-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- The Digital Commerce Society of Boston Presents Fred Hapgood "The Internet as an Auction-Pricing Incubator" Tuesday, June 3, 1997 12 - 2 PM The Downtown Harvard Club of Boston One Federal Street, Boston, MA Price, Including Luncheon: $30.00 The low transaction costs and interactivity of the internet are proving a highly favorable incubator for auction pricing. In April Yahoo reported 60+ sites supporting online auctions with more appearing every day. The largest of these hosted more than 50,000 individual auctions (not individual items) simultaneously and was growing at 25% a month. Online auction sites appear to be the only indigenous internet service that is a) generating profits of any scale and b) respectable. Fred will describe how these auctions work, some of their varieties, what they are selling, analyze the online auction site as a business model, review recent developments, and weigh the odds that online auctions will be associated with changes of interest in the structure of the economy and the culture. Fred Hapgood, <http://www.pobox.com/~hapgood>, is a free-lance writer based in Boston. While he often writes about aspects of electronic commerce, that being where the market is, he promises creditworthy clients an attentive and positive hearing to any proposition legal in at least one jurisdiction. Last year he spoke before the DCSB on franchising and the internet. This meeting of the Digital Commerce Society of Boston will be held on Tuesday, June 3, 1997, from 12pm - 2pm at the Downtown Branch of the Harvard Club of Boston, on One Federal Street. The price for lunch is $30.00. This price includes lunch, room rental, various A/V hardware, and the speaker's lunch. ;-). The Harvard Club *does* have dress code: jackets and ties for men (and no sneakers or jeans), and "appropriate business attire" (whatever that means), for women. Fair warning: since we purchase these luncheons in advance, we will be unable to refund the price of your lunch if the Club finds you in violation of the dress code. We will attempt to record this meeting and put it on the web in RealAudio format at some future date We need to receive a company check, or money order, (or, if we *really* know you, a personal check) payable to "The Harvard Club of Boston", by Saturday, May 31, or you won't be on the list for lunch. Checks payable to anyone else but The Harvard Club of Boston will have to be sent back. Checks should be sent to Robert Hettinga, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, Massachusetts, 02131. Again, they *must* be made payable to "The Harvard Club of Boston", in the amount of $30.00. If anyone has questions, or has a problem with these arrangements (We've had to work with glacial A/P departments more than once, for instance), please let us know via e-mail, and we'll see if we can work something out. Upcoming speakers for DCSB are: July Win Treese TLS, Digital Commerce, and Export Issues August Duncan Frissell MarketEarth September Christof Paar Elliptic Curve Cryptography October Peter Cassidy Military Fiat and Digital Commerce November Carl Ellison Identity and Certification for Electronic Commerce We are actively searching for future speakers. If you are in Boston on the first Tuesday of the month, and you would like to make a presentation to the Society, please send e-mail to the DCSB Program Commmittee, care of Robert Hettinga, <mailto: rah@shipwright.com> . For more information about the Digital Commerce Society of Boston, send "info dcsb" in the body of a message to <mailto: majordomo@ai.mit.edu> . If you want to subscribe to the DCSB e-mail list, send "subscribe dcsb" in the body of a message to <mailto: majordomo@ai.mit.edu> . We look forward to seeing you there! Cheers, Robert Hettinga Moderator, The Digital Commerce Society of Boston -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 5.0 beta Charset: noconv iQEVAwUBM34DRMUCGwxmWcHhAQEgRwf+NMnjays51ipVI2DUkN7641PAGn21PWLI CdvLO8TbbXJu6KNcjw/E3fsz+j+ykiYZJl4liiNI7XUC3aB58QbKIHMouM09jIjA VrPaqGP5EL9DjGh+ZHl7qm/SuuP8a6tAfEWkxCHb6Z+X0ezWipziD+3S4PEe5wcd LLW7SRMvWxzVjDKfeokCZL3e43o4xfzNDPBStxVGvONC73A+FMDLWRFxcCJ1o4iX n9fevJuymUf1itZps2ZsK6eU1dXbcXgaX8326OkjBHvGg3IIF0lARKRpPlMVCWxG BCwpKsP/vkzw97+QuhOJJIg5fq0uXqXAADDOwS6SSwt3oCp6cuBcog== =DaZq -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- ----------------- Robert Hettinga (rah@shipwright.com), Philodox e$, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire' The e$ Home Page: http://www.shipwright.com/