Hackers, Hits and Chats: An E-Commerce and Marketing Dictionary of Terms
This dictionary serves as support material for online learning, specifically for marketing and e-commerce classes. Each entry includes its own URL and also includes a link to its wikipedia definition for further exploration.Feel free to e-mail any comments, questions, feedback to Alex.
To Add: database marketing; the long tail; mass customization;
demand shaping
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me if you want something adding.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
(Online) Advertising: [onl] Online advertising
comprises a variety of forms of advertising. The most popular has been banner advertising, although text
advertising is gaining
ground rapidly as a form used by the two networks: Google
Adwords and
Overture /
Yahoo! Interstitials,
Pop ups and 'buttons' round out the more common forms of
internet advertising. The business model for internet
advertising varies from a
pure CPM model to PPC to CPA.
Top
Advertising Network: [adv] Advertising network
refers to an infomediary, which
serves between a group (network) of web sites (which want to host
advertisements) and advertisers which want to run advertisements on those
sites. DoubleClick is the most well
known advertising network for banner advertisements.
DoubleClick can serve advertisements on any of its
member
sites, and can mine data from users who interact with those sites in order to
serve more appropriate advertisements. An advertiser can buy a run of network
package, or a run of category package within the network. The advertising
network serves advertisements from its ad server, which
responds to a site once a page is called. A snipet of code is called from the ad server, that represents the advertising
banner. Google and Yahoo!'s search engine programs also run
advertisements on other sites within their respective networks.
Wikipedia
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Adware: [adw] Adware is advertising-supported
software. Essentially the business model for the
software that is
downloaded is the advertisements that are played as part of the download,
or when the software is being used. Adware should be distinguished from
spyware which is designed to observe and report data of
the user.
Wikipedia
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Affiliate Program: [aff] An affiliate program is a
form of advertising, on the web, that rewards the affiliates (self-selected
advertisers) for driving traffic to the advertiser (PPC) or for
subsequent
transactions (CPA).
An affiliate program uses a multi-level marketing
concept where consumers (affiliates) attract additional consumers. Some
affiliate programs are multi-tiered, thus increasing the income earning
opportunities for the affiliates (rewarded for their traffic and the traffic
of affiliates they recruit). Marketers have the option of developing their own
in-house affiliate program (Amazon.com
and bn.com
are examples) or joining one or more of the large affiliate networks (Beefree, Linkshare or CommissionJunction). Affiliates
have the potential to earn significant money, if done correctly. This book store is the author's
example of an Amazon affiliate. Marketing vehicles may sign up
for an affiliate program to use their excess advertising inventory
(unsold banners).
Since affiliates link directly to the site which sponsors the
program this increases the number of links into the site which can
have a positive effect on the ranking of the sponsoring site in search
engines
(good for search engine optimization.) Affiliate
links also have a
positive branding effect for the sponsoring site.
Wikipedia
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Aggregator: [agg] (News Reader) Aggregator is an application, either for the web, windows, mac, or
linux, that aggregates dynamic content (RSS or Atom files) for the subscriber to view. The dynamic
content is typically generated by blogs, news organizations or other sources interested in distributing
news to subscribers, using the XML format to generate
the
RSS feed. It becomes an effective means for users to manage their view
of updated news across the web. Users control which 'feeds' they subscribe and unsubscribe, this channel is also spam free. Aggregators are one of the web
2.0
technologies. Examples of web-based aggregators include bloglines and
NewsIsFree.
Wikipedia
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Alpha/Beta: [alp] The terms alpha and beta refer to
releases of software that are typically not ready for commercial use. Alpha
refers to the very early release, which is typically very buggy and only
released to a few people who are internal to the organization. It is
helpful, in
development, to get feedback very quickly from the hacker community, or
potential customers with the beta version. Releasing a beta version has become
standard practice with the evolution of the internet as a mode of distribution
for the software. Companies are also apt to leave releases of products
in beta for a while (Google). It is a part of the
development model for open source software.
Wikipedia
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amazon.com [amazon]: Amazon.com; Wikipedia; Archive
aol.com [aol]: aol.com; Wikipedia; Archive
API: [api] API refers to Application Programming
Interface. It is the interface that gives program developers access to develop
programs that work on a particular platform. Thus for
Microsoft's Windows platform, the API is win32. To develop a program
to run on
the windows platform, you must write to the win32 API, thus the win32 API is
the software developer's platform for windows. By encouraging other software
programmers to develop to your platform, you are able to encourage lock-in as more people
become dependent on the platform. A key strategic issue for a software
company is whether to develop a developer's community, which builds
software to its platform, or whether to keep the development internal to
the organization. Microsoft is engaging its
developer community with its
Channel
9
initiative.
Wikipedia
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Architect(ure): [arc] Architecture refers to the
planning phase of the software development process, much like architecture
refers to the same in the process of building a house. The builders are the
coders of the product, once it is architected. This is an extraordinarily
important phase of the overall development of the product, and consists of
thoroughly understanding and articulating the needs of the users (of the
system) and the coders (for the system). This serves as a roadmap for current
and future development for the product. Poor architecture may not be apparent
during early releases of the product (the alpha and beta
phases), but as the product evolves and newer versions are created,
architectural decisions will become more
impactful to development. This has been cited as a cause for the
demise of the Netscape development process.
Wikipedia
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Asynchronous/Synchronous Communication: [asy] Direct
communication, where all parties involved in the communication are present at
the same time (an event) is a form of synchronous communication. Examples
include a telephone conversation, a company board meeting, a chat room event and instant messaging.
Asynchronous communication does not require that all parties involved in the
communication need to be present and available at the same time. Examples of
this include e-mail (the receiver does not have to be logged on when the
sender sends the e-mail message), discussion boards,
which allow conversations to evolve and community to develop over a period
of time, and text
messaging over cell phones.
Top
Auction Pricing System: [auc] Using an auction pricing system, sellers are not constrained by having to fix a price without knowing what the market will bare (traditional pricing methodology). If a seller sets a price too low, using a classified advertisement for example, the demand will be high and the product will be purchased. The seller, however, will not get the most revenue the market would have paid if the buyers had had to compete for the purchase. The buyer who wanted the product most (willing to pay the highest price) would not automatically receive the product. Conversely, if the seller advertises too high a price, using a classified advertisement, the product will not sell. By allowing buyers to bid up the price from a low price point, the product will sell to the highest bidder (assuming it clears a minimum asking price). The auction pricing system is a dynamic pricing model, much like the reverse pricing model. Game Theory can impact the strategies involved in setting a starting price (for the seller) and bidding strategies for the buyers.
Examples include: Ebay and QXL.com.
Wikipedia
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Autoresponder: [aut] Autoresponders are used to send an automatic e-mail in response to an incoming e-mail message. This allows for the sender to know the e-mail has been received, which is important due to the asynchronous nature of the medium. They are often used by company employees to alert people they are away on vacation, thus delaying a potential response. They can also be used effectively in customer service by indicating to the consumer:
- The query was received
- Other alternate means to find information
- A response timeframe
- Additional marketing material
Wikipedia
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Average Costs: [ave] The average cost of a unit of
product is made up of its fixed costs
/ # units
produced, and the variable cost per
unit. With digital products, where the variable costs
are very small (and in
some instances zero), the average cost of the product declines as more
units are produced and sold. Thus the market leader for a product typically has the
lowest average cost per unit. This allows the leader to have increased
margins, and increased flexibility to lower price. This is one of the reasons
why first-mover
advantage can be so important.
Wikipedia
B2C: [b2c] B2C refers to business-to-consumer trade,
retail trade. Similarly B2B refers to business-to-business, distribution
channel (value chain). C2B refers to
consumer-to-business, and uses a reverse pricing
model (Priceline
for example).
C2C refers to consumer-to-consumer, an auction-style
model (eBay for example).
Wikipedia
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(Internet) Backbone: [bac] The internet backbone
is the term used for the connections of the internet of the large ISPs
(for example MCI, British Telecom and UUnet). These ISPs provide the fastest data transfer and will be the
most heavily trafficed nodes of the internet. They then connect to
smaller, regional ISPs and so on.
Wikipedia
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Bandwidth: [band] Bandwidth refers to the
capacity of the connection of the internet. Typically a user's
connection to the ISP is the aspect of the internet experience with the
least bandwidth (last mile issue.) The closer to the
internet backbone, the greater the bandwidth of the
connections.
Bandwidth is also
shared among users of an ISP, thus the activities of
one user can have a
nagative impact on the experience of all other users. Filesharing sites
have been blocked (by firewalls) from some ISPs
(universities) for their penchant for hogging bandwidth.
Wikipedia
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(Advertising) Banners: [ban] Banners, a form
of internet advertising, were the
primary
form of advertisements on the web (this is now challenged by text
advertisements). The standard banner usually appears at the
top of a web page, and will link to a target web page, that may be the homepage of the
advertiser or a target page developed by the advertiser that is more directly
relevant to the message of the banner (a better use).
The IAB has developed banner size
standards. Banners began to appear in 1994, the first from
AT&T
hosted by wired.com.
Wikipedia
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Banner Exchange: [bann] A banner exchange program
is a program designed to allow marketers to exchange banners (a form of bartering) to enable
marketers to promote their sites without the outlay of cash. A program
typically allows a marketer to display one advertisement, across the network,
for every two advertisements it hosts on its site. Unlike a straight exchange
with one entity, exchange programs allow for the possibility for the banner to
be displayed on many web sites (those sites that participate in that
particular network). The Free Banner
Exchange Megalist is a good resource for identifying these exchanges.
Top
Barnes & Noble: [barnesnoble] Barnes & Noble.com; Wikipedia; Archive
Barrier(s) To Entry: [bar] Barrier to Entry refers
to the costs incurred for a new entrant to enter a marketplace. Examples
include fixed costs
such as the development of a factory (for traditional manufactured
goods), branding, and
lock-in established
by current competitors in the form of switching costs.
Barriers to entry can also refer to any "hidden" cost established to reduce
freedom of choice. Traditional retailing environments, that had
relied on
geography as a competitive advantage, now need to build barriers to
entry to protect their client base from internet-based businesses.
Wikipedia
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Barter: [bart] Bartering is the trade of goods from one enterprise to another, without the transfer of payments. Many internet businesses trade their products and services, to avoid payments and / or to stimulate demand, at the early stages of their life-cycle. This has also become common practice for the trade of banner advertisements. Banner exchange programs enable small advertisers to exchange advertising space, but large enterprises are also involved in this practice.
Bartering was the means of exchange between traders and customers in markets, before money
was developed as a medium of exchange. Bartering is therefore closely associated with very early market development! In
the early model, money was developed to make markets more liquid. With
the early
internet, bartering was used due to the lack of liquidity of many
internet
businesses.
Wikipedia
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Bluetooth: [blu] Bluetooth is a technology that
connects devices wirelessly, over a short range. It is useful for cell
phones for example, allowing a user to wirelessly speak into his /
her cellphone.
Wikipedia
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Bookmark: [boo] Bookmark is a term used to suggest a
user saves the location of a web page in order to return to that page in the
future. It stems from the bookmark option in the Netscape browser. The
dominant browser Internet Explorer, has the same option, called
favorites. Since it is easier to ask someone to "bookmark" a page than to add
a page to a "favorites" list, despite Internet Explorer becoming the standard
browser, the "bookmark" term has persisted!
Wikipedia
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(Shopping) Bots: [bot] Bots are software programs
developed to help the user search the web to identify and compare products for
purchase. Examples include: Froogle, MySimon, DealPilot.com, FrictionLess.com, and Epinions.com. They are also referred to as
intelligent
agents.
Top
Brand: [bra] A brand is a product from a known source (organization). The name of the organization can also serve as a brand. The brand value reflects how a product's name, or company name, is perceived by the marketplace, whether that is a target audience for a product or the marketplace in general (clearly these can have different meanings and therefore different values). It is important to understand the meaning and the value of the brand (for each target audience) in order to develop an effective marketing mix, for each target audience. The value of the brand for a web-based company may have heightened importance due to the intangible nature of the web.
The economic value of a brand can be determined by looking at what a
company is able to charge for a product, over and above a generic
alternative product, in its marketplace.
Wikipedia
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Break Even Analysis: [bre] Break Even Analysis refers to the calculation to determine how much product a company must sell in order to break even on that product (revenue = costs). It is an effective analysis to measure the impact of different marketing decisions. It can focus on the product, or incremental changes to the product to determine the potential outcomes of marketing tactics. The formula for a break even analysis is:
Break even point ($) = (Total Fixed Costs + Total Variable Costs).
Total Variable Costs = Variable cost per unit x units sold
Unit
contribution (contribution margin) = Price per unit - Variable cost per unit.
When looking at making a change to the marketing program, one can calculate the incremental break even volume, to determine the merits of the change. This determines the required volume needed such that there is no effect to the bottom line to the company due to the change.
If making changes to fixed costs (changing advertising expenditure
etc.):
Incremental break even volume = change in expenditure / unit
contribution.
Thus if a company increased its advertising expenditure by $1
million, and its unit contribution for the specific product is $20, then the
company would need to sell an additional 50,000 units to break even on the
decision.
If making changes to the unit contribution (change in price, or variable
costs):
Incremental break even volume = (Old Unit Volume x (Old Unit
Contribution - New Unit Contribution)) / New Unit Contribution
Thus if a
company increased its price from $15 to $20, and had variable costs of $10, it
is increasing its unit contribution from $5 to $10, assume also an old unit
volume of 1 million. It could therefore reduce its volume by 500,000 to break
even on the decision.
When making changes to a specific product, cannibalization of
other products may occur, assuming the company offers a product line of
similar products. To calculate the effect of cannibalization, the
Break Even Cannibalization rate for a change in a product is:
New Product
Unit Contribution / Old Product Unit Contribution.
New Product is the
planned addition to a product line (or change to a product within a product
line), Old Product is the product that loses sales to the new product (or the
product line that loses sales). The cannibalization rate refers to the
percentage of new product that would have gone to the old product, this must
be lower than the break even cannibalization rate in order for the change to
be profitable.
Wikipedia
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Broadband: [bro] Broadband refers to the ability of
the user to view content across the internet that includes large files, such
as video, audio and 3D. Broadband refers to an increased ability to do so. The
term narrowband can refer to the inability to do so. A user's broadband
capability is typically governed by the last mile issue, the
connection between the ISP and the
user. Users increasingly have access to broadband such as cable
modem and DSL
access. Once
broadband is no longer an issue, the web is likely to become much more
useful, and users of the internet will likely change their behavior in
terms of what they do with the internet, as a consequence of being
able to leave the connection open all the time, rather than having
to dial-in and leave.
Wikipedia
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Bugs: [bug] A bug is the term used to describe a
coding error in a computer program. Bugs can be discovered throughout the
development process. As systems are tested with live users (through alpha and beta
versions), and systems become more interrelated, bugs tend to surface that
were not recognized during the early stages of development. Bugs
are also included in commercial products that have already been
shipped. Once discovered, companies will use patches
to update the
software for the users.
Wikipedia
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(Product) Bundling: [bun] Product Bundling refers to the bundling together of more than one product for a sale. This is very common for digital products, where the marginal costs of each product is very low. If most of the marginal cost is associated with packaging and distribution, this is further reduced when the products are bundled together, as they share the same costs of packaging and distribution. Thus the incremental cost to the firm (i.e. Microsoft) for bundling together additional software products is very small (actually zero aside from any opportunity cost). Thus a suite of products may allow for greater market penetration into different software markets than if the software was sold separately. For software that is not currently used by the consumer, but is purchased through a bundled package, it works to lock-in the consumer once he/she decides to use that category of software. Thus bundled software can ensure strong market positions across multiple markets.
