answers to all your question, but will certainly help to find your own. I recommend it reading from cover to cover, later chapters do refer to earlier ones. Definitely a useful book!

Kalakota & Whinston do a good job at addressing the multiple aspects of electronic commerce. The book is written so as to be useful to people with a technical background, but it requires no prior knowledge of E-Commerce. Perhaps the book's greatest strength is in its discussion of the theoretical structure of the electronic marketplace, including both technology and business aspects of E-C.

This book is a must have for your e-commerce library. Every new evolutionary shift in business and technology has its seminal work - this is it! A number of today's e-commerce concepts were first presented and organized in this book. It also outlines historical roots, current approaches and fundamentals trends. The business scenarios and mini case studies are good. I read it when it hit the bookshelf and recently used it for research. The bibliography is an excellent resource on its own. Kalakota has stated that Drucker is a key influence -- it shows. One caution, some technical material is outdated. The companion book is also excellent.

I read this book after a glowing review in the CIO magazine. Imust say that the book is very through in its coverage of electroniccommerce. Definitely one for the bookshelf. The only defect of this book (and something the authors have no control over) is that some of the chapters are outdated. However, if one can read between the lines that should not be an overwhelming problem. This book is definitely one for students who want a comprehensive view of the subject.

For a review of this book go to the Website http://www.serve.com/stevie2/artichoke.htm

A 10? Can't we go any higher? This book is definatley a 12. I cannot even explain how entertaining this book was, I have read it at least 6 times since I was given this book last March. I will only say that this is definatley one of those books that should be on the required reading lists for all schools. Overall I should say that this book is an all time best. Definate 12

What can we say, obviously this is a book that any full-blodded American can relate to. I consider this book the finest example of pure literary skill at its finest. I especially enjoyed the chapter describing the fair as "rambunctiously Christian" with "people praising the lord at all corners". Chapter 9 says it all about the book in the 3 little words of "I love God", well, I love this book. The only reason I gave this book a 9 is because the forward by Paul Cruchow was not the best example of grammar that I would expect, even from my 3rd grade class, such phrases as "Yuck yuck, you'll love this book." and "Why if I knew how to write as good as Mr Amato I'd be a pure literary star, chuck full of star stuff, yup I wanna be like Amato, or as I like to call him, TAmato." I mean what kind of a run on no sense sentance is this? Well, I guess the rest of this book makes up for Paul's illiteracy. I would encourage the reading of this book to any person of any age. "The Great Jerusalem Artichoke Circus" is also makes a great gift. I thank Mr. Joseph A. Amato for this wonderful literary treat.

First of all, the title of this book is grossly misleading. Rather than a how-to handbook for business success in the post-dotcom era, "Dot.bomb" analyzes the fall of the most notorious dotcoms, and postulates how they might have succeeded. As the book illustrates, there's no single reason why the dotcom market imploded in early 2000; the market was born out of a flukish combination of events (affordable Internet access, the arrival of Windows 95, an exuberant stock market, etc.) and likewise crumbled through a similar combination of circumstances. Bad business models, bad management, untested technology and a lack of investor confidence all played roles in the failure of one dotcom after another.

"Dot.bomb," however, also examines the dotcom enterprises that succeeded, such as eBay, Priceline and our dear old Amazon. What made these ventures an exception is a major thrust of the book -- and perhaps the most informative. It also provides a light at the end of the proverbial tunnel for the reader weary of failure stories.

Since the latest examples in the edition I read were from early 2001, one hopes that a newer edition would bring the dotcom story up to date. How the Internet industry has responded to the recession, corporate scandals and 9/11 are tales that an updated version of "Dot.bomb" ought to cover.

Sean Carton does a thorough job of exploring and exploding the myths that brought down the dot.com boom. As a front-line, engaged player, Carton not only had a good view, he has a good mind for knowing and seeing what went wrong. He's working on his doctorate and he should be a great professor of this genre.

This is an interesting companion to David Kuo's book. With a very similar title, Kuo is funnier and more dramatic, primarily because valueamerica.com was such a huge, single implosion and Kuo, by training, is a writer and, to some degree, a spin doctor. More serious and critical, Carton pulls no punches, examines a lot more companies, and has a more technical, well-grounded understanding the business models (or lack thereof) that created and destroyed the late 1990's version of the new economy. Start with "the greater fool" theory. Carton's book is better for the serious student wanting to see the big business picture.

Carton is methodical and crisp, even dry at times. The graphics of the book, including the font and page layout, could also have been more appealing or reader-friendly. If you're teaching an e-commerce course, as I have, you want to consider Dot.Bomb.

If you ever wondered what went wrong, how and why the "dot.com" sector self-destructed so fast, this is manadatory reading. Sean, in his methodical manner, tempered with wit and humor, describes the details of the "unthinkable" of a few years back... the collaspe of the tech "fad"... and the survival of the tech revolution. He makes these distinctions as well as offers a blueprint for the continuing evolution of the revolution. A fast compelling read, recommended for anyone interested in technology's future.

This book is a very entertaining read and an accurate depiction of the highs and lows of the start-up game. Sally leaves the door open to dot.com success even after the market turn as long as people execute flawlessly. Many of the gotchas are highlighted in this book. The chapter on branding "Brand This!" is fantastic!

