The E-conomy Project™ begins with an intentionally broad and basic question: How are digital networks and e-commerce changing the organization of industrial and economic activity? The project’s goal is to create an institutionalized resource that involves industry leaders, policy-makers, and academics in discussion and research to conceive new business models, more effective corporate strategies, and informed policies.

1. Economic and Social Significance: How Big is the E-conomy? How Much Does it Matter?
2. Electronic Commerce and Industrial Organization: How is E-commerce changing the terms of market competition and corporate strategy? (This segment will be addressed by a set of industry case studies.)
3. Governance and Policy: What policy choices regarding the organization of economic activity are posed by the expansion of the E-conomy?
4. Network Evolution: How is the changing provision of infrastructure, technology and services influencing the use, scale and significance of the E-conomy? (This segment will be addressed by following the competition among providers as they fashion the new infrastructure and its applications.)

How Big is the E-conomy? How Much Does it Matter?

• Metrics: Can we construct meaningful metrics to assess the size and growth of the E-conomy? Can we map the pace of diffusion of different applications and their economic impacts?
• Comparative Development: Will the shape of the E-conomy and the development of e-commerce follow similar patterns in different countries? What are the economic and social implications of the differences?
• Social Consequences: What social and cultural consequences will emerge from the digital reproduction of mass culture?
• Historical Analogs: What lessons can we draw from earlier attempts to measure the impact of transformative technologies such as the railroad, parcel post, the telephone, and microelectronics?

How is E-commerce changing the terms of market competition and corporate strategy?

• Corporate strategy: How are leading users actually using internet technology to change their competitive strategies?

• Competitive Dynamics: How is the emergence of E-commerce affecting the dynamics of competition in sectors such as electronics, autos, finance and retailing?

• Consumer Behavior: How are consumers altering their behavior as a result of more information, lower barriers to accessing information, greater choice and the like?

• New Markets: What new markets are being created as a result of the emergence of digital networks and E-Commerce?

• National Patterns of Technology: How are the positions of national economies in the international system affected by different paces and forms of adoption of network technologies?

What policy choices regarding the organization of economic activity are posed by the expansion of the E-conomy?

• National Issues: How should policy handle digital property rights, e.g., through contract versus copyright? How can we strike the proper balance between privacy, censorship and security (national and commercial) in the E-conomy? What rules should govern network access and interoperability? How should issues of equity and universal service be handled? What rules are appropriate for the workplace?
• International Issues: What must be decided internationally to allow national policies to be effective? How can one reconcile difference among national regulatory regimes (e.g., in standards-setting processes or privacy laws)? What will be the consequences of the contrast between the American preference for markets and the European and Asian desire to use government intervention?
• Implementation and Enforcement: For what issues is ad-hoc response appropriate to the regulatory challenges posed by the internet and E-commerce? For which issues would it be best to permit commercial practice to be slowly codified as it evolves? Under what circumstances do we want to act more proactively?
• Historical Analogs: What can we learn from the history of policy towards other forms of networking and media technologies, other infrastructures, and past emerging forms of commerce?

How is the changing provision of infrastructure, technology and services influencing the use, scale and significance of the E-conomy? (This segment will be addressed by following the competition among providers as they fashion the new infrastructure and its applications.)

• Corporate strategy: What new business models are driving the deployment and build-out of networks?
• Competitive Dynamics: How will tensions between traditional telecommunications and data networks be played out? How will the interplay between old and new, regulated and unregulated firms affect competition and delivery of telecommunication products and services?

• National Patterns: How will public policies, market structures, use patterns, and technological innovations drive national telecommunications trajectories? How will differences in national regulations affect competition.
• Innovation: How will pending technological innovations alter the current technological trajectory of networking? How will the increasing integration of national networks with global networks affect the locus of technological innovation?