FROM THE BOOK-SHELF FROM

 

THE SILK ROAD TO THE E-ROAD  

From the Silk Road to the E-Road is about how our world is irreversibly changing through the application of computers and communications. In non-technical storytelling, Robin Bloor sets out to explain how business and economics are being transformed by the Internet. 

Just as the Silk Road was once the world's great trade route, so the e-Road is poised to become the trading highway of the 21st century. Just as the invention of the printing press and bookkeeping created a paper-based information economy, so the new economy is powering business and society towards a new form of capitalism; the electronic b@zaar. 
 
The new world that is being created requires a new model for understanding it. In this unique and powerful book describing the implications for any business - from retailing and manufacturing to broadcasting and advertising - Robin Bloor offers a simple yet powerful set of four fundamental business models : 

  • The hockey stick curve - providing a way to understand the extraordinary growth of web companies and the web itself. 
  • The publish/subscribe mechanism - revolutionizing the communications power of both the consumer and producer. 
  • The force of automation - driving continuing innovation. 
  • The new economics of the b@zaar - powering the complete transformation of the buy/sell transaction and the supply chain. 
The author offers concise and practical advice on how to transform a bricks and mortar business into an ebusiness - eConstructing your enterprise. He explains the meaning of an eBrand and the reality of an eChannel and offers strategies for attracting and keeping these new eCustomers. 
It shows a compelling future vision of a world turned upside down by the individual power of the new electronic citizen. 
 
For virtual entrepreneurs and all those whose very existence depends on unleashing the power of the internet to gain a competitive advantage, The Electronic B@zaar offers a recipe for growth in the new world of e-business. 
 
A wonderful blend of leading-edge IT analysis, historical perspective, and deep economic understanding, The Electronic B@zaar explains the radical nature of the new internet-based economy and offers a recipe for exploiting this evolving world of e-business.