"Communication Aspects of the e-World"  *)

MISSION

The mission of Working Group 6.11 is to promote the exchange of information and co-operation related to all aspects of Electronic Business, Electronic Services, and Electronic Society (the three Es). Within this area, Working Group 6.11 fosters the development of architectures, services, and applications for social interaction and communication.

SCOPE

The scope of Working Group 6.11 encompasses communication and cooperation support for Electronic Business, Electronic Services, and Electronic Society, including:

• Communication aspects of distributed business/enterprise systems and implementations,
• Social aspects of an information and communication society (e.g. social computing),
• Distribution and cooperation aspects of virtual organizations,
• Communication and middleware platforms for the e-economy, including e-commerce, e-bu­si­ness, e-govern­ment, and other e-services,
• Service-Oriented Architecture platforms and their applications (e.g. internet of things),
• Emerging technologies like support for cloud computing (as, e.g., provided by infrastructure, platform and/or software as a service), 
  
• Support for e-negotiation, auctioning, contract making, and electronic purchase of tangible and intangible goods and services in interactions between consumers, businesses, and public administration,
• Design and application of advanced system software and protocols for supporting (e-) mobility, mobile business, and the ubiquitous access to electronic markets,
• Multimedia communication and services applied in e-business and e-society,
• Communication aspects of digital goods and services, e.g. secure exchange of documents, content, and value in open trading protocols etc.,
• Distributed application and service management for e-services,
• Security aspects of distributed electronic service environments.

---------------------------

*) WG title and Aims&Scope as approved by IFIP TC6 and the TA in 2009/10

HISTORY OF WG 6.11

Working Group 6.11 - as one of the newer working groups of IFIP TC6 - addresses application-oriented issues of open systems communication in general, and e-Business, e-Services and e-Society specifically.
Initiative to set up this working group grew out of the International IFIP conference on "Trends in Electronic Commerce" (TREC) organised by Winfried Lamersdorf  in Hamburg in 1998 which started to address technical as well as economical and social aspects of e-Business applications of communication systems in a common context. A first proposal to engage in "Communication Aspects of e-Commerce" was made by Volker Tschammer to TC6 at its meeting 1998-1 in Ladenburg, Germany. Subsequently, a special interest group was set up which eventually lead to the TC6 Working Group 6.11 on "Communication Aspects on e-Commerce, e-Business and e-Government" as first officially established in 2000 with Volker Tschammer as first chair.
Also supported by former IFIP president Kurt Bauknecht, as member of WG 6.11, the WGs flagship conference series on "e-Commerce, e-Busi­ness, and e-Government" (I3E) was established 2001 as a - still ongoing - successful series of yearly I3E events in all parts of the world. In 2007, this conference series was renamed to "e-Bu­si­ness, e-Services, and e-Society" (in brief: I3E as well) in order to adapt to more recent developments in the area.

Main motivation of IFIP Working Group 6.11 is to organise and promote the exchange of information on information, communication, and security aspects of Electronic Business, Electronic Services and Electronic Society, with increased co-operation of both technical areas (like communication and co-operation) as well as related economic areas (like e-Business and information systems) and also social aspects or combinations thereof (like security) - also based on co-operation with related IFIP TCs 6, 8 and 11. The goal of the Working Group is to foster research, development, standardisation, and applications for communication and middleware platforms, service-oriented software architectures, and application frameworks, applications, and services for electronic business and other (similar) applications - including service management and organisational aspects like, e.g., virtual enterprises - as well as socials aspects of open service environments.

From 2006 onwards, WG 6.11 was jointly co-chaired by Wojciech Cellary (for e-Business), Winfried Lamersdorf (for e-Services) and Reima Suomi (for e-Society). Then, Matti Maentymaeki and after him Yogesh Dwivedi followed as chairs for two terms each. As accepted by the IFIP TA in 2010, WG 6.11 Aims & Scope of the WG were renewed in 2008 and the WG name was changed to "Communication Aspects of the e-World".

Other conferences or conference series co-sponsored by WG 6.11 include "Virtual Goods" (Europe), "Well-being in the Information Society" (Finland) or "E-Government and E-Ser­vices" (Brisbane, Australia, as part of IFIP's 50-years anniversary WCC 2010) etc.

Former Title: Communication Systems for E-Commerce (2001-2009/10)

Old Aims

To organise and promote the exchange of information on communication protocols and information exchange mechanisms for Electronic Commerce. To foster research, development, standardisation, and applications for communication platforms and services for pre-sales support, sales and service management, settlement, and virtual enterprises in an open trading environment.

Old Scope

The scope of the work encompasses all aspects of communication and information exchange in Electronic Commerce, including:

• Navigation, brokerage, advertising, and catalogue exchange in pre-sales activities.
• Negotiation and contract making protocols in interactions between consumers, businesses, and public administration.
• Secure exchange of documents, content and value in open trading protocols.
• Communication platforms for the e-Economy, including e-commerce, e-business and e-government.
• Application of mobile agent technology.
• Advanced devices and protocols for the support of mobility and the ubiquitous access to electronic markets.