While product bundling is a regular phenomena for software and related
products, product unbundling may occur in the traditional content provider
markets as microtransactions can
provide payment options for smaller increments of the product. Thus rather
than having to buy an entire CD (a bundling of different song titles, mostly
of little relevance to each other) the consumer is able to pay for
a
single song title, unbundled (from iTunes
for example). News media is also becoming
unbundled, via the web and RSS feeds, and via
services like Google
News.
Top
Burn-Rate: [bur] Burn-rate refers to the amount of
money a company spends from month to month (money burnt) in order to survive.
Thus a burn-rate of $50,000 would mean the company spends $50,000 a month
above any incoming cash flow to sustain its business. Entrepreneurial
companies will calculate their burn-rate in order to understand how much time
they have before they need to raise more money, or show a positive
cash flow.
Wikipedia
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Business Plan: [busp] A business plan is a
document that articulates a new business idea (and its business
model). It is used to gain interest in the
business idea for potential investors (Venture Capital
investors for example), as well as used as a guide for the team to build
out the business. Particular focuses of the plan include the idea itself,
the management team, the marketing mix, and the cash
flow projections.
Wikipedia
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Business Model: [busm] Business Model is the business' value proposition, and how it determines to satisfy that value proposition. Essentially it refers to the entire process of how it intends to do business with its customers profitably.
Web sites need to have a specific business model. Many company web sites are operated on a ROI model, presuming the web site serves multiple marketing functions. Alternatively search engines operate with an advertising revenue business model (PPC). In fact Google's entire business model relies on its Google Adwords program. News sites may combine advertising revenue with site subscriptions for a business model. The subscriptions may or may not be paid subscriptions, and the data acquired may or may not be resold to third parties to generate additional revenue streams.
Software vendors need to determine whether their business model should
focus on the sale of the software, or its after sales support. If the
former, this can present potential cash flow problems
in the long run as
the software requires additional support.
Wikipedia
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Call to Action: [cal] Call to Action is the action
that is requested by a marketer's content (either from an internet
advertising or
web-site copy for example). This may be to click-through to enter a
contest, enter a
survey to win a free prize, or purchase a product.
Top
Caching: [cas] Caching is the process used to save web content that is served, for viewing at a later time (cached on the client machine) or for others to view (popular pages, cached at the ISP for others to view who use that ISP to connect to the internet.) Google also caches content that is available for browsers' to view with the search results.
The principle
reason for caching is to improve the web browsing experience by increasing
the speed web pages can be presented to the client. Caching does not work
well if web
pages are updated often, as older copies are cached which are then served
to browsers. Caching is also an issue for content providers who wish to
remove their content from the internet. They do not control the caching
process and thus are unaware of the extent to wich the content has been
cached across the internet.
Wikipedia
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Cannibalization: [can] Cannibalization refers to the
notion of a company making a business decision that will have a
negative impact on either a current product within the same product line or member of a distribution
channel (or entire channel, via disintermediation).
This type of decision is typically designed to allow the company to survive in
the long-term, and avoid having its products challenged by competitors'
products as technology progresses.
Wikipedia
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Captive Market: [capt] A captive market is a group
of consumers who have limited choice in terms of the products they can
select/purchase (no choice)! This type of market was common during the
production era when there was a limited supply of goods (and greater
demand). It
occurs when the market is monopolistic, thus there is
only one supplier in the
marketplace. This is more likely to occur with digital products
(Microsoft is a good example of this). It can
occur when a marketer has
achieved significant lock-in for its installed-based.
Thus
the switching costs
for the consumer to try a competing product become prohibitive.
Top
Cash Flow: [cas] Cash flow is the collective
outcome of all incoming and outgoing cash over a fixed period of time.
Having a positive cash flow is critical to the long term survival of the
company, in the short term a company can survive with a negative cash flow
if this is seen as only a temporary situation. A negative cash flow is
also known as the burn rate and is common at the
beginning of a company's life.
Wikipedia
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Channel Conflict: [cha] Channel conflict is the
outcome of developing additional channels between the producer and consumer
(often direct in terms of using the web) that targets the same group of
consumers. This creates a "conflict" with existing channel members along
the value chain, which are
concerned with getting disintermediated.
This is a common problem for legacy
businesses as they explore the web for commerce.
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Click Fraud: [clic] Click fraud comprises
clicking on a link that either provides monetary gain for the clicker or
adds cost to the marketer whose link is being clicked (a competitor of
the 'clicker' for example). This process can be
automated. This causes
problems for links that are based on a PPC model, and
is thus a problem for search engine advertising
programs and affiliate programs. The problem
is compounded in search engine marketing as the host, who manages the
advertising programs, actually benefits from the rogue behavior.
Wikipedia
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(Web) Client: [cli] The client refers to the user
end of the web. Thus the web browser (Internet
Explorer or Firefox) serves as
a client. This is in contrast to the server, which hosts
the web information.
Wikipedia
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Client-side Scripting: [clie] Client-side
scripting is used to present content to the web browser, with which the
user can then interact, or content that data from the users' machine
interacts (date / time etc.). Client-side scripts rely on the
capabilities of the client machine /
browser, which contrasts with server-side scripts
which rely on the server
for functionality.
Wikipedia
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Collaborative Filtering [col]: Collaborative
filtering
is a process used to match data of one user with data of similar users,
based on purchase patterns, in
order to generate recommendations for the user for future purchases.
Amazon is a good
example of a company that uses collaborative filtering in order to make
its recommendations, based on a customer's prior purchases and the
purchases of those who have purchased similar products. This is an
example of market segmentation, based on customer
behaviour, rather than the more traditional metrics of demographics
and psychographics.
Wikipedia
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Contextual Marketing [con] : Contextual marketing is marketing that occurs in the context of when a person is more likely to be interested in the product/industry. Thus, a page sponsorship can be considered contextual, as the viewer has elected to view the page, and assuming the sponsorship is for a product that is related to the content of the page, the product has the right context (the viewer self-selected to view the content). Text advertisements that are relevant to the content of the web page on which they appear are another example of contextual marketing. An example of this is the advertising programs run by search engines that have advertisements served based on the keywords that the user uses to search.
Contextual Marketing is becoming more popular with increasing use of
search engine marketing, and will only gain greater
strength with the evolution of
wireless marketing (m-commerce). Wireless
marketing will take advantage of knowing where the consumer is located using
GPS. This can then translate into marketing messages
that have direct
relevance to the consumer as the messages relate to the context of the
consumer at the point in time they are being delivered.
Top
Chat Rooms: [cha] See Discussion Boards
Wikipedia
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Contribution Margins (Margins): [marg] Contribution
margins (or margins) refer to the amount of revenue per product that is
available to "contribute" towards the fixed costs and the
profit of the company. Since, for digital products, the
variable costs are
typically very small, or zero, most of the revenue earned from the sale of a
product form the contribution margin. Assuming the contribution margin (unit
price - unit variable cost) > 0, then the product merits marketing,
since
the fixed costs are
sunk. This also
assumes the product does not cannibalize sales from
another product in the product line, if so, the opportunity costs need
to be considered.
Wikipedia
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Cookie File: [coo] The cookie file is a file that
resides on the client
machine. It contains data passed from web sites, so that web sites can
communicate with this file when the same user (client machine) returns.
The web site only has
access to the part of the cookie file that represents the interaction with
that particular web site. The cookie file has caused some issues with
respect to privacy. Considering
that as consumers, we do not know what information is being stored in the
file, we should become concerned! The cookie file was first developed in order
to help sites with the transaction process of the web. Without a cookie file,
web sites are not able to track a single user's path through a web site, thus a
transaction that required multiple pages (as most do) would simply not be
workable.
Wikipedia
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Copyright: [cop] Copyright refers to the rights
provided to the author of certain types of intellectual
property, including
software. The author uses a license to establish how
others can use the software.
Even free software will include a license to ensure the work remains free.
Wikipedia
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CPM, PPC, CPC, CPA: [cpm] CPM (Cost per
1,000), PPC (Pay per Click), CPC (Cost
per Click) and CPA (Cost per Action) are types business
models
for calculating the charge for
pages (advertisements)
being
served. CPM is a holdover from traditional media advertising, and does not
take advantage of the Hypertext nature of
the medium. It charges purely on the number of times the advertisement is
served. It does account for branding effects, that
are not accounted for in the other models. PPC and CPC refer to a cost
(payment) associated with each
click on the advertisement to the target page. CPA is a cost associated with
each lead created from a click on the advertisement (CPL), or each sale (CPS).
Both PPC / CPC and CPA are much more accountable means of developing a
price for the advertisement, and either are also used for affiliate
programs and text advertisements on search engines.
They become a variable
cost in terms of generating the number of people exposed to the target
page (this number is based on the CTR from the host vehicle), the number
of leads generated (CPL) or the number of sales (CPS). The downside for the vehicles is they do
not control the design of the banner (poor design = low click-through etc.)
and they are not rewarded for the branding effect of the banner. Click
fraud is also an increasing problem.
Wikipedia
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CRM: [crm] CRM (Customer Relationship Management)
is a business strategy built around the concept of being customer-centric. The
main goals are to optimise revenue through improved customer satisfaction via
improved interactions at each customer touch point. This can be accomplished
by a better understanding of customers, based on their purchasing patterns and
demographics, and better information empowerment at all customer touch points,
whether with employees or other media interfaces.
Wikipedia
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Cryptography: [cry] Cryptography is the field of securing data. It began with a focus on securing data in transit (data encryption), but has expanded to other areas such as digital cash and authentication (digital signatures and timestamps). The field of encryption pre-dates modern times (frequency analysis) but gained particular significance during World War II as a means to secure data from and listen to the enemy. It has become very important in the information age.
A simple example of cryptography is the public key cryptography. The sender and receiver must have both a public key (to read the data) and a private key to encrypt the data. The public key can be made freely available to recipients of a message as long as the private key remains private.
Encryption presents problems for governments which need to 'listen' to
data transferred over the internet.
Governments need to do this to track
illegal money transfers and listen to terrorist chatter for example. Thus
governments prefer weaker standards of
encryption than those who require data to be secure, such as those
requiring legitimate security for e-commerce. Until
2000 the US Government restricted the use of "strong" encryption for
export (encryption of over 56 bits in symmetric algorithms). This has now
been relaxed somewhat unless the end user is from specific countries
(i.e. Cuba, Iran, Iraq etc.) RSA
Security - Crypto FAQ is a good resource for Cryptography.
Wikipedia
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CTR: [ctr] CTR (Click-Through Rate) is the number of
times an advertisement is
clicked upon over the number of times the advertisement is served. Typical
click-through rates have been declining (a click through rate of 1% would be
very high). While click through rates help determine the
effectiveness of the online advertisement, advertisements also contain
a branding impact. The click-through rate will
determine the cost of an advertising
campagn that was based on PPC / CPC and
CPA.
Wikipedia
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CSS: [css] CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) are used
by web designers to describe the design of the web page (entire web site.)
Rather than rely solely on HTML (structure), CSS allows
for more central
control such that making one edit in the CSS file can make consistent changes across an
entire web site. CSS content can be included as a separate file (pointed
to in the header of the web page); included entirely in the header of the
web page; or included directly in the body of the web page. CSS also
allows for creating different presentations dependent on the media, so a
document that is printed out can be printer-friendly versus the same
document on screen.
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Cybersquatting: [cyb] Cybersquatting refers to
the behaviour of acquiring a domain name with the
principle purpose of
reselling that domain name. The resale could be to an entity that would
be willing to pay a higher price (typically a trademark
holder); or an
entity who had previously used the domain name but inadvertantly lost it
as a consequence of not re-registering.
Wikipedia
Dell [dell]: Dell.com; Wikipedia; Archive
(Technology) Diffusion Process: [diff] The
diffusion process refers to the process of adoption of new products by the
consumer marketplace. The consumer marketplace is segmented into four groups:
innovators (2.5% of population), early adopters (13.5%), early majority
(34%),
late majority (34%), and laggards (16%). Thus innovators are more likely to
adopt a new product earlier than the early majority etc. This has implications
for target
marketing with new products.
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Digital Cash: [digi] Digital cash is money
exchanged only over the network (web). Paypal is a
provider of digital cash. Smart cards are also used to
provide
electronic money exchange, more frequently used outside the US. Encryption
is used to maintain the integrity of digital cash.
Wikipedia
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Digital Divide: [digd] Digital divide
represents the gap between those who have access to the internet and those
who do not. Those who have access to the internet typically come from
wealthier segments of society, and wealthier countries. Access can
be defined in terms of access to the physical infrastructure of the
internet, or access via literacy. Access to
the internet itself creates significant advantages to those who have it,
further exacerbating the divide.
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Digital Products: [dig] Digital products are
intangible products that can be downloaded over a digital network. They
have
zero copy costs, and users can make perfect copies. The cost structure of
digital products (high fixed costs that are
sunk, and tending
towards zero marginal costs) in
conjunction with the above features changes the economics of digital products
vs. traditional goods.
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Diminishing Returns: [dim] Diminishing returns
refers to the notion that the return that a company receives for additional
effort decreases as the number of units / output increases. This is typical of
industrial goods, but is in contrast to the phenomena of network effects and
increasing returns
for digital goods. Diminishing returns explains why industrial companies
become more inefficient once they grow over a certain size. Thus firms
do not
compete as effectively when in a large monopolistic market than they do
in an oligopolistic market (car company for example) assuming the size of the
market is over the scale limit that traditional firms can operate efficiently.
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Discussion Boards and Chat Rooms: [dis] Discussion boards allow for asynchronous discussion between 2 or more people over a period of time. Chat rooms are designed for synchronous discussion at one time. Discussion boards are typically available for review, at any time, chat rooms have no data until a chat session begins.
Discussion boards are useful to allow many people to become involved in online "conversations" over a period of time. A site that has used discussion boards effectively is slashdot.org. This site is a community that serves as a meeting place for those interested in the advancement of all things digital, as they say: "News for nerds!" The site's content essentially is created by its community, which in turn becomes more closely associated with the site as they are developing the site. Other sites attempt to achieve this without as much success. Slashdot's success lies in its structure: initial discussion content short, but with enough information to establish context, this allows discussion to follow. The ClueTrain Manifesto, while being radical in its approach and view points, makes a compelling case for commercial sites to include a discussion board to allow for conversations among consumers, and between consumers and employees. The Student 2 student aspect of the Wharton MBA Admissions site follows this thesis. The content on this site is content marketing could not pay for, and comes from credible sources.
Chat Rooms are useful for gathering people together for "quick" events that are centered around specific topics. They are very good for brainstorming events, and to resolve problems that need quick discussion. Chat rooms are often used in conjunction with discussion boards to satisfy communication needs of the organization. Unfortunately the terms, discussion boards and chat rooms, are often confused, people refering the two as chat rooms.
Instant
Messaging and blogging are other forms of
communication evolving on the web. In fact, slashdot, noted above, is a blog in its
truest sense, but behaves very much like a discussion board.
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Disintermediation: [disi] Disintermediation refers
to the potential for members of traditional value chains
(distribution channels) to become obsolete as the producer markets more
directly with its consumers using the web. This occurs with legacy businesses.