I just finished devouring this book but it was so good that I'll be digesting it for a long time. I was glad to have been introduced to a book that summarizes it all in less than 300 pages. The book is a gold mine that can be excavated for years! Very timely since Sally wrote it after the April 2000 fallout. The book gives green entrepreneurs like myself a lot of hope and lots and lots of sound advice. Sally's writing style is entertaining and all at the same time to the point. She tells it like it is. In many cases, the people she interviewed are quoted, so you get it directly from the horse's mouth. Thank you Sally.

Sally's book Dot-com Success! Surviving the Fallout & Consolidation really tells it like it is. So many companies crashed and burned here - especially here in Silicon Valley - and I feel they might have had a better chance of surviving had they read this book and gleaned the expertise that Sally drew out of the leaders in the field. I would recommend this book for anyone thinking about starting up any kind of technology-based company.

This book brings together a unique set of materials about a subject that is growing rapidly. But a lot of it was very hard to find and understand because of the jumbled layout and clashing colors - red headings, pink graphics, purple sidebars! If this were a webpage I would have clicked elsewhere.

I've used this book as a textbook in an undergraduate e-Business course intended to be taken by business students. In my opinion, it is the finest one on the market for this purpose. It covers a wide variety of topics in sufficient depth to give good foundational understanding. My only two complaints are:

The appendix material on HTML is not needed in the book. Anyone interested in that topic is probably going to buy another more complete book on the topic (perhaps even another Deitel book).

The biggest problem, though, is that this book is becoming very dated. It was made available in 2000. Much has changed since then. Most textbooks of this sort are updated every 2 years. This one needs to be updated to a second edition.

Deitel & Deitel have explained e-Business and e-Commerce in an easy to read and understand manner. It is directed to managers who may have a less technical background than those wanting to understand the nuts and bolts of Internet programming. This book discusses the management aspect of e-business and e-commerce, focusing on e-business models, development and management of e-business sites, online financial transactions, security and legal issues, and marketing. The book includes excellent case studies of the various e-business models. It would make an excellent text for either a graduate or undergraduate course in electronic commerce from a management focus. It is also an excellent primer for non-technical managers moving to an e-business model.

This book's premise is based on building real relationships with the e-customer. The book is divided into the following areas:

(1) Understanding customer's values, wants and needs
(2) A few ideas on deciding how much your customer is worth
(3) Earning money from your e-customers by understanding the concept of lifetime value
(4) The different types of models out there for web business
(5) How different generations, men, women, children vary in their respective shopping habits and ways we could capitalize on them.
(6) The need to track and collect data on e-customer's profiles
(7) The importance of convincing the e-shopper's decision to come to your site
(8) Thoughts on up and coming shopping habits such as mobile e-commerce
(9) Ways to attract your customer's attention while they are visiting your website
(10) The importance of respect and the need to provide a human touch

This book is an interesting read on all these areas. Unfortunately, a lot of effort was wasted on explaining in very vague terms why these areas are important instead of providing any new insights or practical solutions....

It's an enjoyable book with an expanding vision of the e-universe. Goes much beyond the customer-focused aproched. A valuable tool for any manager in today's world.

Understanding the e-customer: sounds familiar BUT going through the book gives us the feeling we've just been in the parallel universe of the Matrix surrounded by the bright colours and sounds of MTV. It has a life of its own, truly has captured the soul of the e-customer. After the journey (reading) we are left with star trek expectations and what's wrong with that? Once someone said 'ideas do change the world', well here it is a book full of those. If Mckeown truly is a guru that makes me a follower.

For being a book in a series called "Studies in Nautical Archaeology," this book has very little in it about boats or oceans. It reads like a master's thesis presumably because it was and primarily summarizes others' arguments. It presents nothing in the way of new archaeology and most of the arguments are nicely summed up for the average reader in Midant-Reyenes' "Prehistory of Egypt."

Should you want all of the details as to how the conclusions were arrived at along with some fairly illustrative diagrams and sketches, this book might be of some interest. It also has a good survey of the very un-nautical Narmer Palette.

Contrary to the dustcover (on which, ahem, someone seems to base her reviews in lieu of actually reading the book), only one shipwreck is discussed and even that is mentioned only in the final chapter, the only part of the book that focuses specifically on seafaring.

In From Egypt to Mesopotamia Samuel Mark tries of to analyze the possible cultural and economic runs that between Vth and the IIIrd millennium a.C. tied predinastic Egypt to the mesopotamian cultures. Beginning from the rigorous analysis of the archaeological comparisons in our possession: pottery, raw materials, monkeys and maceheads, boat motifs, cilinder seals, architecture, punctually follows the socio-economic development from a side of the area Siro palestinese and from the other of that Egyptian. The close comparison of the varied cultures (Ubaid, Uruk, Naqada, Badari, Ghassul etc.) furnishes the key of reading to the author to reconstruct the commercial routs through which the relationships were untied between Egypt and Mesopotamia; tracing an exhaustive and fascinating panorama of the Near East. The author also unites to a rigorous archaeological and historical reconstruction, an accessible language to a public not specialized, and the numerous tables and illustrations make the book an irreplaceable tool for whoever wants to deal seriously of the problem.

The author attempts to demonstrate the existence of two trade routes between predynastic and early dynastic Egypt and Mesopotamia, through archaeological evidence. This includes shipwreck sites, artifacts and raw materials. The author claims that two different cultures evolved in Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia because of their distance between one another. This is a fascinating survey for interested scholars and students of Egyptology and archaeology.