R é s e a u E u r o p é e n S e r v i c e s & E s p a c e

New Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) Services and Space: Aspects of Interrelation A report on recent publications in ITALY

Introduction
Finance and tourism: a perfect integration between service and NICT
NICT and Public Administration: citizens as clients
NICT, education, training and information services: the knowledge on-line
Conclusion
Bibliography

Introduction

Going through the Italian recent economic literature dedicated to the New Information and communication Technologies (from now on NICT) the dominant impression is that it gathers contributions coming from at least three distinct areas: economics, sociology and technological sciences. The multidisciplinary topic demands, therefore, to trace borders inside which develop this treatment, focusing our attention especially on socio-economic implications.

The first step is to identify the analysis object: what is intended as NICT and service activities and which intersections or differences are put into evidence already considering the definitions of the two subjects?

Traditional classification of services makes a first distinction between services for organisations (enterprises, societies) and the ones for individuals, sometimes parting from the latter social and public utility services (health, instruction, telecommunications), and identifies the principal interested sectors: tourism, transportation, credit, education, training, culture, health, information and communication (radio, television,÷).

Therefore, information itself is simultaneously a service and a resource to produce services or products, so that nowadays the ICT (involving both Information Technology and telecommunications) are rightly meant a production factor as the capital and work. It may be said that all the services suppose a certain form of information exchange between two subjects, and it is not necessary that this happens in the same time or place (e-mail communication is an ordinary case of not synchronous information transmission).

If for services space-time co-ordinates are less and less relevant, they are completely upside down in the field of NICT, of which the key characteristic is the absence of space-time bonds together with the nature of intangible good. In the end, either for services or for the NICT the human factor, as if to saCy the people who will use the given good, has a fundamental role to determine the consumption process and the content of the service itself (quality, cost) [8;13].

From these initial considerations it is deductible that there are considerable superimpositions between NICT and services, which explain how, in the last twenty years, we assisted to a more and more rapid diffusion of Information Technologies within service activities. Modern economies are dominated by services and NICT: particular growth is witnessed among services to production and the so called corporate services, i.e. tradeshows, services to firms, professional and legal services.

Another element seems very important: the concept of space and the territorial dimension of NICT and services, where it should be expected to be in front of a global dimension reference area.

The massive development of telecommunications and the spreading of Information Technologies, have made possible the instant information transmission in the whole world.

Studies in economics have even theorised the end of cities and economic activities globalisation, among which those linked to services. Instant transfer of money from one point of the world to another one, neutralisation of distances through tele-information, are only some of the consequences of an imposing economy more and more based on NICT and knowledge [2]. Reality contradicts this picture and, in particular for service activities, it shows a clear tendency to concentrate them in urban areas.

Localisation of value-added service activities happened in the big cities: finance, specialised services to enterprises (business services), industrial headquarters, banks [23; 26].

New forms of territorial centralisation appeared, mainly for direction and control functions: in the Î80s an unseen development was known by the core quarters of business and services of the most important cities in the world (confirmation comes from the growing renting rates in central areas, notwithstanding the constant expansion of telecommunication technologies).

Information industries need a wide material infrastructure made by strategic nodes, provided with an over-concentration of means. Therefore, cities are key places for the setting of structures taking care of advanced services and telecommunications, two essential factors to realise and manage global economic operations, also because it is known that in urban centres highly qualified human capital and well-educated users are found. New areas of economic influence have been created, even beyond the State (transnational regions), but with precise references (nodes) located in some restricted territorial areas [19; 22; 26].

The big development of tertiary activities also brought social changes, among which the need of a minimal alphabetisation about PC science among the population and the need of a better education (this is an effect observed in all the countries). Users actually risk to find themselves in front of services they cannot use ç particularly citizens towards services coming from Public Administration [16; 40] ç and new technologies need to enlarge the number of users so that their positive externalities grow with the increasing of the number of users and of correlated products and services (network effects).

The bigger diffusion leads to the investment in infrastructures able to sustain it: systems for a higher signal compression, to enlarge transmission capacity and carry high speed data and images; gateway technologies, aimed to increase the integration, to make them complementary, between existing products and processes, the new ones and the new technologies.

Information access, finding, storing and elaboration are possible, thanks to computer communication, at such low costs to have significant benefits for transaction costs, as for those of co-ordination (inside big dimension organisations) and localisation. Low costs foster also labour division and competition between products and processes, since they reduce the influence of distance for a wide range of products and services.