While channels (using the web) are presumed to become shorter, in reality, the
channels actually include different types of intermediaries (infomediaries) such as
meta-markets (also
referred to as industry portals) that help
gather many industry players and consumers into a marketspace.
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Disruptive Technology: [disr] This is a technology
that changes the industry in such a way that previous competitive and business
rules change. Since the internet has had such a profound effect on the
fundamental rules of business, it can be considered a disruptive technology.
CD technology was another good example of a disruptive technology. When CDs
were introduced to the music business, they were a disruptive technology,
changing the status quo, and requiring users to purchase new hardware, despite
there being a significant installed-base of
record players and record collections. P2P, and more
recently
iTunes are similarly
changing the music industry and those that rely
on CD sales.
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Domain Name: [dom] A domain name (also known as a host name) is an alphanumeric name that identifies a computer on the internet. While it is possible to reach computers on the internet by using the IP address, IP addresses are not easy to remember. Domain names provide an easily referenced way of reaching remote computers. The domain name is the first part of the web address or URL. For example, this web page's domain name is www.udel.edu
The Domain Name Service (DNS) stores a database of mappings from domain names to IP addresses and performs lookups for the IP address when a domain name is used in a network request. To avoid network congestion, lookups are performed on root servers with current copies of the central directory. These root servers are further copied by ISPs. To register a domain name for the .com, .org, .biz, .net, .info and .name, you can use one of the accredited registrars, and their resellers. ICANN.org is the accrediting agency that approves resellers and resolves disputes. You can learn about information behind the ownership of a domain name by using the WHOIS service. ccTLDs (country code top level domains, such as .uk, .at and .fr) are handled independently and visiting the country's site is important to understand the rules.
Domain names are an important branding tool for a
business. Businesses are thus keen to protect their trademarks by
acquiring their appropriate domain name(s). Cybersquatting is
the behaviour of a user who acquires a domain name for the sole
purpose of reselling at a higher price. Clearly domain names can have
significant economic value, the highest price reported to be $14m.
Wikipedia
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DoubleClick [doubleclick]: DoubleClick.com; Wikipedia; Archive
Dynamic Pricing: [dyn] Dynamic Pricing refers to a fluid pricing scheme between the buyer and seller, rather than the more traditional (and more recent, over the last 100 years) fixed pricing. Dynamic pricing is a legacy from the past, that has losts its prominance with the advent of the industrial revolution and mass marketing and mass communication. Before the industrial revolution, most trade occured in markets, with many buyers and sellers bartering for goods.
Current and evolving models for dynamic pricing include the auction pricing system, group pricing system and reverse pricing system. Typically these systems will better reflect the true market value of the product involved, but also require additional work on the part of the purchaser. These systems will evolve more rapidly when better standards are established and when intelligent agents evolve. Not all markets will be served well with a dynamic pricing model.
eBay.com [ebay]: eBay.com; Wikipedia; Archive
E-Commerce: [ecom] E-commerce refers to all
forms of business activities conducted across the internet. This can include
E-tailing, B2B, intranets and extranets,
online
advertising,
and simply online presences of any form that are used for some type of
communication (customer service for example).
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Economies of Scale: [econ] Economies of scale refers to the notion of increasing efficiencies of the production of goods as the number of goods being produced increases. Typically the average costs of producing a good will diminish as each additional good is produced, since the fixed costs are shared over an increasing number of units.
Due to economies of scale, larger companies have greater access to markets in terms of selecting media to access those markets, and can operate with larger geographic reach.
For traditional companies, size does have its limits, where additional size
actually increases costs to companies (impacts communications costs etc., diminishing returns).
Thus many industries tend to operate more effectively in an oligopolistic
fashion, with few large firms, rather than one monopolist. (This should occur
even if the government allowed monopolists and monopolists behaved legally).
Digital companies tend not to suffer from this scale limitation.
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Ecosystem: [eco] An ecosystem is a system whose members benefit from each other's participation via symbiotic relationships (positive sum relationships). It is a term that originated from biology, and refers to self-sustaining systems.
The bumblebee hive is an example of an ecosystem, highlighted in Bernd Heinrich's book, Bumblebee Economics. The bumblebees' hive is a living system with one goal, to gather enough energy to ensure the survival of the bumblebee's genetic information. Bumblebees (unlike most other species) live in colonies and depend on each other for survival. Bumblebees extract pollen for protein and nectar for their sole source of energy from neighboring plants. Plants, in turn, rely on bumblebees to inadvertently brush pollen from one plant to another, to enable the plants' reproduction process to begin. The relationship between the bumblebee and the plant is symbiotic, as each benefits from each other's participation. The bumblebee hive goes through a life-cycle, through the year. Entering the fall the queen bee lays eggs that are fed a different diet. These eggs turn into virgin queens and males. When the frost hits, the remaining worker bees die as does the queen, the virgin queens and males fly off, mate, the males die and the inseminated queens seek shelter through the winter. The process then begins again.
As it applies to business, an ecosystem can be viewed as a system where the
relationships established across different industries become mutually
beneficial, self-sustaining and (somewhat) closed. This is clearly the case
for Silicon Valley
with the entrepreneurial industry, the venture capital
industry needed to fund the entrepreneurial industry, and Stanford University (birthplace of
google and Yahoo! etc.), supplying
the human
capital needed to develop innovative/creative ideas and technologies. The goal
of this ecosystem is to generate entrepreneurial ventures. Once an ecosystem
is established, and is able to take first-mover advantage,
it becomes very difficult for other regions to emulate. The region exhibits network effects and
is able to establish lock-in since the switching costs
associated with moving to another region are prohibitive. The collective costs
of many moving out of the region (i.e. if another region tried to incentivize
a large move) would be prohibitive. Thus current members have a clear
incentive to remain, and new would-be entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and
students interested in this industry have a significant incentive to relocate
to this region.
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E-tailing: [eta] E-tailing refers to retailing over
the internet. Thus an e-tailer is a B2C business that
executes a transaction with the final consumer. E-tailers can be pure play businesses
like Amazon.com or businesses that have
evolved from a legacy business, Tesco.com.
E-tailing is a subset of e-commerce.
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eWallet: [ewa] eWallet is a system that stores a
customer's data for easy retrieval for online purchases. Since completing
forms as part of an e-tail transaction can
be a reason for aborting a transaction (shopping cart
abandonment), an eWallet service can reduce this
inconvenience for the consumer.
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Extranet: [ext] Extranet refers to a group of
web sites, belonging to independent entities, that are combined together
in
order to share private information. This is in contrast to an intranet, which is a
private site that is only accessible to one entity. Extranets are
used in the supply
chains to allow for more effective communications along the supply
chain. Firewalls are used to protect the extranet from
those excluded access.
Extranets are replacing proprietary standard networks that are
considerably more
expensive to establish, and therefore were only used by large
organizations (EDI).
Wikipedia
FAQ: [faq] FAQ is an acronym for Frequently Asked
Questions. A FAQ document is a document found on company web sites that addresses
basic questions. These documents are updated from queries that come from the
customers, so they should evolve over time.
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Filesharing: [fil] Filesharing refers to peer-to-peer
technology that allows one user of the internet to access files of another
user of the internet through a public directory. Before the advent of WWW,
this was the primary form of internet information sharing, through public (and
private) FTP sites. It has now emerged as a
methodology for sharing digital
files across the web. Napster pioneered
this, distributing music files. Others, such as gnutella are proving to be interesting
distribution models for music etc. Filesharing is coming under
increasing scrutiny for copyright issues.
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Firewall: [fire] A firewall is a piece of
software or hardware designed to serve as a barrier to exclude outside
intruders, typically those on the internet, access to internal content.
Companies often adopt firewalls in order to keep their internal
communications private (intranets and extranets). Firewalls can
also sometimes prevent those behind the firewall communicating with
web-sites on the internet that require cookies for the
transaction.
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First-Mover Advantage: [fir] The First-Mover Advantage refers to the advantage gained by the first company that enters a certain market. This advantage is exacerbated for digital products and markets. There are a number of reasons this advantage exists. A company that is able to increase sales quickly is able to reduce the average cost of the product, over other competitors. This allows the first company to have more flexibility with pricing, either reducing the price to make it less attractive for new entrants (increasing barriers to entry) or increasing the margin and therefore profit while prices remain fixed, this additional profit can then be used for further innovation. The first-mover can also take advantage of the learning curve effect. First-mover advantage can be further successful if the company is able to achieve lock-in of its installed-base. Thus once lock-in occurs, it is more difficult for other marketers to attract those customers away from the first marketer. Risks of being the first mover include the opportunity for others to imitate and follow best practices (learn from any mistakes).
First-mover advantage is not always sustainable, and Microsoft has been
very effective at being the second company in many markets, and subsequently
dominating those markets. A simple example of this was the Netscape's browser
vs. Microsoft's Internet Explorer. Netscape was the first-mover, gaining
upwards of 90% market-share, but was not able to sustain its position with the
onslaught of Microsoft. Netscape did not establish ANY lock-in, either due to
the user interface,
or proprietary functionality and both products were essentially being given
away, so there was no price advantage. Microsoft is clearly positioned to give
a product away for the long-term to gain market share.
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Fixed Costs: [fix] Fixed costs refer to the costs
associated with a product, that are fixed over a number of units. Thus
regardless of the number of units produced and sold, the fixed costs remain
the same. Examples of fixed costs are rent on equipment, utility costs, and
research and development costs. With digital products, much of the fixed costs
are actually sunk
costs, and therefore non-recoverable costs. A large portion of the costs
associated with digital products are fixed, and sunk, and not variable costs, which
are more typical of traditional manufactured goods. Break even analysis,
which is a tool that determines the volume at which a company must sell a
product in order to break even, distinguishes between fixed and variable costs
in its calculations.
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Flexibility of the Communications Medium: [fle] The
flexibility of the communication's medium refers to its ability to serve
multiple roles for the marketer. Media typically are
limited in terms of the types of transactions they can accomplish. TV is
very good for reaching a large audience with a 30 second message, but is not
useful for customer service. The web, however, is truly flexible. It can
communicate information to multiple target audiences,
simultaneously. It can
provide and support customer service initiatives and it can be used to execute
transactions. It is the first medium that can serve multiple roles
simultaneously. The web also breaks the reach versus
richness
tradeoff of more traditional media.
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Forking: [for] Forking refers to the notion
that a software
project may evolve in multiple directions as multiple people have different
goals for the project. This may occur under the open source
development model. It is highly discouraged, as it does not maximize the use
of resources. A good leader of an open source project will develop a process
to try to avoid this situation. An exception to this was the
development of Firefox,
a fork of the Mozilla
Project. Firefox is now the Mozilla's main
development focus.
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Free-Rider: [fre] The free-rider effect refers to the notion that non-contributors to a project can benefit from other people's work on the project. This effect is posed as a criticism of open source. The question is, does the free-rider effect negatively impact an open source project. Since free-riders do not actually diminish any resources as they use the product (open source software) and assuming they are not adding any additional costs to the project (asking questions etc.) then the answer is no. For those who want to use the product, but need after sales service and customer support, a paid alternative may be available. (Red Hat for Linux is an example.)
The essay, Tragedy of the
Commons, highlights the consequences of the free-rider issue when
resources are finite. The argument is, the more people that use the
resource, the
more the resource is depleted. Thus in this environment, we cannot afford
free-riders, those not contributing to development of the resource. With an
open source project, the opposite effect is true, as more developers work with
the code, the better the product, and those not developing code (free-riders)
have no negative impact on the code's development.
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Free Software: [free] Free Software is software that allows the owner the 'freedom' to use the software, and alter the software in anyway he / she desires. Thus it is more akin to freedom of speech, rather than free as in zero cost (in fact, free software licenses can allow for the sale of free software under certain conditions). Free software development has evolved from the early hacker culture, where all software was free software. Free software is distributed with its source code. Access to this source code allows developers to improve and adapt the code for the individual use. Developers that do modify the code may be required (via the software's license) to submit any modifications back to the initiators of the project (submitting a patch). This allows any improvements, or resolved bugs, to be included in new releases of the product.
Free Software can include a license, explaining the rights of the developer and the usability for the owner of the copy. The GNU GPL license, designed by Richard Stallman and the FSF, has been very successful in developing a movement for the greater availability of free software. This free software is part of Richard Stallman's GNU project (Gnu's Not Unix).
In 1997 the term open source was developed with the thought of using this term to replace free software, as the free implied no cost, which in turn implied not good work. Since this time, there has been a split in the free software movement camps, with the open source group (evangelized by Eric Raymond) promoting the business advantages of free software, and the free software camp promoting the ideological aspects of free software. The ideological aspects are that all software should be freely available, so developers can expand on each others' work in order to continue the development process. Once code has been taken private, that innovation is lost to the public domain. Since that code will include previous "open" work (as would any work that has evolved from other work) it should also remain open. The freedom ideology works best if all software code is open, and does not tolerate free software and proprietary software coexisting. Once some code goes proprietary, the advantages of freedom are diluted, as free software development is now excluded from some development initiatives.
Of all the successes of the free software / open source movement, one can
look at the GNU/Linux development.
Wikipedia
FTP: [ftp] File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is a
protocol used on the internet in order to transfer files. It was a
popular means of making files available over the internet, either via
public or private FTP sites, before the advent of the web. Site
developers now use FTP to upload / download files to the server when
making changes / additions to web pages.
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Game Theory: [gam] Game Theory is a theory of rational behavior of participants in interactive decision-making scenarios. It helps predict how other participants of the situation / scenario (game) will respond in certain situations, or to certain decisions. Understanding participants' responses ahead of a decision, should help the initial decision maker make better decisions. It is applicable in areas such as:
- open source development. Free-rider issues for example. Should you contribute resources when someone else may benefit without contribution?
- standards setting. Should you cooperate with your competitors to help expand and standardize the marketplace?
- dynamic pricing. Should you bid at a price point, and will that create a higher bid from someone else?
- competitor reactions to decisions. When making marketing decisions, you cannot only analyze how your customers may respond without considering how your competitors will respond, as this will in turn impact your customers' responses.
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Gnutella.com [gnutella]: gnutella.com; Wikipedia; Archive
GPS: [gps] Global Positioning System (GPS) is a
satellite-based system that identifies the location of a receiver. This
is useful in mobile commerce as it allows the marketer to
design content based not only on the individual, but where the individual
is at the point the message is delivered. GPS systems are also used in
cars to provide mapping systems, which can also be aligned with
appropriate marketing messages. GPS is a US-based system, the EU has
recently announced the development of a competing system, Galileo.
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Google.com: [google] Google.com; Wikipedia; Archive
Group Buying Model: [grou] Group Buying Model
refers to the notion that the internet allows individual consumers to develop
a community and participate in purchases by multiple people with similar
needs. TogetherWeSAVE.com is an
example (Note: Mercata and Accompany closed, signaling this model is not yet
matured!) Individuals are now able to take advantage of purchasing economies of scale
that previously were only afforded to large companies. This in itself helps
the power shift away from the company, to the individual consumer, but when
combined with the reverse pricing model
can create a potent consumer weapon. The essay, COMsumer
Manifesto, details possible implications.
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Groupware: [gro] Groupware refers to technology that
allows for groups of people to communicate from remote locations. The internet
can be considered the ultimate open standard groupware technology!
Applications typically included in groupware techology are calendars, discussion boards,
project management tools, e-mail facilities etc. Microsoft Exchange and Lotus
Notes are the more common commercial applications.
