Todayâs Web provides people with unprecedented access to online information and services. However, because the information is unstructured, computers cannot readily understand it. This limitation helps explain why search engines and automated shopping agents donât work very well.

Tomorrowâs Web will provide information and services in a structured form that is readily accessible to both people and computers. For Internet commerce, this means standard documents for describing things like products, airline schedules, stock reports, and bank statements,  and corresponding forms for placing orders, booking reservations, and making transactions. Thousands of companies will use such documents to publish information about themselves and their services directly on the Web where theyâll be available to anyone -- or any web-enabled application -- with the proper authorization. FedEx and UPS for example will likely offer shipping services, Citibank and Bank America payment services, and so forth. Customers and suppliers will put these services on their intranets and integrate them into their core business processes and systems. Businesses will build on each otherâs services, using them as components to create innovative virtual companies, markets, and trading communities.  This ability to rapidly experiment with new business concepts will spark an explosion of entrepreneurial activity rivaling that of the web itself.
 

About CNgroup:

CNgroup is a development stage company that intends to become the leading independent supplier of XML software and services for Internet commerce. Our flagship product will provide the simplest and most open way to integrate businesses - through the exchange of  structured business documents and forms accessible to both people and computers. The underlying technology creates a unifying framework for implementing and integrating emerging industry protocols such as OFX, OTP, and OBI.

About the speaker:

Dr. Jay M. Tenenbaum, Chairman and Chief Scientist of CNgroup, is widely acknowledged as a founder of Internet commerce and the fieldâs leading visionary. In 1990 he started EIT, the company that pioneered  the enabling security and payment infrastructure. In 1994, he formed CommerceNet which has become the premier industry association for Internet commerce, with nearly 600 corporate members worldwide. Dr. Tenenbaum has been a consulting Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University, and currently serves on the boards of six Internet start ups.

Earlier in his career, Dr. Tenenbaum was a prominent AI researcher. He led two of the worldâs foremost industrial AI laboratories at SRI International and Schlumberger Ltd, and was elected a charter Fellow of the American Association for Artificial Intelligence.