The industrial model arising in the 21^st century is deeply different from the traditional one: the role of the SMEs increased, as that of the demand for outsourcing; great territorial activity was born and consolidated (networks among companies just like those formed by the NICT), and, it is known,, this is a notable phenomenon for Italian economy. New localisation dynamics and new territorial models sprang from the new models for production and distribution .

The global dimension of the Net is placed side by side aiming to choose the exact places where locating at least the central unit giving the service (headquarters), and then the single branches, repeating a network structure recalling the one followed by the ICT. We are witness of the passage from the post-fordist paradigm ç in which flexibility, efficiency and quality overcome the simple mass production at low prices ç to the formation of company networks, in which the societies have the tendency to structure functionally to their need of continuos production upgrading.

Besides, the growing necessity of services suppliers to use advanced technologies to access global networks, and the consequent specialisation and segmentation inside the company, lead to an internal organisational division and to a physical segmentation outside. It is the so called Ïproductivity multi-localisationÓ, a model forecasted by big companies and later followed by service enterprises: on one hand government activity concentration in an urban environment culturally high, favourable to oneÌs image; on the other, de-localisation of ordinary production activities and services [15, 19]. This implies a further step towards a greater flexibility and the adoption of a modular or network organisation, in which many activities are outsourced ç especially those related to services: consultant service for personnel selection, for the management of information system, for promotion and marketing [18; 27; 28; 34; 41].

Internet and World Wide Web introduction in the early Î90s, allows mass utilisation of the fix net from oneÌs house and appeals the service companies to on-line interaction with a wide base of consumers. E-commerce introduces a fundamental switch in the use of data communication, from firm-to-firm stream to firm-to-consumers streams, changing the role and the economic interest target of the distribution net [44; 45].

The following exposition about some alliance forms between NICT and services allows to illustrate their principal characteristics and consequences in Italy. The cases chosen are some representative examples, frequently discussed by Italian economists, concerning: a) financial and tourist services - linked by a common success experience in the use of ICT -; b) services supplied by the Public Administration - characterised by considering the citizen not only a simple user, but a client -; c) information and education/training services - intended to promote the knowledge and to give contents to the information that travel through the net.

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Finance and tourism: a perfect integration between service and NICT

Financial services and banking are perhaps the fields in which the NICT have the bigger impact. And this is so spread, deep and revolutionary, that it is difficult to organise a structured analysis [30; 31].

During the past two decades the bank industry and the financial markets was completely transformed, either in Italy or in the rest of the world: work intensity was reduced and a very strong automation was pursued. Thus, financial products and services distribution is now very thorough and happens in a market with no border.

And that is not all: tendency is towards a constant and growing orientation to customer satisfaction, while the productive function is more often given to expert specialised operators; a continuos innovation of the product is carried out to keep oneÌs competitiveness, gain new markets, reduce the costs. In this context the investments into Information Technologies are substantially covered by an increased productivity. But what massive introduction of NICT into financial services really brought to?

The answer may be the real ÏvirtualisationÓ of the sector, thank to an extraordinary coincidence between opportunities offered by the NICT and this sector needs. Banks and financial intermediaries mainly need data registration, calculation, information exchange among clients about markets and concluded operations. These three activities are characterised, generally speaking, by the necessity to deal with a great amount of data in very short times, talking with numerous actors.

The ICT are just useful to store data in big databases, managing data, working them out at high speed, transferring them quickly over long distances, simultaneously and in a reliable way [30].

Nowadays the software is purchased outside (services buy services, and chains lengthen and cross more and more thanks giving to ICT); the electronic centre managing is almost every time outsourced or concentrated within the group (insourcing) [14].

All this led to a gradual de-localisation of the relationship between financial societies and the client, with a consequent market globalisation.

Tele-markets developed in the Î90s breaking into the international scenery in an overpowering way: the internet banking, or e-banking, changes the playing rules among the different actors (clients, financial intermediaries, technology suppliers). The repercussions are enormous, not only at an economical level, but also at the social one: the range of choice among numerous operators has become great (it is enough to think of Stock Exchanges and of the on-line market of shares).

The economic value of these services, on the supplierÌs side, remains bound to economies of scale and scope; the offer often arise from big investments in know-how and, since clients can choose the most convenient supplier in a very wide market (theoretically coincident with the whole world), they will choose the best product at the lowest price. Service quality and effectiveness are indispensable.