Wikipedia
Hackers and Crackers: [hac] Hackers is a term used for those who have been closely associated with the development of the computer, outside of the traditional corporate structure, and the free software movement (also known as the Open Source movement). Those that help develop code to improve (or create new) software, and share that code with fellow hackers. Hackers therefore make things. Crackers break things. Crackers are those who get their thrills by cracking software, creating viruses, and destroying things. Unfortunately media often confuse the terms, thus the term hacker, when mentioned in mainstream media, usually refers to crackers!
The hacker philosophy is one of sharing, openness, and decentralization (a distinct disdain for bureaucracy), that helps the innovative process and increases the knowledge-base of the culture. The hacker culture typically has an antagonistic relationship with the corporate entities who dominate the technology industry (this used to be IBM, and now Microsoft). Their values and belief systems are not aligned with these bureaucracies (who hoard knowledge and turn it into their selfish gain, rather than share knowledge and believe in the freedom of knowledge). Along these lines, hackers believe in the selflessness in favor of the common good. Communities of hackers can be found at sites like Slashdot.org.
Clearly this culture experiences network effects. The more people involved and contributing to a particular project, the more each person involved benefits from each others' innovations. This clearly answers the question as to how the Linux operating system was able to become a more robust operating system (according to some) than the Windows operating system, in a much shorter time frame.
Key figures in the hacker community are Richard Stallman (believes that all
software should be free), Linus Torvalds (initiator and
leader of the Linux
development) and Eric Raymond (believes
software should be free when it makes business sense).
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Header: [hea] The header component of a web page
comprises the title
and the meta
tags and any style sheet content (CSS). All
elements critical for
marketing and design of a web page. A web page
includes two components, the header and the body component. The body component
includes the content that is visible to the user. By clicking the "view"
and then
the "source" option of the web browser, you can see the header and body tags for this
document.
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Hewlett-Packard [hewlettpackard]: hp.com; Wikipedia; Archive
Hits: [hit] Hits refer to the number of files served
when users access a web page. Total hits for a page will therefore equal
the number of times the page is accessed X the number of files included on a
page. Thus a page that includes one graphic file will serve two files when it
is accessed; the html file of the page, and the image
file the page calls.
This is a metric that is often misused when media quote the activity a web
page receives. (To double the number of hits, simply double the number of
files the page includes.) Better metrics, for web
analytics, include impressions and page
views.
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Homepage: [hom] The homepage of a web site is the
entry point to the site. It is the page that will usually have a web address
(URL) that ends
with .com, .edu, .org, .gov or .cc (the 2 letter code for the country outside
the USA). The actual filename, in the above scenarios, is index.html Users can
create their own homepages that may be subsidiary to the above, and therefore
use a subdirectory, but using index.html as the filename is still better
(otherwise viewers can see the files in your directory by typing that filename
with the file path). While the homepage is designed to be the entry point to a
web site, designers cannot assume that all viewers will enter the web site by
that page. It is important to consider all pages as potential entry points,
and design all pages to market the site online (search engine
optimization etc.) and
for easy navigation to find the homepage.
Wikipedia
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Hotmail: [hotmail] Hotmail.com; Wikipedia; Archive
Hypertext: [hyp] Hypertext refers to the
connectivity between web documents, which
is non-linear. Thus any part of the document (word or phrase) can launch
another document, or another part of the same document, via a hyperlink.
In
this example, the word web is hyperlinking to an explanation of the word,
which appears at the end of this dictionary!
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HTML: [htm] HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) is the original and principal language of the world wide
web. Invented by Tim
Berners-Lee in 1990,
it is a derivative of SGML.
The W3C is the
organization charged with ensuring the compatibility of HTML with competing browsers and other web languages. The following
is a brief historical timeline of the development of HTML. To learn HTML two popular guides are ncsa's Beginners Guide to HTML and The Barebones Guide to HTML. You
can also view the HTML used for this (and any page) by accessing 'view'
'view source' from the top left of your browser.
Wikipedia
IBM: [ibm] IBM.com; Wikipedia; Archive
Identity Theft: [ide] Identity theft refers to
the stealing of information about a person that allows a second person to
assume the identity of the first. Essentially this only requires
knowledge of very limited information, including a social security number.
While most Identity Theft still occurs through traditional means of
scouring house hold waste materials, the threat of theft over the internet
is a concern for e-commerce. It can occur as data is
in transit (for a
transaction) or data that is stored on a company's site, that is stolen,
or from phishing activities.
Theft can also occur via google
hacking (i.e. documents that are
available on the internet that should not be available, but are easily
found via the search engines.) Identity theft is a
major concern for privacy advocates.
Wikipedia
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(Page) Impressions: [imp] Impressions refers to the
number of times a page is accessed over a fixed period of time. Thus if a page
receives 1,000 impressions per day, then that page is accessed 1,000 over the
course of the day. This term is often confused with hits, which is
actually an incorrect use of this term (hits and number of impressions would
be the same if the page was simply a text page with no additional files
associated with it). Page impressions also equals the number of times an advertisement is
served, assuming a banner is served each time the page is
accessed. Impressions are a metric used in web
analytics.
Wikipedia
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Increasing Returns: [inc] Increasing returns refers to the notion that the greater the size of the network, the greater the advantage of each participant of the network (network effects). Each participant of the network brings value to the overall network. This is in contrast to diminishing returns which refers to the greater the size (number of users) the less each participant can benefit from participation. Broad examples of increasing returns include an open source project (the more contributors, the better the product) and a proprietary communications device (the more users of the device, the more people with whom a user can conmmunicate).
Google's search engine
experiences increasing returns.
The more content
it houses in its databases, the more links it has pointing to various
sites on the internet. In
bound links are an aspect of the PageRank system
that provides the google results. These results therefore improve as the
volume of
content increases (this was not the case for more traditional engines like
Alta
Vista that were based principally on keywords
only, which does not scale as well.)
Another example of increasing returns can be seen with Amazon's
recommendation system, via collaborative filtering.
The more users that are using
the Amazon system, the greater the integrity of the recommendation system.
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Industrial Revolution: [ind] This is the period of
time that occured after developments such as the steam combustion engine
allowed for more efficient production of goods. The advent of the assembly
line etc. occured. It basically changed production from single goods to mass
production. Mid 1800s to early 1930s.
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Infomediaries: [inf] Infomediaries are channel
intermediaries that are based on the transfer of information using the web.
They are replacing traditional intermediaries in many distribution channels.
Infomediaries include meta markets, portals, search engines, and bots.
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Installed-Base: [ins] The installed-base refers to
the customer-base of digital products. The
company will have records of these customers (demographic and purchase
behaviour), and will be able to use these
records in order to try to monetize the installed-base. Companies try to
develop switching
costs, in order to encourage their installed-base to remain loyal. By
estimating the life-time value of a
customer in the installed-base, we can estimate the value of the
company.
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Instant Messaging: [inst] Instant messaging is a form
of synchronous
communication that allows users, on a specific network (AOL Instant Messenger, ICQ.com and MSN Messenger for instance) to
communicate with other users, on that network, by sending short messages.
Instant messaging services also allow users to determine when other users are
online. Given that users can only communicate with other users on the same
network, these services are certainly good examples of services that take
advantage of viral
marketing. It is likely that, with time, these services may standardize, so users
of one network will be able to communicate with users on another network. This
model makes more sense, and is used for a similar service, text messaging
on
cell phones, more common in countries outside the United States.
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Intellectual Property: [intell] Intellectual property refers to the rights provided to the owner of an expressed idea; invention; authored piece of work; a process; or a name attached to a company or product.
A copyright protects creative
content such as books, software and art. The copyright controls the
potential for reproduction of the works. A patent
protects an invention and an innovative process. A patent provides
exclusive use of the invention for a fixed period of time. This creates a
monopoly for the invention. A trademark is a sign,
name or symbol that distinguishes one company, or product, from another.
It is designed to reduce customer confusion. Intellectual property is
granted on a territorial basis, but harmonization is occuring via
international treaties within the WTO for instance.
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Intelligent Agents: [inte] Intelligent Agents are
"bots" designed to
work for the user in terms of executing transactions (typically search queries
at this point) across the web. It is assumed that as Intelligent Agents become
more sophisticated, they can accomplish more complex tasks for their users.
Once they understand their users' requirements, they can act somewhat
independently of user interaction, in terms of making online purchasing
decisions and other tasks that currently require significant search and user
decision making processes. Intelligent Agents will also become more
useful as the semantic web develops.
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Interstitial Pages: [inter] Interstitial pages are
a form of online advertising that appears between web
pages that the
user requests. Thus when a user elects to enter or exit a web-site, a page
appears with its advertisement, in place of the requested page, the user then
needs to select from that page to receive the page requested (or the
advertisement page will disappear after a fixed time). This is a form of
interruption advertising (similar to broadcast models) but this form of web
advertising breaks information design rules, as the user had a certain set of
expectations when making the page selection, the interstitial page did
not
match expectations.
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Intranet: [intr] An Intranet is a network based on
the internet TCP/IP
open standard. An intranet belongs to an organization, and is designed to be
accessible only by the organization's members, employees, or others with
authorization. An intranet's Web site looks and acts just like other Web
sites,
but has a firewall surrounding it to fend off
unauthorized users. Intranets
are used to share information. Secure intranets are much less expensive to
build and manage than private, proprietary-standard networks
(EDI).
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IP Address: [ipa] An IP address is a numerical address of the computer broken into 4 groups of 3 digit numbers lower than 254. In most cases, these addresses are unique for each internet connected computer throughout the world. Originally, addresses were obtained from Internet's Network Information Center (InterNIC) and later, in the Americas, the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN). Today, only large ISPs are eligible to obtain addresses from ARIN, everyone else must request and address from their ISP. There is an exception to the uniqueness of addresses: Specific groups of addresses are set aside for use on internal networks for machines not connected to the internet or trying to conserve address space. These addresses are either 10.x.x.x, 172.16.x.x, or 192.168.x.x. Use of these addresses is becoming more popular due to the shortage of addresses, which makes individual addresses expensive to obtain and keep, and the costs associated with changing all network addresses when changing ISPs, and the popularity of internet connection sharing in small business or home networks.
The IP address can also be used to help determine from where a web browser is located. This enables sites to present content specific to the location of the browser. For example Amazon is able to present amazon.co.uk content to browsers who are accessing the site from the UK. Sites can also restrict access to a range of IP addresses, therefore Google is able to limit IP addresses originated in China to google.cn. Similarly sites can present unique content to individual IP addresses based on previous activity with that IP address. This helps with personalization.
As a web browser, we access a computer on the web by calling the domain name, which
masks the IP address. Domain names are easier to recall. Domain names serve as
the first part of the URL (web address).
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IPO: [ipo] Initial Public Offering (IPO) refers to
the offering of stock in a company to the public through a public market. NASDAQ is a popular market for
e-commerce
related companies. The IPO of a company serves as a significant liquidity
opportunity for early investors, including founders and the Venture Capital
investors.
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Internet: [int] This is the network of networks,
developed in the 1960s as a result of a US defence industry project
DARPANET.
It encompasses what we now know as E-mail, Usenet Newsgroups, the Web, FTP and Telnet.
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ISP: [isp] ISP (Internet Service Provider) is the
access consumers have to the internet. Commercial ISPs include companies like
AOL. There are many regional ISPs, and
students can consider their University
as their ISP if that is how they access the internet. The connection between
the consumer and the ISP is typically the slowest aspect of the internet (also
known as the last
mile problem). The ISP will then have a connection to the backbone of the
internet, which is essentially a collection of larger ISPs (MCI,
British Telecom, UUnet) via a T1 line or similar.
Wikipedia
Keyword: [key] Keyword is the term used for words included in a web page that would match words used by web surfers in finding that web page (via a search engine). Identifying appropriate keywords and using them on a web site is important for search engine optimization. Keywords can simply be words included in the body text of the document, or added to the header using meta tags to increase the number of keywords. Using keywords in the title tag is also important. Selecting keywords, that match your target audiences' use of the web when searching your product, is a critical marketing tactic.
Last Mile Issue: [las] The Last Mile issue refers to
the connection between the user and the ISP, which is
typically the slowest aspect of the internet access. As with a chain,
the quality of
access is governed by the weakest link, thus the slow connection impacts the
entire web browsing experience. This issue evolved due to the lack of
competition in the telecom industry, until very recently. Therefore technology
innovation was not as rapid (read very slow) compared to other
innovations governed by Moore's Law.
Some users (in
the U.S.) typically connect from home with a 56K modem. Broadband
access, via cable
modems and DSL
technologies are beginning to become more widely adopted.
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Learning Curve: [lea] The learning curve
(also known as the experience curve) represents
the outcome of a company's experience when developing a product. As the
company becomes more experienced, it is able to develop a better
product, and / or
develop products more efficiently at reduced cost. The learning curve effect
has a significant role in helping companies benefit from first-mover advantage.
Later entrants into the marketplace have a difficult time overcoming the
experience advantage, as first-movers release additional versions of the
product.
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Legacy Business: [leg] Legacy Business refers to a
traditional business that develops a web presence to transact business. Barnes and Noble is an example. This is in
contrast to a pure
play business, which is developed as a new entity for the web, and had no
prior presence, such as amazon.com.
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License: [lic] A license is used to allow the
author of a piece of software (intellectual
property) to establish the
rights of a user in terms of the copy of that software that contains the
license. Unlike tangible goods, which are clearly limited in terms
of what an owner can do with the product, digital goods are easy to
make perfect copies. It is therefore important to establish limits.
While the user
may have purchased a digital copy, this does not imply freedom of use of
that copy. The license will detail what the user is able to do (in terms of
resell, number of machines the software can be applied, making
modifications to the software etc.)
The free software movement (also known as open source) has created a set of licenses that creates
greater freedom of use of software, which is more appropriate for innovation among
the hacker community.
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Lifetime Value: [lif] Lifetime Value of the Customer determines the value of a customer to a firm, over the lifecycle of that customer. This removes the focus on individual transactions with customers and has become increasingly used with the developments of technology and market research, and thus the ability to focus on narrower target markets, even to the individual consumer in some cases. Lifetime Value is an important measure used for relationship marketing programs. Lifetime Value of Customers was a popular metric for internet firms as they built their customer-bases.
In order to calculate the Lifetime Value, the company needs to determine the cost of customer acquisition, and the cost of customer retention, the average lifetime of a customer, and the average value the customer provides over its lifetime. It is important to distinguish between customer acquisition and retention, as this will allow marketers to understand the true value of a specific marketing campaign (cost of acquisition), and the value new customers can bring over their lifecycle (value to company - cost of retention).
The Lifetime Value of the Customer = The revenue provided to the company by
the customer over its lifetime - (Cost of Customer Acquisition + Cost of
Customer Retention).
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Linux: [lin]: Linux is an open source
(free sofware) kernel
developed by Linus
Torvalds, and uses software tools developed by the GNU project to comprise an open source
operating system. It mimics the Unix kernel, but was written from scratch with
no proprietary code. Its development cycle has been relatively short (compared
to the proprietary based Windows operating system) and is considered by
some to be technically superior. Due to this, it has become the "poster
child" for the open source community (it stimulated the interest of Eric Raymond and the paper Cathedral and
Bazaar) and free
software in general. While it is commonly referred to as Linux, others
refer to it as GNU/Linux (Richard
Stallman) due to its reliance on other GNU software in order for it to
function (more details here). Linux did prove to
be the "missing link" for the GNU project by providing a usable operating
system kernel, which has been packaged into a complete free software operating
system by other hackers and commercial
distributors (principal commercial distributor: Red Hat). GNUs efforts in this regard (the GNU Hurd) are still on
going. Linux has wide adoption in the much smaller server side operating
system market. Its penetration on the client side (where windows is dominant)
has been limited to the hacker community.
