COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE INTERNET AND WWW IN EASTERN EUROPESroka, Marek
1998 Online and CD-Rom Review
doi: 10.1108/eb024692
The paper examines the commercial development of the Internet and WWW in Eastern Europe, with special attention given to such regional Internet leaders as Russia, Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Estonia and Slovenia. Major commercial networks and Internet Service Providerrs are discussed and Web services offered by various companies are considered. The paper also looks into such commercial aspects of Web development as private business and legal information providers, Web advertising, and online shopping mostly online bookstores, computer stores, and shopping centers. Finally, the question of the security of Internet transactions is considered as an important factor in the future growth of electronic commerce in Eastern Europe.
NEW DATABASE PRODUCTS BUSINESS AND LAW ISSUE 12Williams, Martha E.; Gaylord, Harry A.
1998 Online and CD-Rom Review
doi: 10.1108/eb024693
This is the twelfth article on business and law BSL databases in a continuing series of articles summarizing and commenting on new database products. Two companion articles, one covering science, technology, and medicine STM appeared in Online & CDROM Review vol. 22, no.4 and the other covering social science, humanities, news, and general SSH appeared in Online & CDROM Review vol. 22, no. 5. The articles are based on the newly appearing database products in the Gale Directory of Databases. The Gale Directory of Databases GDD was created in January 1993 by merging ComputerReadable Databases A Directory and Data Sourcebook CRD together with the Directory of Online Databases DOD and the Directory of Portable Databases DPD.
VIRTUAL COMMUNITYMcKenna, Brian
1998 Online and CD-Rom Review
doi: 10.1108/eb024696
The collocation virtual community yokes together a hypermodern concept the virtual, in the cyberspatial sense, and a more ancient one community, in the sense of the quality of people holding something in common, and possessing a sense of common identity. In Keywords, British socialist intellectual Raymond Williams recounts that from the seventeenth century in English there are signs of the distinction which became especially important from the nineteenth century, in which community was felt to be more immediate than society. Williams 1976 p.65 This sense of community as being somehow more organic, more human than externally imposed forms of social organization informs the discussion around the word in the context of the Internet, too. Williams concludes his essay on the word by remarking that
SOFTCD SOLVING THE INFORMATION BOTTLENECK1998 Online and CD-Rom Review
doi: 10.1108/eb024697
A fundamental dilemma faced by today's professional information distributors is whether to use CDROM or Web site or both. The CDROM, and its successor DVD Digital Versatile Disk, have the capacity and performance to support the quantity and quality of multimedia demanded by today's ever more sophisticated market. However the CDROM has one fundamental flaw, it cannot easily be updated in a timely and cost effective way.
REVIEWSBillingham, Lisa; Read, Jane; Owens, Ian
1998 Online and CD-Rom Review
doi: 10.1108/eb024698
The encyclopaedia has comprehensive coverage, and includes articles, video, animation, sound clips, still photographs, and graphics. It also includes bubble views, stillphotographs allowing the user a 360 degree view. The mouse buttons are used to move the user's view in any direction, as in virtual reality software.