150/5,000 Years of (E-)Commerce: History Repeats Itself Again

Commerce has been around for at least 5,000 years, and e-commerce has arguably existed for nearly 150 years. Amazingly, the evolution of e-commerce has closely paralleled the evolution of "real" commerce. But it's in Internet time: 5,000 years of mistakes, failures, and successes in commerce have been repeated in less than 1% of the time.

This talk will look at that parallel evolution, with numerous amusing examples. Then we'll see how people actually make money on the Net. We'll wind up with some speculations on the future (you should bring your own grains of salt).