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Lock-in: [loc] Lock-in refers to the ability of companies to ensure their customers do not switch to competitors, thus switching costs can establish lock-in. Switching costs can be established in many ways. The usability of a product can establish lock-in for that product, as customers learn how to use the product, they don't want to reinvest in learning how to use competing products. Wall Street Journal is a good example of trying to establish this type of lock-in. It heavily discounts its product to the education market, hoping that as people get used to getting their business information via the Journal, they will continue to do so after they graduate and begin working. The user interface of digital products are another example of this type of lock-in. The airlines establish lock-in by developing frequent flyer programs. As people fly more with one airline, the benefits they receive increase, in a non-linear fashion.
B2B markets,
that increasingly rely on relationships and long-term contracts are
clearly
prone to lock-in.
Wikipedia
Marginal Costs: [marcost] Marginal costs are the
costs associated with creating an additional unit of product. This is similar
to variable costs,
which are the costs that increase directly with the increase in production
(unlike fixed
costs). Digital
products typically have very low marginal costs, when compared with
traditional goods (materials, labor etc.) and if the product is distributed
via a web site, then the marginal costs can be zero. The consumer is bearing
the distribution costs, and there are no packaging costs. This is why
companies are able to market their products for free on their web sites, in
order to try to entice further purchases at a later time (in the hopes of
creating lock-in
perhaps). Netscape pioneered this approach and was able to offer its versions
of its browser on its web site, changing the way software is marketed. This
enabled them to create significant market share very quickly. They were able
to do this, due to zero marginal costs.
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Marginal Consumer: [marcon] Marginal
Consumers are the consumers that value the product least in terms of it
satisfying
their needs (the value proposition for the product is
weakest among those that
purchase the product). They are most likely to switch to other products to
satisfy their needs, and will be the first in the marketplace to do so, if the
marketplace changes in favor of another product to satisfy the same needs.
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Market: [mark] A market traditionally referred to a place where buyers and sellers met to exchange goods. The exchange is a function of the positive sum relationship of the buyer and seller. A market is now better defined as a group of buyers and sellers for a particular product (a group of people who share a similar need). The advent of technology (industrial revolution) has seen the separation of supply and consumption, hence the broader term for a market.
Types of markets include consumer (the exchange involves the final consumer, also known as B2C); business (exchange involves another organization, also known as B2B); global (exchange involves overseas parties); and government or non-profit. Each of these types of markets includes different marketing challenges, and thus different focuses within the marketing mix.
For markets to be effective, rules (legal framework) need to be
established. Thus as emerging markets (countries) mature, and legal
frameworks are better
established, their respective markets will become more vibrant.
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Marketing Mix: [mix] A Marketing Mix is the combination
of product offerings used to reach a target market for the
organization. The marketing mix comprises the Product (what the actual
offering comprises), Price (the value exchanged for that offering),
Promotion (the means of communicating that offering to the target
audience, promotional mix) and distribution (also known as
Place, the means of having the product offering available to the target
audience). The marketing mix is also known as the four Ps.
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Market Segmentation: [seg] The method of identifying
a group of consumers, within a broader market, that has similar
characteristics and needs. Segments can be identified by examining
demographic, psychographic, and behavioral differences. Thus a car
manufacturer may identify different types of consumers preferring different
styles of cars, so they will segment their car buying markets accordingly.
Perhaps identifying that younger car buyers, with high incomes, will be more
likely to buy a sports car, while an older population of car buyers may be
more apt to purchase a town car. Once these segments are identified, marketers
can develop unique marketing mixes that
target each
segment. For example, the marketer may identify a number of specialty
magazines that
the young affluent market reads, thus they will run their advertisements for
sports cars in these magazines.
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Mass Customization: [mas] Mass Customization is
the ability to produce products, customized to the individual, at a large
scale, at a price that is similar to mass produced products. Mass
customization requires a system for customers to specify their
requirements and a build-to-order approach (thus there is no inventory
in this system). Dell is a good example of a company
that has adopted mass customization. Mass customization is not the same
as personalization, the use of data about an
individual to create a unique
marketing presentation to that individual. MadeForOne.com is a useful
resource for information on Mass Customization and Personalization.
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M-Commerce: [mco] M-Commerce (Mobile Commerce)
refers to access to the internet via a mobile device, such as a cell phone or
a PDA. Once m-commerce becomes ubiquitous (it has greater rates of
acceptance in places like Europe and Japan than it does in the US due
to standards that
have developed (Japan the standard is I-mode, in europe is
WAP),
it will change the utility of the web from a business standpoint. Contextual Marketing,
the ability to communicate with a person when the person is likely to be
receptive to the communication, will further evolve, due to the mobility
of
access versus a PC. GPS
is used to identify where someone is located.
SMS is the
messaging system across mobile devises that complements m-commerce.
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Medium, Media: [med] Medium is the means of communication. Commonly referred to by its plural, media. Typical commercial media are TV, radio, newspapers and magazines. A piece of paper is also a medium, as it can carry a message, communicated between the sender (the author of the note/memo/story) and the receiver (those reading the content of the paper). The internet, and its various components are media.
The web, as a medium, is quite different to other, more traditional, media.
It is a distributed medium, thus the content that the medium
communicates originates from many web servers around the
world (75
million web-sites January 2006).
The web is a non-linear medium. Thus unlike other media, the
consumer controls the navigation, due to the hypertext design. With
other media, the marketer has more control on how the receiver receives the
message. The web is a multi-media medium. This is in terms of its
hyperlinking scheme, and its use of text, audio and video. If one
considers
various components of the web (chat rooms and discussion
boards) and e-mail (actually an aspect of the internet, but enhanced by
the web) then multi-media takes an additional meaning in terms of the types of
communication it fosters. The web is a niche medium, it can satisfy the
needs of those with obscure interests much like it can for those with
mainstream interests. The web is an unobtrusive medium, thus users need
to seek out the website, rather than having the web presence "pushed" to the
consumer (obtrusive, like TV, radio, email etc.) The web is a
self-serve medium. Consumers can use the web, when they want, in order
to satisfy their informational needs. RSS and other
Web 2.0
technologies are now providing a push environment which is
controlled by the consumer.
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Meta Market: [meta] Meta Market is a web-based
market centered around an event or an industry, rather than a single product.
These are markets of complementary products that are closely related in the
minds of consumers, but spread across different industries. The web allows us
to match producers' desire for economies of scale,
and consumers' desire for variety of choice to satisfy a set of needs. Thus we
can have a meta market for a wedding (event) that includes honeymoon
recommendations, sources for engagement rings and wedding gowns. Equally we
can have a meta market for an entire industry (for example chemical industry)
where the industry can trade excess inventory, source new suppliers and find
new vendors. These types of markets are easier to establish in the web world,
than they were before the web, and can prove very effective. Edmunds.com is an example of a meta market
for the auto industry, the knot for
weddings.
Top
Meta Tags: [met] Meta tags are tags that can be
included in HTML source
code in the header section. The
most common meta tags allow the designer to include additional keywords into a
document (keyword meta tag) and specify the text that appears when a search engine includes
the document in its database (subject meta tag). They are therefore useful for
increasing the utility of the document as it is cataloged by a search engine
(SEO). If you click on the View option of your
browser, and
click on source, you can view these two meta tags for this
dictionary.
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Metcalfe's Law: [metc] Metcalfe's Law states the
number of possible cross-connections in a network grow as the square of the
number of computers in the network increases. This is the law that governs network effects. The
original quote, by Robert
Metcalfe:
"The power of the network increases
exponentially by the number of computers connected to it. Therefore, every
computer added to the network both uses it as a resource while adding
resources in a spiral of increasing value and choice."
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Microsoft: [microsoft] Microsoft.com; Wikipedia; Archive
Micropayment: [mic] Micropayments are small
transactions, perhaps of the order of a few cents. They are being
considered for
digital content on the web. For example, a magazine selling an article
(unbundled) rather
than an entire issue (bundled) with
additional information that may not be of interest to the consumer. This may
then create alternate business models for content
providers.
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Monopoly: [mon] Monopoly is a marketplace
structured such that it
is supplied by one marketer, or one marketer has an overwhelming
marketshare. There is thus no material competition in the marketplace. A
monopoly is sometimes mandated (and supported by the government) but is
also oftentimes
not legal and there have been cases where a firm was 'dismantled' by the
FTC
once it was clear it had a monopoly (AT&T in 1982). A monopolistic
company has such advantages over consumers and other firms it tends to 'misbehave'.
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Moore's Law: [moo] Moore's Law posits that the
cost
of technology declines by 50% every 18 months. Gordon
Moore, in 1965, observed
that the number of transistors per square inch on integrated circuits had
doubled every year since the integrated circuit was invented. In subsequent
years, the pace has slowed down a bit, but data density has doubled
approximately
every 18 months, and this is the current definition of Moore's Law, which
Moore himself has blessed.
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MP3 [mp3]: MP3 is a standard file format for
compressed audio. It is able to reduce the file size while, for the most
part, maintaining the integrity of the audio.
It is the adopted file format for podcasting and is
very popular for
iTunes and file sharing sites.
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Multi-Level Marketing [mul]: Multi-level marketing
(MLM) is a marketing system that rewards consumer resellers for the sale
of
the product and for the recruitment of other resellers for the product.
Typically resellers are paid a commission on what they directly sell, and a
smaller commission on their recruits' sales (and their recruits' recruits'
sales etc.) This is the multi-level aspect of the term. Amway and Avon are the
more recognized marketers that use this sales method. With the evolution of
the web, we are seeing internet firms adopting this strategy with a viral marketing style
program. Both viral marketing and MLM programs rely on the connectivity of
consumers. Viral marketing programs do not offer an economic incentive to
attract new customers, unlike MLM programs. Affiliate
programs
are also an example of MLM.
Wikipedia
Napster: [napster] Napster.com; Wikipedia; Archive
Negative and Positive Spirals: [spi] These are events that reinforce each other, either positively or negatively, depending on the situation.
For a positive spiral, a positive event occurs, this triggers another positive event, this then has a positive effect on the first event etc. (known as increasing returns to scale). Thus if someone enters to participate in a network (purchases a fax machine) then that person increases the value of each fax machine in the network, since the fax machine is now more useful. This increased value encourages more people to purchase fax machines, which in turn increases the value of each fax machine, as a user can use it to communicate with more people. This is more commonly known as the fax effect, and while its example is a little dated, the concept still applies for growing networks.
A negative spiral occurs when simultaneous negative events impact each
other. Thus as consumers leave the market place for a product, they can either
decrease the value of the product for those remaining in the marketplace (this
is common for digital (networked) products) and / or increase the price of
the product for the remaining consumers, as the average cost of the
product increases. Either instance with have a further impact on the remaining
consumers, and more consumers may therefore leave the market for the product,
compounding the effect. Once this spiral occurs, many products will inevitably
not survive. The Betamax
standard is a good example of this. Traditional news media are also
falling prey to a negative spiral as people source their news online
and classified advertisements, part of a newspaper's business
model, are also moving online.
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Netiquette: [neti] Netiquette refers to "internet
etiquette." Since the internet does not have a set of rules established by a
government, or an independent agency, it can (potentially) be a pretty chaotic
environment. For such an environment to be effective, those participating need
to follow the etiquette that is established. Thus netiquette refers to an
established set of rules developed by the community itself, rather than an
independent body. Since each participant of the internet has an incentive to
see the internet prosper, we are more likely to want to follow netiquette to
insure future growth of the internet, similar to the prisoners dilemma
scenario. While as an individual, over the short term you may benefit from
violating certain aspects on netiquette (defecting: using spam for example), in
the long run, if everyone adopted such a philosophy, the internet would no
longer be a useful medium, for anyone.
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Networked Economy: [net] This refers to the fact
that as consumers, we are now connected together, through the network of the
internet. This increases the likelihood of consumers sharing information, as
the cost of sharing information decreases and the means for doing so
increases. This has a significant impact on the field of marketing and
brand
management. No longer do marketers control the messages they use to market
their products to consumers. Consumers are now talking to each other and are
becoming a viable source of information for other consumers. The viral marketing effect
occurs due to a networked economy, as information is passed through networks
at great speed. The connectivity that occurs in the market is enhanced as
markets adopt specific communications standards. Once a
standard has been adopted, the market can become more effective. Thus
standards become very important in establishing a market and the subsequent
success of the market in a networked economy.
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Network Effects: [netw] Network effects refers to the notion that as more people participate in a network, the network becomes more valuable to each participant (a significant part of the value of the product/network, are the other participants of the network). This is also known as increasing returns to scale and a positive spiral. This effect is common in digital products, more specifically, products that benefit from the connectivity of the customer base. The fax has been used as a very good example of this. The first fax machine that was made available to the first consumer had no value to that consumer, since there was no one with whom to correspond. Once a second consumer owns a fax machine, each consumer has one person with whom he/she could communicate. When the third fax machine was sold, each owner could now communicate with two people, increasing the value of the product. The "fax effect", as this is known, is governed by Metcalfe's law.
Markets that experience network effects are prone to become more effective
as more people join one network (product in the market) rather than having the
market segmented with many proprietary networks (competitive market). Once
network effects are established, markets tend to tip, favoring the
market leader at the expense of other products in the marketplace. Thus, while
we may not appreciate the dominant position that Microsoft has established in the software
market (and they may have behaved inappropriately as a function of this
dominant
position) there is no doubt that as consumers we are better off using software
that each of us can transfer to each other when communicating with each other,
and when moving from one organization to another (that may require employees
to learn different software packages that accomplish the same tasks (different
word processing packages etc.))
Wikipedia
Open Source: [ope] Open Source is a term, developed in 1997, that represents free software. The term was designed to emphasize the freedom of use aspect of the software (source code is open), and not allow people to assume free meant no cost (which it did not). Aside from the marketing aspect of the new term, there are also differences in the ideologies of the proponents of the open source movement as a "branch" of the free software movement. The open source movement (Eric Raymond et al.) believes that open source should be a business choice, and only appropriate when it makes business sense (Magic Cauldron paper discusses this). The free software movement (evangelized by Richard Stallman) believes that all software should be free, and only if all software is free will free software be truly effective. Since all software development relies on previous "knowledge", and that previous knowledge is public domain, then new knowledge, as a derivitive, should also be free.
While Open Source software must have a no-cost alternative (for it to comply with the open source definition) a marketer can sell a version at a price. (Red Hat's version of the Linux operating system is a great example.) The software releases are done so with the source code, which allows the consumer/user to modify the code for its specific purpose. Users that do modify the code are asked (via the license) to submit any modifications back to the initiators of the project (submitting a patch). This allows any improvements, or resolved bugs, to be included in new releases of the product.
The most important developments thus far in the open source and free software movement has been the evolution of the Linux operating system, started in 1991, and the announcement of Netscape's Mozilla project, in 1997. Firefox is a forked iteration of the Mozilla project.
Wikipedia, used
extensively throughout this dictionary, is an example of an
open source project outside of the software development space. As of
January 2006 it is 5 years old, it has more than 3 million articles and
nearly 800,000 registered users.
