And
above all, companies used the Internet for selling things. E-commerce
truly took advantage of the new possibilities offered by
the Internet, suddenly opening an endless cornucopia of products
impossible to get by traditional means: Its sheer strength
generated new models, such as the online auctions, fueled
things such as online payment systems, and promoted the development
of technologies for securing transactions.
If we resume our effort of identifying resources accessible via a
computer, we see that it became a daunting task: So much value
is now available online! The most evident type is probably what
is ours in the of?¬‚ine world but which can be managed from the
online one: the money in our bank accounts; our privileges as
citizens of our country; our list of friends and acquaintances; the
utility services we bought, such as gas, long-distance call services,
and insurances. Even our word, our reputation, our af?¬?liations,
our education levels, or simply our names are resources
that we can leverage online. Then there are purely online resources:
the mailbox itself and its content; credit with a Voice
over IP (VoIP) service; the online payment system account; access
to our employer??™s IT system and its federnet of partners;
accounts for vintage mailing lists and social network software;
seller reputation on auction sites; accounts for all sorts of services,
such as ?¬?le replication, picture hosting??”the list goes on.
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