CommerceNet responds to users' ecommerce concerns

NEWS The UK arm of CommerceNet - an international consortium of over 600 businesses - has announced an action plan based on a members' survey about the state of ecommerce in Europe. The organisation plans to lobby the EC to improve Internet infrastructure and will begin interoperability testing for ecommerce products. CommerceNet MD, Neil Ellul, told Silicon News: "The survey covered all the usual concerns - slow development, low consumer confidence - but we have drawn out two key issues to push in Europe." Ellul said a surprising number of CommerceNet members are worried about poor Internet performance. "Although our members are users, rather than developers, they want us to start lobbying to improve the infrastructure of the Internet. We will put pressure on the EC for this." The second issue to arise was security. "Our members are happy with the technologies, but they want us to boost interoperability," said Ellul. To achieve this, CommerceNet will start testing the interoperability of ecommerce solutions on their behalf. "We are not trying to standardise the technologies - they will all be on offer - but there will inevitably be some natural selection depending on vendors' choices," he said. The results of the tests will be published, and the most popular technologies will be presented to standards bodies such as the W3C and the IETF. CommerceNet members in the UK include Blackwells, British Airways, Midland Bank and Scottish Power.