Wikipedia
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Opportunity Costs: [opp] Opportunity costs refer to the costs associated with giving up an opportunity. They are relevant in the marketing of digital products when one considers the value lost to the company when giving away a product for free. Since digital goods primarily consist of fixed costs and often have zero marginal costs then marketing strategy often dictates to give-away a version of the product to encourage consumers to upgrade at a later time (assuming lock-in etc.) The only cost incurred here would be the opportunity cost of the lost revenue from the consumers that would have paid for this version of the product in the first place. To avoid this situation, companies typically segment their markets, and offer a free product, with limited functionality (and no customer support or documentation) to a casual user group, and an upgraded version, at a price, with customer support etc. to a more sophisticated customer. The company will hope the casual users will upgrade to the upgraded version as they become more sophisticated users and more reliant on the product. They also assume the sophisticated user will not be satisfied with the free version, due to its lack of functionality.
Examples of companies employing the tactic of giving something away for
free, in the hopes certain users will upgrade, include Blogger and Jot.
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Opt-in/Opt-out: [opt] Opt-in / Opt-out refers to the
mechanism used by marketers to allow users to signal their interest in
receiving information from the web site owner. They are used to develop permission-based
marketing programs. Users have to be careful when transacting with a web site,
often times the site will design the transaction so the user automatically
opts-in to receiving marketing information by not explictly opting out.
Sending mass e-mails to
users who have not
given explicit permission is known as spamming.
Typically an opt-in process will generate a smaller, but more qualified,
list of users.
Wikipedia
Patch: [pat] A patch is an addition to a piece
of software
program, used either to repair the software (fix a bug), or submitted for
inclusion in updated versions in the case of open source software.
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Patent: [pat] A patent is a form of protection
afforded the inventor of a process. It is a form of intellectual property
protection (copyright protects ideas, patents protect
processes /
inventions.) A patent holder can provide a license to
establish use of
the protected invention by others.
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PayPal: [paypal] PayPal.com; Wikipedia
Peer-to-Peer: [pee] Peer-to-peer refers to the design of a service that does not rely on centralized networking services such as DNS to connect end users' computers. This design accounts for the unpredictable accessibility of these end nodes in making connections between users. Traditional networks follow a spoke-and-wheel design, where the network is organized around a central hub, the site's users come to interact with that hub from client workstations. In peer-to-peer applications, many or all of the functions performed in connecting a traditional, server-based, network are off-loaded to the client machines connected to the network.
Filesharing is a use of peer-to-peer technology. It takes advantage of the end users' storage and retrieval capabilities across individual networks that includes other users of a filesharing system (for example, early Napster and the gnutella network).
Think of a WWW model being a 24-hr shopping mall. The stores are web sites.
They are always there. You can always go to the same place to find the same
items. Peer-to-peer is more of a bazaar where the vendors come and go as they
please. You never know what you'll find until you get there. The products
aren't in the same place every time. All these wondering gypsies could pack up
and leave town tomorrow and you'd be out there in the mall again, trying to
track down where they went so you could go, too.
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Permission Marketing: [per] Permission Marketing
refers to a communications process, between the marketer and the consumer,
that the consumer gave "permission" to the marketer to participate. This is
becoming more common with the web, as consumers "opt-in" to a mailing
list from a company's web-site. This allows the marketer to develop an ongoing
dialog, in order to build a positive relationship and communicate messages
relevant to the marketer's product. Product information, combined with
additional incentives (prizes or other rewards) can be used. Seth Godin is a
pioneer in this area.
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Personalization: [pers] Personalization is the
ability of a web-site to present content that is unique to the individual
(client machine) viewing the
content. This unique content is based on the individual's past behaviour
with the site. Tools for web-site personalization include the
cookie
file which identifies the user; server-side
scripting (this allows the presentation of data, stored in the
company's databases, to be presented dependent on the cookie file)
and collaborative filtering (makes predictions on
preferences based on similar customers' preferences).
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Phishing: [phi] Phishing refers to the act of
trying to gain sensitive data from a user by sending the individual an
e-mail that requests an update to an account of a legitimate web-site
(eBay, Amazon for example), i.e.
a trusted source.
While the web-site is legitimate that the e-mail requests the
individual
to update, the request is not. The actual update occurs on a site other
than
the site noted in the e-mail, which is gathering the data
to exploit for illegitimate purposes (identity theft
for example). A user
can identify such a request by looking at the URL to
which the site is pointing that is making the request. If the URL 'appears' to be from the
legitimate site, then it is an image, masking the site that is gathering
the data. Phishing tactics are responsible for a portion of e-mail
spam.
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Platform: [pla] A platform is an environment needed
to run a piece of software. Thus the Windows Operating System serves as a
platform for the Windows Office Suite. Further a browser would be considered a
platform that a plug-in would need for
it to function (thus Internet Explorer is a platform for Windows Media Player
and Real Networks).
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Plug-In [plu] Plug-in refers to additional software
that is required to execute a transaction via a web browser. Thus if the
webpage is designed to run with something that is not standard to the browser,
the viewer needs to download an additional plug-in. This may be used to run
enhanced graphics (Flash), sound (Real Audio) or 3D (Cosmo Player), or other
such rich media
applications. Before designing a site to require a plug-in, it is
important to note
how much of your target
audience has the additional plug-in, the likelihood of those not having
the plug-in downloading it, and whether the design functions without the
plug-in (i.e. does the additional feature(s) compliment or replace the
information design of the site). As the web browser develops, the requirements
of use of plug-ins will diminish, so this is a temporary situation. It is
advised not to require the use of plug-ins on the homepage, especially
if the information from the plug-in is required to meet the informational
goals of the site.
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Podcasting [pod]: Podcasting is a term used for
broadcasting audio and video files (MP3) over the
internet that includes two
features. The content has an RSS feed, which enables
users to subscribe
(thus the content is pushed out to the subscribers) and the content syncs
with an audio device such as an iPod (hence the name).
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Pop-up Advertisements [pop]: Pop-up advertisements
are a form of internet advertisements
that appear in a separate window, either as a
full screen (but behind the current window, and also known as a Pop-under ad.)
or partial screen (over laying the current window). These advertisements,
similar to some interstitial advertisements, do
require the user to take some
form of action (even if it is to simply close the window). The benefits are
the user can simply continue to browse the web without being interrupted, yet
still engage an action with the advertisement if desired, at a later time
(unlike other forms of web advertising). Balancing this, they do create
another window in the user's screen, that the user did not request, this can
be considered somewhat annoying.
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Portable: [por] Portable refers to the ease of
mobility of the medium. A portable
medium is one that can be carried with the consumer, wherever the consumer is.
Newspapers and magazines are more portable that the TV or the web, the radio
falls between the extremes. As the web becomes wireless, its portability (and
hence utility) will increase. As the web migrates to portable
devices (cell phones and PDAs) m-commerce will
evolve.
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Portal [port]: Portal refers to the entry point
webpage for a particular theme; whether it be an industry (chemical or auto
industry sales perhaps) or an occasion (wedding purchases). Portals serve as
the one-stop-shop starting point to execute all transactions within the theme.
They are also referred to as an infomediary.
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Positive Sum Relationship: [pos] A positive sum
relationship is a relationship between two entities which are, as a sum,
better off from the participation of that relationship. This is in contrast to
a zero sum relationship, where the outcome of the relationship is a gain for
one participant at the direct expense of the other. Examples of positive sum
relationships can be found in business transactions (trade in general) and in
biology (bumblebee and the flower). Long term positive sum relationships are
also known as symbiotic
relationships. Zero sum relationships can also been seen in biology (the
food chain) and in games, such as chess and checkers. Game Theory tries to
predict best decision making outcomes based on the relationships of
participants, and the consequence of decisions based on positive sum
relationships or zero sum relationships.
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Pre-Money Valuation: [premoney] Pre-Money
Valuation refers to the value of the company before an outside investment is
made. Thus if a company has a pre-money valuation of $5 million, and a Venture Capitalist
invests $10 million, then the Venture Capital firm will own 66% of the
business after the investment ($10M / $15M = 66%)
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priceline: [priceline] priceline.com; Wikipedia; Archive
Prisoners Dilemma: [pri] Prisoners Dilemma is a popular game theory model. It is a game between two players that is designed to see how one player reacts to another player's decision. The following is a good description of the scenarios the game provides. The choices for each move are to either cooperate or to defect, and depending on the combination of both players' decisions, points for the move are assigned to each player as follows:
If players A and B both defect, each gets 1 point
If player A defects,
and player B cooperates, A receives 5 points, B receives 0
If player B
defects, and player A cooperates, B receives 5 points, A receives 0
If
players A and B both cooperate, each receives 3 points.
Unlike a zero-sum game (chess for instance) cooperation becomes the best
solution. The problem is, for single moves, regardless of the decision of the
other player, the best decision is to defect. It has been shown (Axelrod) that
the best outcome of this game is for a player is to adopt a "tit for tat"
strategy that begins with a cooperative move (this assumes a long term
relationship is involved!) This can be applied to players involved in a symbiotic relationship
such as entrepreneurs and venture capitalists!
It is also very important in alliance forming for the standards setting
process.
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Privacy: [priv] Due to the need to disclose data during transactions (unless for cash or smart card transactions), privacy can be compromised. An individual's Rights to Privacy is becoming more of an issue as businesses are increasingly able to gather data and use data for multiple purposes. With the internet, privacy issues are exacerbated, as data is not only captured more easily during transactions, but data gathering is not exclusive to transactions (sites can track your movements etc.).
The customer should better understand four things with respect to data tranfer:
- How data is gathered?
- What data is gathered?
- When data is gathered?
- How data is being used subsequent to gathering?
Gathering data about a customer can often lead to a better service provided by the company. Thus there is a tension between the need to gather data (privacy concerns) and the need to provide a better service to customers (better personalization for example).
Aside from the need to offer data as part of a transaction, another issue with respect to privacy is the ability for "outsiders" to view data that was not intended for them (either data that is stored or in transit). Cryptography is the field that is designed to protect information from those with whom it is not intented. Identity theft is also a growing issue with the activities of phishing.
Google is starting to
create concerns for privacy advocates. Its gmail
product runs advertisements based on the content of
e-mails
received. This
created concerns about the privacy of e-mail content. You can type in a
telephone number to the search engine and get the name and address of its
owner (as well as a map of the destination). Google also has a lot of
search pattern data at its disposal. Users trust Google will keep this
private.
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Product Line: [pro] Product line is a collection
of products, offered by a firm, that satisfy similar needs for different
target audiences. Thus all products within a product line are related, but
may vary in terms of size, color, quality etc. The product line is part
of the broader product mix, which is the full suite of products offered by
the company.
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(Consumer) Purchasing Process: [pur] The purchasing process refers to the entire process a consumer will go through before making a purchase. A simple model follows:
- Consumer Awareness (understands there is such a market/product)
- Interest (consumer learns more about the value of the product)
- Desire (consumer understands the need for the product)
- Action (consumer makes a decision to purchase a product)
The Consumer Purchasing Process contrasts to the Business to Business
Process that requires the following stages: Problem Recognition; General Need
Description; Product Specification; Supplier Search; Proposal Solicitation;
Supplier Selection; Order Routine Specification; Performance Review, and also
requires many people involved in the decision making process.
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Pure Play Business: [pure] Pure Play Business refers to a business that was established for the web, but had no prior physical presence. Amazon.com and eBay are examples of pure play businesses. This is in contrast to a Legacy Business, these businesses are the traditional businesses that also use the web (Walmart).
Reach of Communication: [rea] Reach refers to the
number of people a communications can reach. TV typically has high reach,
although cable programs are more focused and therefore the reach is more
limited as the programs are more targeted. A
salesperson typically has a reach
of one at a time. Reach of communication is usually a trade-off with richness of
communication. The web is the first medium that breaks this relationship, and
allows for reach and richness simultaneously.
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redhat: [redhat] redhat.com; Wikipedia; Archive
Referrer URL: [ref] Referrer URL refers to the
URL of the web page that preceded the page in question.
It is useful to know the referrer URL as this allows you to understand how
users are finding the web page and which external pages are linking to
you. You can also see which keywords are being used to
discover your
site from search engines. It is a part of web analytics.
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Relationship Marketing: [rel] Relationship
marketing, refers to the notion of marketing to a customer with the
expectation of a long-term relationship. This removes the need to focus on
each individual transaction needing to be profitable, but rather the
relationship, over its lifetime, be profitable. Marketers are now able to segment their target markets to the
individual consumer (one-to-one marketing) and understand the value each
consumer can bring to the relationship (life time value of the
customer). Relationship marketing also focuses on customer share, versus
market share. The share of the customer dollar, rather than the number of
customers within the market. Relationships between the buyer and the seller
are also likely to incur lower transaction costs.
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Reverse Pricing Model: [rev] Reverse Pricing Model
refers to a model that allows the consumer to establish his/her requirements
and offer those requirements for bid by the seller. Thus rather than the
seller marketing a product to the buyer, the reverse occurs.
Priceline has pioneered this model in the
consumer marketplace, using airline tickets as the product. This model further
reflects the changing power in the market from the supplier to the consumer.
When this model can be effectively combined with the group buying model
one can envision powerful groups of buyers creating interesting demands on
companies.
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RFID: [rfi] Radio Frequency Identification
(RFID) is a system that allows for the tracking of a product, with an
appropriate tag, throughout its lifecycle. It is useful in the supply chain of a
company, it is also useful once the product has been sold to understand
its subsequent uses. The latter creates privacy
concerns.
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Rich Media: [rich] Rich media refers to media on
the web that offers an enhanced, interactive experience. VRML for 3 D,
Macromedia Flash and Shockwave would be good examples of languages for rich
media. The Rich Media SIG is a good
resource for emerging technologies. Rich media is often used for banner advertisements,
for homepage's and
for e-mail communications. It is important, however, for designers considering
the use of rich media, to understand the audience they are designing for, and
make sure the audience has access to the information being conveyed via the
rich media (browsers do not have many rich media technologies built into their
viewing capabilities, therefore plug-ins are
required). Many successful e-commerce web-sites, like Amazon.com, avoid rich media, and use a
lowest common denominator design strategy.
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Richness of Communication: [ric] The richness of communication refers to the depth and interactivity of the communication. The ability to use multimedia to present compelling information to the consumer.
While a TV commercial may be able to take advantage of audio, visual and
text, it can only present a generic presentation to a broad audience, this is
therefore not tailored to the individual consumer. Moreover, the TV is not
interactive, further limiting the richness of the communication as the
consumer cannot transact with the marketer. A sales person can develop a very
rich presentation, based on the specific needs of the individual customer. The
sales person can also execute a transaction during the presentation. This is a
very rich medium. The web is also a very rich medium, as it is able
to take advantage of multimedia, present information based on the individual
and execute transactions. Richness of communication is usually a trade-off
with reach of
communication. The web is the first medium that breaks this relationship, and
allows for reach and richness simultaneously.
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RSS: [rss] RSS (Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication) is a means of distributing dynamic content (content syndication), using the XML format, to subscribers of that content. In order for a user to subscribe, he / she will need to sign up for a news reader aggregator (Bloglines etc.)
RSS has become a popular technology for bloggers and
podcasters to distribute their content, essentially
'pushing' content out to subscribers of the content
rather than relying on readers to visit the site to determine if there is new content. RSS is also useful for news
organizations which publish content as a matter of their business model (and update regularly). Examples include
CNN and India Times. It would be useful
for companies that publish news releases of newsletters for subscribers in e-mail form. While RSS does require a reader to
subscribe to a news aggregator before accessing content
(this may soon be bundled with the web browser which
will surely impact its rate of adoption) it avoids the problem plaguing e-mail distribution of content: SPAM.
