W3C  Technology and Society

Electronic Commerce Interest Group 

Micropayments - Activity statements

 Public Policy Interest Group  -  Security Interest Group.


The W3C Ecommerce/Micropayment Activity is now closed.

Please visit the W3C Payments Activity. The remainder of this page is left for historical purposes.

An major factor in the evolution of the Web is Electronic Commerce: the ability to buy, sell, and advertise goods and services to customers and consumers. One concern in the development of Electronic Commerce on the Web is the trust that can be placed in the provenance, reliability, security and privacy of information available from or transferred over the internet. Another concern is the need for low friction commerce transactions allowing quality and ease of use for consumers, a key factor the future of Electronic Commerce. The potential for global electronic commerce is immense; much of this potential is and will be realized by the continued development of Web technologies. The World Wide Web Consortium, leading the web to its full potential, is therefore concerned with the evolution of Electronic Commerce on the Web. The role of W3C is to focus on core infrastructure technologies for Electronic Commerce and identify common infrastructure needed in this area. W3C is not committed for example in specifying banking systems nor schemas for specific Electronic Commerce applications.

W3C has closed its Ecommerce and Micropayment Activity, but through the following activities W3C is committed to key factors for success in the evolution of Electronic Commerce:


News


What it is about

An important factor in the growth of the Web is electronic commerce: the ability to buy, sell, and advertise goods and services to customers and consumers. The Web is a new communications medium and, like all new media, requires us to rethink the existing solutions to age-old problems. The World Wide Web Consortium is concerned with the evolution of the medium itself. We must both understand the problems and work with our members to contribute to the solutions. The Electronic Commerce Interest Group is a forum designed to allow the members to share information with the Consortium staff and other members about:

The Interest Group meets three times a year for two years, with meetings spread across North America, Europe, and Asia/Pacific. There is an on-going email list associated with the Interest Group. There is no required resource commitment beyond attendance at any or all of the meetings, although registration is required for each meeting.

The Interest Group has no decision-making authority and is strictly advisory to the W3C staff. Nonetheless, we expect it to be the forum from which we will draw participants in the design of briefing packages for work related to Electronic Commerce. It will also serve to help refine the requirement of any technical work in this area to be undertaken by W3C. 

Micropayment initiative

The Electronic Commerce Activity is currently involved in realizing the opportunities in Micropayments, and this will form the main thrust of the Activity during the next 6 months. Micropayments are very small payments made over the Web for pages that you access. Micropayments cover transactions which are too small to be economical as credit card transactions, and can be as little as a fraction of a cent. Micropayments provide an alternative to subscription and advertising as a source of revenue.

Other Resources

Acknowledged Submissions to W3C related to Electronic Commerce

Surely you are aware that this is only a starting point.
You can read more about this in the Activity statements.
Please visit also our Public Policy Interest Group and the Security Interest Group.
W3C members are invited to read the Electronic Commerce Interest Group Briefing Package.
W3C members are also invited to join the mailing list for the Electronic Commerce Interest Group. To do so, please send mail to w3c-ecommerce-ig-request@w3.org. The mailing list is archived, but the archive is accessible only for W3C members.



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Thierry MICHEL, W3C Electronic Commerce Activity Leader
Last updated: $Date: 2014/12/18 16:33:11 $