E-Commerce: A practioner's overview

The domain which includes those activities, processes and systems collectively known as E-Commerce (E-com) or EBusiness (E-bus) offers a fertile ground for analysts, researchers, wealth creators and many others. Its influence covers a wide spectrum from the global economic environment through national governments, organisations, education, entertainment, health and society in general to the individual. The drivers include our increasing knowledge and accelerating pace of developments in emerging as well as older technologies. This general paper aims to provide a bird's eye view of some of the features of the E-Commerce landscape, raise some questions and highlight some of key benefits, problems and issues impacting society and our lives. The aim is to stimulate and encourage contributions to the theory and best practice from both academics and practitioners.