University of Massachusetts Launches Multi-Discipline E-commerce Center; IBM Provides Tech Support; Info Payment Trials to Involve Clickshare, Others; Roundtable Summit Conference Planned for Feb. 28-March 2.

AMHERST, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 24, 1998--A pioneering effort to help build industry consensus around new ways to charge for digital information delivery was announced Tuesday by University of Massachusetts researchers.

The Internet Information Payments Collaborative (IIPC.NET) is part of a broader electronic-commerce research center formed by computer science, business and economics faculty, researchers say.

"Internet development is a group effort, and we think public- private collaboration among academic and business researchers is to everyone's advantage," says Dr. Leslie D. Ball, a professor at the Isenberg School of Management who is co-directing both initiatives.

The info-payments effort is the first of a broader research initiative at UMass called the Interdisciplinary Center for Electronic Commerce (ICEC). International Business Machines Corp. has contributed "significant hardware and software resources" to the ICEC, Ball added.

"Publishers are confused by the array of unproved options for managing and selling information on the Internet," says Stephen C. Mott, IIPC's other co-director. "We provide a way to pool research- and-development around finding a common infrastructure for on-demand purchase of digital information, including words, sounds and pictures."

The payments collaborative plans a summit conference Feb. 28- March 2. (See: www.iipc.net/conference/). It will also study and market-test information-payment technologies, including one offered by a Massachusetts-based startup, Clickshare Service Corp., which is an IIPC technology collaborator.

Both Mott and Ball said they saw the need for the IIPC emerging from the failure of several pioneering information-payment protocols to gain a critical-mass of commercial adoption.

They said it is clear the market for information sales needs a forum for developing consensus on an operating structure. The network operating structure needs to support competitive yet interoperable marketing and pricing beyond subscriptions and advertising sales, they added.

Ball says the collaborative plans an initial budget of $400,000 derived from a three-tiered corporate sponsorship structure. It will assess after a nine-month research-and-trial program whether to disband, continue or merge with an existing standards body.

Ball joined UMass in September after more than a decade with Computer Sciences Corp., most recently running a multi-million dollar practice group within the El Segundo, Calif.-based information-technology consultant.

Mott is a consultant and former senior vice president for electronic commerce with MasterCard International Corp. who preceding his business career with a stint in journalism at Dallas and Washington, D.C. dailies. He is also a director of Clickshare.

Clickshare has provided initial resources to help establish the IIPC but the company will not control IIPC's research or recommendations, and relationships with other technology partners are likely, said Ball. He said publishers, banks, telcos and ISPs are among potential sponsors expressing interest in joining the collaborative.

An established, not-for-profit technology-transfer organization chartered and controlled by UMass faculty will manage IIPC's technical work at the direction of IIPC's member steering committee. The Applied Computing Systems Institute of Massachusetts Inc. (ACSIOM), is based adjacent to the Amherst campus.

The Internet Information Payments Collaborative c/o The Applied Computing Systems Institute of Massachusetts Inc. Massachusetts Venture Center 100 Venture Way Hadley MA 01035 [phone] [e-mail]