of offering online forms to capture users' needs efficiently and accurately. There was no longer the need to send faxes or call vendors to get orders comp e shopper-vendor deted to conclude any purchase transaction, financial partners were invited to join the relationship. Ensuring the security of the payment process and the exchange of pri- vate information was and still is a major concern. The next stage in the e-business evolution was the offering of personalized services. The purpose of personalized serv- ices is to include the profiles of users in terms of preferences and interests whe hen work- ing to fulfill their needs. Now, the trend of e-business is towards joint ventures where business proce me Despite the growing number of e-commerce sites, conducting e-commerce oper ations is still challenging. Various obstacles exist. First, relevant Web sites with access to catalogues have to be discovered. Second, the way these sites operate has to be understood. Third, needs have to be specified according to the characteristics(termi nology)of the sites. Last but not least, security problems can occur when sensitive information is submitted. Many times, obstacles that face novice users upset them and the whole e-shopping experience ends in frustration. Instead of supporting users, IT is making things more complex. As a direct consequence, users may simply turn to the competition or decide to go back to the traditional way of shopping: ask friends to accompany them, visit shops, talk to vendors, and bargain for better deals. It should be noted that once IT is introduced into the process, the "social context"is ignored. One of the challenges that needs tackling in the near future is how to inte- grate the social context into the development of any user-oriented systems. Schum- mer argues that while e-commerce applications aim at easing the process of shoppin by simulating real world experiences, these applications unfortunately do not include social factors in their simulation [4]. Users are mainly kept separated and everyone is shopping as if they were alone in an empty store. a survey done in Schummer reported the importance of the social factors and showed that 90% of shoppers pre fer to communicate while shopping [4]. Furthermore, according to Kraft, Pitsch, and Vetter, the current malls on the Internet are characterized by a 2D representation, navigation according to links, single-user environments, and static environments that lack realism and interactivity [2]. In contrast, the shopping process in real life is def- initely a social one where people can get advice and share their experiences with oth ers. To deal with some of the obstacles to e-commerce, several experimental technologies(for example, software agents, Web services) that aim at supporting users are now available. The purpose of these technologies is to attract more con- sumers and encourage them to participate in online business M-Commerce It is acknowledged that the Internet is playing an important role in our daily life. The Internet has become a vehicle for services rather than just a static repository of infor mation. Airline booking and hotel booking are examples of these services. Besides the new role of the Internet, we are witnessing rapid progress in wireless and handheld tech- nologies. Telecom companies are offering new opportunities to users over mobile devices like cellular phones and personal digital assistants. Reading emails and sending SMS messages between cellular phones are becoming natural. Surfing the Web thanks to the Wireless Application Protocol is further evidence of the wireless technology devel opment. We are convinced that the next stage (if we are not already in it)for telecom COMMUNICATIONS OF THE ACM December 2003/ol. 46. No. 12ve 253of offering online forms to capture users’ needs efficiently and accurately. There was no longer the need to send faxes or call vendors to get orders completed. To conclude any purchase transaction, financial partners were invited to join the shopper-vendor relationship. Ensuring the security of the payment process and the exchange of pri￾vate information was and still is a major concern. The next stage in the e-business evolution was the offering of personalized services. The purpose of personalized serv￾ices is to include the profiles of users in terms of preferences and interests when work￾ing to fulfill their needs. Now, the trend of e-business is towards joint ventures where business processes are merged. Despite the growing number of e-commerce sites, conducting e-commerce oper￾ations is still challenging. Various obstacles exist. First, relevant Web sites with access to catalogues have to be discovered. Second, the way these sites operate has to be understood. Third, needs have to be specified according to the characteristics (termi￾nology) of the sites. Last but not least, security problems can occur when sensitive information is submitted. Many times, obstacles that face novice users upset them and the whole e-shopping experience ends in frustration. Instead of supporting users, IT is making things more complex. As a direct consequence, users may simply turn to the competition or decide to go back to the traditional way of shopping: ask friends to accompany them, visit shops, talk to vendors, and bargain for better deals. It should be noted that once IT is introduced into the process, the “social context” is ignored. One of the challenges that needs tackling in the near future is how to inte￾grate the social context into the development of any user-oriented systems. Schum￾mer argues that while e-commerce applications aim at easing the process of shopping by simulating real world experiences, these applications unfortunately do not include social factors in their simulation [4]. Users are mainly kept separated and everyone is shopping as if they were alone in an empty store. A survey done in Schummer reported the importance of the social factors and showed that 90% of shoppers pre￾fer to communicate while shopping [4]. Furthermore, according to Kraft, Pitsch, and Vetter, the current malls on the Internet are characterized by a 2D representation, navigation according to links, single-user environments, and static environments that lack realism and interactivity [2]. In contrast, the shopping process in real life is def￾initely a social one where people can get advice and share their experiences with oth￾ers. To deal with some of the obstacles to e-commerce, several experimental technologies (for example, software agents, Web services) that aim at supporting users are now available. The purpose of these technologies is to attract more con￾sumers and encourage them to participate in online business. M-Commerce It is acknowledged that the Internet is playing an important role in our daily life. The Internet has become a vehicle for services rather than just a static repository of infor￾mation. Airline booking and hotel booking are examples of these services. Besides the new role of the Internet, we are witnessing rapid progress in wireless and handheld tech￾nologies. Telecom companies are offering new opportunities to users over mobile devices like cellular phones and personal digital assistants. Reading emails and sending SMS messages between cellular phones are becoming natural. Surfing the Web thanks to the Wireless Application Protocol is further evidence of the wireless technology devel￾opment. We are convinced that the next stage (if we are not already in it) for telecom COMMUNICATIONS OF THE ACM December 2003/Vol. 46, No. 12ve 253