Wikipedia
Scalable: [sca] Scalable refers to the ease and
flexibility of increasing the output of a given product, or the reach of a
medium (marginal
cost of increasing output or reach). The cost of increasing output
(the reach
of a medium) by one unit. If this is insignificant (or zero!) then the
product/medium is highly scalable. The web and digital
products are highly
scalable.
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Search Engine: [sea] Search engines are web sites that are designed to allow you to search across the web. Search engines are a type of infomediary. Google is now clearly the most popular search engine. It trumped Altavista due to better results based on its PageRank algorithm. Yahoo! is a distant second. Amazon's A9 search engine is emerging as an interesting alternative. Among its features, it takes into account a user's previous search behaviour in an attempt to personalize the search.
Search engines rely on web designers to submit their pages to the engine, and on a spider that crawls the web to identify new sites. Search Engine Optimization is becoming a critical internet marketing activity.
Search is one of the most popular acitivities on the web for web surfers. It is second only to e-mail, 90% of internet users performing searches. US usage has grown 55% from 2004 to 2005.
Search engines are an increasingly popular source of advertising space. Since people are using search engines to seek out information and go elsewhere on the web, this fits with hypertext advertisements. Emerging search engine advertising programs include Google Adwords and Yahoo! / Overture (which was goto.com the pioneer of ppc search engine advertising). These are PPC advertising programs that host text advertisements.
Traditional search engines provide results based on the relevancy of the
site to the keywords searched. Blog entries will
also appear among the results in the traditional search engines,
however there are blog search engines that only search the
blogosphere. These search engines base their output on
time. The most recent entry written, that includes the keyword, is thus
the first entry returned. Major blog engines include Technorati, Google Blog Search and
Feedster.
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Search Engine Marketing (SEM): [searm] SEM
comprises SEO and search engine advertising. Search
engine advertising, in its current model, typically uses text-based
advertisements that the marketer bids on based on the keywords the
marketer wants to associate with the advertisement (contextual
advertising). The business model is typically PPC. Goto.com pioneered the PPC model for search engine
advertising. Goto.com was purchased by Overture which was ultimately
purchased by Yahoo! Google's Google Adwords is the main
competitor. Both these networks supply advertisements for other sites.
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Search Engine Optimization (SEO): [searo] SEO refers to the art of designing a web-site for better listings in search engines. This includes ensuring you have the appropriate keywords in the body text of the site, in the title tag and the meta tags. Google's PageRank algorithm also rewards sites that have inbound links, and even considers the anchor text of the inbound links. Search engines also reward sites with fresh content. Regularly updated blogs therefore serve as a good SEO tool.
SEO has spawned
a number of spamming efforts, which includes link spam (generating
inbound links) a subset of
spamdexing.
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Semantic Web: [sem] The semantic web is a
reference to the efforts to apply machine-readable meaning to the web. The
web's meaning is for the most part designed to be understood by human's,
HTML is primarily used for visual presentation.
Adding meaning for machines will make searching the web for appropriate
content more accessible. An early example of adding meaning, using HTML,
are the use of meta tags. Tags (Technorati
Tags) are now being used in
the blogosphere to help better categorize blog
postings.
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(Web) Server: [ser] The server refers to the host of
the information on the web. A software that runs on the server side is used to
manage the information on the server. This is in contrast to the client-side, which
refers to the user
interface of the information (web).
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Server-side Scripting: [serv] Server-side
scripting allows web designers to present dynamic content, that is useful
for personalization. PHP, .ASP and Javascript are
popular scripting languages. They allow for content to be drawn from
databases, that are also dependent on the client cookie
file. Amazon is a
common example of this type of process.
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Shopping Cart Abandonment: [shop] Shopping Cart
Abandonment refers to the loss of a customer who is going
through the check-out process of an online transaction. Some statistics
suggest that this can be
as high as 75%.
It is principally caused by poor usability of the site and the check-out
process (too time consuming, too many clicks), and hidden shipping
charges.
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Shopping Cart Technology: [sho] Shopping Cart
Technology provides turnkey solutions for e-tail sites. These
solutions include web site connectivity with a product database, capability
for users to "store" purchase intent before the final transaction (this
requires interaction with your cookie file) and
payment processing.
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Signature File: [sig] The signature file (also known
as the .sig file) is a file that can be incorporated into your e-mail such
that each time you send an e-mail, the file is attached at the bottom. This
can be considered as a replacement for the letterhead of your company.
It
should include your contact information, and should be no longer than four
lines (according to netiquette). It is
considered poor netiquette to create
a signature file that is greater than the length of the e-mail message!!
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Silicon Valley: [sil] Silicon Valley refers to the
region of Northern California which serves as a hotbed for entrepreneurship.
Hewlett
Packard essentially served as the catalyst for this region, in the
1930s. It is the home for many notable high-tech firms, a major part of
the venture capital
community and Stanford University.
Due to the symbiotic
relationships between entrepreneurship, venture capital and Stanford
University, a robust ecosystem has evolved.
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Skype: [skype] Skype.com; Wikipedia; Archive
Smart Card: [sma] Smart Card refers to a card that
includes an imbedded chip that can store data. Since smart cards can store
data, they can be used in transactions that allow the consumer to remain
anonymous (data storage with the consumer, not the company) which is a key
benefit for those concerned with their privacy. Smart Cards
have not reached full adoption at this point, (higher rate of adoption in
Europe versus U.S.) The Smart Card
Alliance is an alliance of industry leaders working for the widespread
acceptance of Smart Card technology.
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SMS: [sms] SMS refers to the standard adopted for text messaging via a
cell phone. This allows people on separate networks to send text messages
across networks. SMS supplements standards being developed for m-commerce.
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Source Code: [sou] The source code refers to the programming code that is written to develop the program, oftentimes it is compiled before it is run, therefore unviewable to the end user. Once the program is compiled, it is readable by a machine, but very difficult for a programmer to understand. All free software (open source) programs are distributed with the source code as well as the compiled object code.
One nice thing about writing web documents is you can see the source code
for the page you are viewing. This allows you to more easily learn
html. If
you are using internet explorer to view this page, simply click on the
edit option at the top of the page, then select source. A
similar process works with Firefox.
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Spam: [spa] Spam is the term used for unsolicited e-mail sent by marketers and individuals who typically have purchased an e-mail mailing list. The first major internet spam actually occured when two attorney's, Canter and Siegel, spammed usenet news groups with their green card lawyer offer. View EFF's Canter & Siegel Green Card Lottery Net. The problem with spam is it can make the communications vehicle, whether the e-mail inbox, the usenet newsgroup, or the web discussion board, useless, as it becomes difficult to identify good information from spam. Spam should not be confused with marketing messages you receive via a permission-based marketing program, where you have elected to receive information from a company. However, some companies are reasonably tricky in terms of how they use the opt-in option to get customers to give permission (often as one of the final steps of a transaction), so while permission is granted, the customer's intent to grant permission is not always there.
The following is an interesting overview of the Origin of the term "spam".
Spam can also refer to the notion of spamming a search engine.
Spamdexing refers
to all the means of spamming search engines, link spam refers to
creating additional inbound links to a site to try to increase a search
engine ranking.
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(Web) Spider: [spid] A spider (also known as a
crawler) is used by a search engine to identify web
pages in order to be cataloged in the database of the search engine (web
site designers can also submit web pages to be cataloged in a search
engine). Spiders therefore help search engines to keep up with the
evolution of web content by crawling through the web seeking new sites.
To control spiders in terms of cataloging a web site, a designer can
include a robots.txt file that instructs a spider to exclude pages that are
not to be cataloged.
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y
Spyware: [spy] Spyware is software downloaded
on
a computer that 'spies' on the user and reports user bahaviour to a third
party and or takes control of the computer. Spyware does this without
disclosure. Adware
can sometimes be
confused with spyware, but adware operates with full disclosure and may
report data to a third party. Spyware is an obvious concern for privacy
advocates, and is a type of malware.
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Stock Options: [sto] Stock Options are options,
usually given to employees, to purchase stock in the company at a future date.
The price of the option is established, thus if the company's stock price
rises above the option price, the owner of the option is able to take
advantage of the stock
increase (current stock price - established stock price). Options therefore
work well for high growth companies and are used to increase loyalty of early
stage employees. They are also used to replace some part of the salary which
helps reduce the company's cash flow (burn rate). Stock
options may vest
over multiple periods of time. Thus a certain amount of the options become
available at certain stages.
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Standards: [sta] Standards are very important in order to establish a robust networked marketplace (A marketplace that relies on connectivity across consumers and multiple vendors etc.) If a market is fragmented with incompatible proprietary standards, it is not effective in serving all customers and businesses alike. Once a standard is established, the market may increase in size significantly.
The VCR market is an interesting example. In the early 1980s, two competing standards were evolving, Betamax and VHS. Betamax was considered the superior technology. For two standards to survive in the marketplace, either consumers would have to purchase two types of devices to view videos, or filmakers would have to release their videos to both formats. Clearly either option is inefficient and creates additional costs to the market. VHS, a technology originally marketed by JVC, was actually licensed to other vendors (alliance forming). This strategy enabled the technology to gain significant marketshare over a superior technology, but since Betamax was limited to only one platform, it was not able to survive. Once the tipping point was reached, and the positive cycle took effect, VHS became the standard, and Betamax disappeared (no videos, no VCR, negative cycle!)
Standards can be proprietary, owned by one company (or a group of
companies), i.e. Wintel. Standards can also be open, designed to
increase the utility of the marketplace, where companies then compete within a
larger marketplace. Examples of standards setting bodies in the open format
include W3C (evolution of HTML) and Web3D (evolution of a 3D standard). In order
to develop open standards, alliances across competing firms need to form.
Alliance formation is a political process, that involves aspects of game theory.
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Sunk Costs: [sun] Sunk costs refer to costs that are non-recoverable fixed costs. Digital products usually have significant sunk costs (when compared to other fixed costs) in the form of research & development and intellectual property (copyright, patents etc.) for the product. If the product is not successful in the marketplace, the costs associated with the the product development (intellectual property, labor) cannot be recovered. Thus when making pricing decisions about the product in the future, one should not factor in the sunk costs. If a product's cost structure is made up of sunk costs (no other fixed costs) and zero marginal costs then any price above zero will contribute to the company's bottom line. Other fixed costs, that are not sunk (rent, depreciation on equipment etc.) should be factored in when making pricing decisions in the future, since these are ongoing costs to the company. The company will continue to have to pay these costs in the future, this is not the case for sunk costs.
The development of the Netscape browser is a good example of a product whose cost structure was comprised primarily of sunk costs. Regardless of the success of the product in the market, the major parts of the costs were already expended (product development). This enabled Netscape tremendous flexibility as it used its web site to allow users to download the product for free (actually it was not free, but Netscape did not pursue individual consumers for sales revenue). The only type of cost this presented to Netscape was the opportunity costs of lost sales from those who downloaded the browser for free. These free downloads enabled Netscape to build market share quickly, thus establishing first mover advantage and significant market leadership (for a short time!)
Another example of a sunk cost is the cost of a seat on an airplane to the
airline. The cost of an airline seat is primarily fixed and sunk (as
long as
one assumes the flight was going to take place regardless of whether the seat
was sold) with a small portion attributed to variable costs if one
considers the food and beverage service. Thus it makes sense for the airline
to develop a pricing structure designed to maximize the revenue of the
aircraft during a flight. They can do this by changing their pricing depending
on the demand for a particular flight, and by offering additional benefits to
their frequent flyers (to upgrade etc.) Essentially, as long as the price of a seat covers the variable
cost of the seat, its revenue will contribute to the bottom line of the
airline. This assumes opportunity costs are
not a factor.
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Streaming Media: [str] Streaming media is media
that can be played as it is being downloaded. This is useful for audio
and video on the web as it reduces the inevitable delay involved in downloading large
files. Streaming media is used for live broadcasts via the web.
Wikipedia
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Symbiotic Relationship: [sym] A symbiotic relationship is a relationship between two entities which is mutually beneficial for the participants of the relationship. Thus there is a positive-sum gain from cooperation. This is a term commonly used in biology to explain the relationship between two entities that need each other to survive and prosper. The bumblebee and the flower would be an example. The bumble bee extracts the flower's pollen for protein and its nectar for energy. The bumblebee, while collecting these sources, inadvertently brushes pollen from one flower to another to ensure the flower's reproduction process begins. The bumblebee needs the flower to survive, the flower needs the bumblebee to survive. These are positive sum relationships. Other relationships in biology, especially with respect to the food chain, are not so forgiving, a zero sum relationship. One 'acter' clearly benefits from the other (typically consumes the other). In this type of relationship, it is still essential that both players (as species not individuals) survive, or the dominant player will lose its food supply, and therefore die. If the foxes kill all the chickens, the foxes die as they lose their source of survival. If the predator kills all its prey, the predator will die.
One can see a symbiotic relationship between Venture Capitalists
and Entrepreneurs. Venture Capitalists need early stage investment
opportunities. These are provided by entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs need
investment capital to develop their ideas, these are provided by the Venture
Capital community. Thus both industries benefit from each others'
participation, a positive sum game. It is important that each keeps this in
perspective, as if one industry tried to exert additional pressure (prisoners dilemma!)
then in the short term they may be better off, but the long term survival of
the relationship would be put at risk if it meant that the other player may
not survive.
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Supply Chain: [sup] Supply Chain refers to the
distribution channel of a product, from its sourcing, to its
finished good status. The value chain comprises the supply chain and the
distribution channel(s) (finished good to consumer). The supply chain is
typically
comprised of multiple companies who are increasingly coordinating activities
y via extranets.
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Switching Costs: [swi] Switching Costs refer to the notion of the hidden costs a consumer is faced when switching from one product to another in the marketplace. Consumers should really try to factor in the switching costs when making purchasing decisions, since these impact purchasing decisions they may be faced with in the future (limiting freedom of choice). Switching costs are developed by companies in order to try to establish lock-in.
The airlines have a good understanding of switching costs consumers face,
and have developed the frequent flyer program to raise switching costs and
increase loyalty among their installed-bases.
Digital products can
establish switching costs in a variety of ways, including user interfaces, user
training, accumulated data storage that can lead to better
personalization.
Wikipedia
Target Marketing: [tar] Communicating with a
specific group of consumers with similar characteristics, within a
broader
group of consumers who purchases a type of product. Market Segmentation is
the process of target marketing. Once target market(s) are identified, the
organization develops a product offering (marketing mix) that is
positioned to be attractive to that segment.
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TCP/IP: [tcp] TCP/IP stands for transmission
control protocol and internet protocol. It is the
basic language of network communication that allows all computers, anywhere in
the world, to understand each other. It is the open standard that
allowed the internet to evolve.
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Tesco: [tesco] Tesco.com; Wikipedia; Archive
Text Advertisements: [text] Text
advertisements are
text links that are paid for by the sponsors of the target page of the
advertisement. They are a form of advertisement that
can be considered more contextual (assuming
the text link is relevant to the subject of the web page), and less obtrusive
than other forms of advertising on the
web. Text advertisements can also be used for affiliate advertising
and the emerging search engine advertising programs from Google Adwords and Overture.
