DCSB: The Internet as an Auction-Pricing Incubator

[Robert Hettinga <rah@shipwright.com>]

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                 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

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-----------------
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/