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Text Messaging: [tex] Text messaging refers to
sending short text messages from a mobile phone to other mobile phone users
using the SMS
standard. This is becoming an increasingly popular form of communication
outside of the United States. This is due to the economics of text messaging
versus being online. Key advantages of text messaging (versus being online)
include a user's ability to text people independent of computer access, rather
than only being able to communicate when logged onto the internet, it's less
intrusive than a phone call, and it is less expensive than a phone call. Text
messaging is a form of asynchronous
communication.
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Tipping Point: [tip] The tipping point is the point at which the growth of the company's installed-base accelerates significantly. It occurs with products that are able to take advantage of viral marketing.
A tipping point can also refer to the nature of the market, and how its
balance turns to favor one company over another. Thus once one company
experiences a positive
spiral from network effects, its
competitor(s) will experience a negative spiral, and the market will have
tipped to favor the market leader. This may lead to a winner takes all
scenario, where the balance of the market clearly favors one company over all
others.
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Title Tag: [tit] The title tag (of HTML)
refers to
the element in the header that allows the
developer to create a title for the document. This title is used for pages
that link to the web page, including search engines and users' bookmarks / favorites
list. The title needs to be very descriptive in order to encourage users
to click-through to the webpage. The title should not be confused with heading
tags within the page, that are viewed by the user on the page. The title
does
not actually appear on the page. The title tag can be considered similar to
the subject header of an e-mail in terms of its utility and function.
The title tag is important 'real estate' for keywords
for search engine
optimization.
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Trademark: [tra] Trademark is a term, sign or symbol that distinguishes one company, and one product, from another. This is a form of intellectual property, that needs to be protected in order not to confuse consumers when making choices. Protecting the trademark also helps develop the company's brand.
Trademark holders have realised the importance of protecting their
rights to their respective domain names. Cybersquatting is the
deliberate attempt to
acquire specific domain names with the hope of reselling them at a higher
price, oftentimes to the trademark holder. Trademark law is typically
implemented at the national level, which creates problems for the global
internet. However harmonization via bodies like the WTO helps with cross
national dispute resolution.
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Trojan Horse: [tro] A trojan horse, similar to a
virus, infects a user's machine by "appearing" to be a
useful program (electronic greeting card, screen saver etc.) that users
willingly forward to other users, unaware of the hidden maliciousness of
the file.
Wikipedia
Unique Page Views: [uni] Unique Page Views refers to
the number of unique users that access a page. This is determined by a
combination of the IP
address of the user accessing the page and the cookie file. Thus the
unique page views metric is designed to calculate the number of individuals
exposed to a page over a period of time, rather than the number of times the
page is served, which is the number of impressions.
Unique page views are a part of web analytics.
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URL: [url] URL (Universal Resource Locator) is the
web address of a web page. Thus the URL for this document is
http://www.udel.edu/alex/dictionary.html This is comprised of the domain name
www.udel.edu, the directory alex and the filename
dictionary.html Many times you will see a URL that ends with either the
domain name or the subdirectory, this is achieved by using an index.html
filename.
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User Interface: [use] User Interface refers to the
intersection of the techical aspect of a system and its users. Users could be
internal to the business / system (customer service support) or external to
the business / system (customers). The design of the user interface typically
has a significant impact on the performance of the system. Users of a system
also learn how to use the system over time, so good usability can help to
create lock-in to
the business for the customer. A business' homepage is an example
of a user interface, as is any other webpage hosted by the business.
Wikipedia
Value Proposition: [val] Value Proposition
refers to the marketer's offering to the marketplace. It states the
target market for the offering and the differentiating
value the offering provides to its customers.
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Variable Costs: [var] Variable costs refer to the
costs that are associated directly with the number of units of product that
are produced. For example, the materials used in making a product are
considered variable costs of a product. Each product requires X amount of
material, the costs associated with that material is considered variable (X *
number of units produced) since the total cost to the firm changes depending
on the number of units produced. The more products produced, the greater the
costs incurred. This is in contrast to fixed costs which are
costs that are fixed over a number of units produced (factory rent etc.) Digital products
typically have only a small portion of their cost structure as variable
costs
(when compared with traditional manufactured goods). These are typically costs
associated with packaging and customer support. Break even analysis,
which is a tool that determines the volume at which a company must sell a
product in order to break even, distinguishes between fixed and variable costs
in its calculations.
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(Marketing) Vehicle: [veh] Vehicle refers to
a host
that is used to carry an advertising message. Thus with the TV, a TV program
(Seinfeld for example) would represent a particular vehicle, that attracts a
specific target
audience and is priced at a certain level. In the case of the web,
websites that host advertisements
can be considered vehicles (Google,
Yahoo! Wired etc.) Other business-related sites
on
the web are those focused on marketing and business transactions, rather than
on developing compelling content that attracts an audience in order to sell
advertising space.
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Venture Capital: [ven] The Venture Capital (VC) Industry is a major source of funding for the entrepreneurial community. The industry itself has evolved over a number of years, but has only recently emerged as a popular career for many new MBAs. The industry focus is on early stage, pre-IPO funding opportunities. Typically a fund will be raised, that will be invested in a number of different opportunities, that are reasonably high risk. In return for the investment, the VC receives an equity stake in the business. The VC also helps the business develop its management team, and takes seats on the board of the company. VCs are typically interested in making few large investments, due to the manpower needed to support each investment (recruiting and board seats). They focus not only on the business opportunity that is presented to them, but closely on the management team that is offered (human capital is clearly becoming the differentiating advantage of any business at this point!) In order for an entrepreneur to have an audience with a VC, s/he needs to have a pre-existing connection (a reference to the VC). Without this, the VC is less likely to review the business plan. This further supports the notion that the VC and entrepreneurial community in Silicon Valley is an ecosystem that benefits from the mutual relationships that are already established, and is resistent to outsiders looking in (almost a closed system!)
A recent growth of alternative sources of pre-IPO investment is
emerging from
Angel
Investors.
These are typically successful entrepreneurs (cashed-out) who
are looking for additional investment opportunities in order to remain
connected to the entrepreneurial community.
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Vesting: [ves] Vesting refers to the ability to
monetize the investment in stock options. Thus if
your options are available in three years, they vest in three
years.
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Viral Marketing: [vir] Is a marketing technique that takes advantage of a marketer's customers in promoting the product. This technique was pioneered by Hotmail. Hotmail launched its free web-based e-mail service with the tag line (at the bottom of each e-mail) "Get your free e-mail at Hotmail." As customers used this e-mail service, and were e-mailing others, they were effectively sending an advertisement for the product. This attracted new customers, who repeated the process. Once a critical mass of consumers were using Hotmail, a tipping point was reached, where the number of new users started to increase non-linearly. Hotmail soon became the fastest growing media company in history. Illustrations of its success include it being the leading provider of e-mail service in India, without having a physical presence in India.
Hotmail is a good illustration as it is a product that takes advantage of the connectivity of its customer-base and their connectivity to other potential customers via e-mail. This external connectivity attracted new customers. Connectivity can also occur via other web-based media such as discussion boards and blogs.
The term viral marketing comes from biology and the notion of how a virus spreads. A virus spreads very slowly within its host, until it reaches a critical mass (tipping point,) at that point it spreads through the host quickly.
Multi-Level
Marketing (MLM) has some similarities to viral marketing, in terms of
taking advantage of the connectivity of customers with potential customers,
but MLM offers a direct incentive for customers to recruit additional
customers.
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Virtual Domain: [virt] A Virtual Domain is a domain name which is
associated with an IP
address, but is not the primary domain name for that IP address. This is
used by web hosting companies to provide web hosting services for web sites
whose addresses are not part of the hosting company's domain. Therefore when
selecting a web host provider, you are not limited to using their domain name
as part of your URL. Use of virtual
domains means that an individual server does not have to exist for each
individual domain name.
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Virus: [viru] A virus, a term "borrowed" from
biology, is a malicious program that inserts itself into other program files
to cause damage to the files. A user can inadvertantly transfer infected files
to other users using e-mail (infected files can also be transferred by other
means).
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Voice Over IP: [voi] Voice over IP (VoIP)
enables the use of the internet for carrying voice
communications
(most commonly telephone calls). This allows users to talk to each other without the use of the telephone network (of course
indirectly using the network if dialing in via a modem, which does not offer the best VoIP experience). Sound is converted
into digital format and sent, in packets, as data. VoIP is becoming more popular with the increasing use of broadband connections. Skype is a leading provider.
Wikipedia
W3C: [w3c] W3C.org; Wikipedia; Archive
Walmart: [walmart] Walmart.com; Wikipedia; Archive
Web: [web] The web, also known as WWW, is the
graphical multimedia aspect of the internet. It comprises content, with the
basic language of HTML (developed by Tim Berners-Lee
circa 1990) and a browser
(developed by Marc
Andreesen et al. circa 1993) Internet
Explorer; Firefox
or Safari.
The content resides on a web server. The design of
the web follows a peer-to-peer
structure.
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Web 2.0: [webn] Web 2.0 comprises technologies
such as blogs, wikis, podcasting and RSS. It is a term that
tries to embrace a participatory web; a web where all can now
participate in content creation and consumption. It thus presumes that
Web 1.0 was a 'static' environment.
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Web Analytics: [weba] Web Analytics is the
field of data mining the data that is generated from those navigating a
web-site. Web Analytics allows a site designer to understand the flow of
those going through a site, essentially measuring the behavior of the
site's users. Which pages are most popular, which are the
entry and exit points, and which are the referrer
URLs. Metrics used
include page views, hits, sessions and impressions. There are a
number of software providers who provide web analytics tools, and a host
should also provide this service to its clients.
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Weblog (blog): [webl] A blog is a website that is updated frequently by its author, in a standard format, with the most recent entry at the top, and older entries archived. Each entry is a unique URL, a permalink. Entries also include trackbacks and the option for allowing comments. Blogging software (such as Blogger.com and typepad.com) allow anyone the opportunity to be a publisher on the web (no need to know html), thus truly democratizing the process of publishing information (a potential threat to traditional media organizations). Blogs are used to annotate and collect news sources across the web; used as personal journals and for sharing experiences; and used by businesses to reach out to their customers and engage in conversations.
Example blogs are: Scobleizer: Microsoft Blog, Diva Marketing: Marketing Consultant Blog, Clear Admit: Portal-Style Blog and Fembat: Personal Blog. Note each blog has a list of other blogs they visit. They can determine who visits their site through the comments system they have in place, and via a program like sitemeter which indicates where traffic has come from (the referrer URL). Blogs can also generate an RSS feed which readers can use to subscribe, via a news reader aggregator.
The three main blog search engines Google Blog Search, Technorati and Feedster are good sites to discover blogs. They are also good sites to use to subscribe to search results that include keyword phrases you want to watch (your company, your product, your competitors). You can subscribe to these results in your news aggregator.
Blogs are also a good SEO tool. Search engines like sites that update often, and blog authors can certainly be deliberate about including the appropriate keywords in the title and body texts of entries.
The blog glossary is a good source of "blog" terms.
This CNN article:
Blogging
goes mainstream describes the blogging evolution.
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Web Ring: [webr] Web ring refers to a "ring" of web
sites which forms a common navigation to allow browsers to view each site
within the ring. The rings are comprised of sites with a common interest, so
it allows those sites to potentially broaden their audience by linking with
each other. This is a form of free advertising, much like bartering and banner exchange
programs. You can view WebRing to
search current networks.
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WiFi: [wif] WiFi networks use radio technologies (IEEE 802.11b or 802.11a) to provide fast wireless connectivity. A WiFi network requires an access point (base station) and each computer attached to the network needs a wireless network card. A computer that has a wireless card can participate in all "open" networks, but not proprietary networks (its up to the hub administrator if the network is open or proprietary) without knowing the wireless network settings. Even with a proprietary network, security is an issue.
WiFi security is easily compromised, so you should consider anything transmitted via WiFi as public knowledge. The encryption is auto-crackable, and the clients can be monitored or subject to man-in-the-middle attacks.
Its almost impossible to make a wireless network private; their range will be more than you expect and can be picked up for long distances. This can be a good thing (public commons) or a bad thing (compromised corporate networks). One unauthorized access point on a poorly set up network can compromise the entire network.
As networking goes, wireless networks are fairly easy to set up, and very
useful. So they are spreading quickly in companies (frequently
unauthorized), schools, and homes. Examples include:
WarChalking
NetStumbler.com
NodeDB.com
Delcowireless
How To
Build A Tin Can Waveguide Antenna
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Wiki: [wik] A wiki is a web-based resource that
allows multiple users to edit and contribute to the same web documents.
Among a wiki's features, it requires only limited or no knowledge of
HTML
and keeps a revision
history so it is easy to roll back changes if necessary. Wikis are
considered a web 2.0 technology. The most 'famous'
wiki is wikipedia a web-based encyclopedia
that anyone can edit and update. Wikis are useful for instances where
collaboration is useful. Microsoft's Channel 9 uses wikis to engage its
developer community. Clear Admit's MBA Admissions Wiki is designed to
allow the MBA applicant community to share its collective experiences.
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Winner Takes All: [win] The winner takes all
phenomena, for digital marketplaces, highlights the notion that markets tend
to favor the market leader to such an extent, other competitors can be driven
out of the marketplace. This is a result of two issues. The network effects and
positive spiral
experienced by the market leader, making its product more compelling for the
consumer, and the learning curve effect
and reduced average
costs of the market leader, enabling it to potentially reduce prices to a
price point with which competitors cannot compete. Markets will tend to tip, and this is when
the winner takes all phenomena comes into play.
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Word of Mouth Marketing: [wor] Word of Mouth Marketing (WOMM) refers to the marketing that can be gained by actively engaging customers to share insights with each other (create buzz that goes viral). WOMM has clearly been around since the inception of marketing, but has gained more prominance with the evolution of the internet, and the ease with which customers can share their stories. Web 2.0 technologies such as Blogs and News Readers are enabling WOMM. Discussion Boards have helped customers form communities. Good WOMM relies on great products that customers willingly evangelize. Marketers have been prone to try to 'effect' this by incentivizing 'fake' customers to talk about their products. This can backfire.
One can now consider marketing initiatives as three concentric circles:
the inner circle representing traditional / push marketing; the middle
circle representing a company's direct efforts to engage with customers
with the web (hosting a blog, a discussion board etc.), WOMM; the outer
circle representing the broader web, where the company's product is being
discussed outside of its own web domain.
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Worm: [worm] A worm, as contrasted from a
virus, is a self-replicating program that duplicates
itself by means of the network, rather than a user taking action
(inadvertant) to forward the file.
Wikipedia
XML: [xml] XML (eXtensible Markup Language) is
used to enable the sharing of data across different sites on the web. A
popular use of XML is RSS, used to subscribe to news
feeds and blogs. XML is a means of describing data,
in a customizable
fashion, in order to apply a structure to the data that is necessary for
the export of that data.
Wikipedia
Yahoo!: [yahoo] Yahoo.com; Wikipedia; Archive
The following people have contributed to this
resource:
Richard Gordon (University of Delaware Computing), Kate
Hughes (salestech.co.nz), Janice Lee (Wharton Computing), and Barry Wilson
(Wharton Computing).
- NetLingo
- Marketing Dictionary
- Glossary-Tech.com
- Free Online Dictionary of Computing (FOLDOC)
- Webopedia
- PDMA Handbook of New Product Development
- whatis?com
- Internet and Unix Dictionary
- The New Hacker's Dictionary
- The Word Spy