The solution, adopted by the financial sector to survive to competition, is to segment the most complex services: companies separate what they can produce and distribute in conditions of excellence by themselves, from what they can distribute but not produce, or produce but not distribute. This gives birth to partnerships, alliances, interrelations easily run thanks to ITC.

Tourism is the other field where the marriage between ICT and services saw a widespread success (and not only by specialists). It is sufficient to surf internet to realise how many hotels have their own web site, how frequent and easy is net booking, with no agency negotiation, how sophisticated are the sites dedicated to tourism and fun. Co-ordination of the travel market online is by now one of the examples of true global market [12; 20; 42; 43].

The putting on line of the cultural goods and the creation of museums networks are the next steps, suggested in many papers. The ICT use is a strategic force for the tourism sector, and a precious marketing tool, which, at last, might be able to express the whole potential of Italian tourist-cultural services. [6; 29].

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NICT and Public Administration: citizens as clients

Analysing the relationship between NICT and services supplied by Public Administration [37; 38], two evidences arise: a poor use of intranet technologies, mainly reserved to operations where ICT are indispensable; the realisation of services linked to internet often only experimental and placed within big cities.

The problem is even more serious if one considers that the development of ICT-related services, might favour and speed up the ongoing reform of Public Administration (PA), since it allows to put in contact different subjects, as privates and non-profit organisations, in a non competitive relationship. Devolution policies will be therefore helped, without damaging the supervision and the control given by the central government, which will be even helped in its supervision, being released from local administration weight.

European advice on matter as subsidiarity principle and governance might be easily followed, using the ICT for an Ïex anteÓ and Ïex postÓ control of the suggested initiatives, diminishing the wastes during transfers and reducing the asymmetric information characterising the relationship between administration and citizen.

The authority for ICT of the Italian PA (AIPA) gave guidelines for the development of the information society and the decentralisation of services, through a project going far beyond the simple cabling of the whole Administration. The citizen will have an easier access not only to common services and information (regional web sites, on-line services), but also to the social ones (medical tele-care, assistance for elderly people, job searching support) or to the ones for the enterprises (financing project to SME, e-offices, interactive web sites) [32; 33]. The institution of a unique network for PA (RUPA), the suppression of structural lacking, the technological and software homogeneity, will contribute to turn upside down the way to supply a service to citizens, to manage and take advantage from services. In a similar situation the citizen is put in the centre, as if he is the client of a service [3; 35].

The promotion of an alliance between many economical subjects ç public, private and third sector ç determines the birth of new production mechanisms and distribution services where transmission and information processing become a fundamental aspect of the activity itself. This is the concept of NUT (Nuclei Urbani Telematici), and of the digital cities (for instance, the Iperbole in Bologna or the civic net in Forlœ), which might help in connecting local services in a more efficient and effective way, reaching very high standards as far as specialisation and quality are concerned.

A recent study carried out in the area around Rome [25] showed how telecommunication frameworks, e-services and e-communication can influence the localisation of the production activities, at least as renting fees, human capital availability and transportation costs. This led to the birth of real centres of tertiary activities in big cities. The model is very similar to that of NICT: service activities are structured into a net and each field has a sub-net, made of different nodes constantly in contact [22]. These local nets tend naturally to expand their business towards global markets, where they find a demand which they can answer to, and it is here that distance stops to be a problem and NICT represent a crucial factor of cost saving.

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NICT, education, training and information services: the knowledge on-line

Thinking of information as a well-distinguished productive resource is to relate either with the development of NICT or the growth of the advanced tertiary sector. It has been modified the way to produce and distribute information services, considering the existence of different kinds of users: on one hand a researcher needs to go deeply into a subject (searching raw data, new approaches); on the other, for example, an economic operator needs information that can help strategic decisions taking. Facing this demand, the big centres of statistics (public ones, often European) and national libraries answered gathering and linking the data, making quality better and putting as much as possible (on cost basis) on-line [11; 24].

New services arose (even private ones), which put together virtual communities with the same interests, creating specific portals (called Vertical portals or Vortals) which represent a valuable source for those who are interested in a particular segment or field of study.

The attention paid for profiles, needs, orientations of specialised information users has significantly, together with an increased knowledge of their own needs from the usersÌ side. It is in this way that on-line libraries and catalogues were born, so as links between public and university libraries, services to specialised press, on-line newspapers and TV news [36].

The most relevant result is a speeding up of the time necessary to get data and news, formerly difficult to reach. An outstanding example is the so called Ïgrey literatureÓ, that is group of reports, or documents, usually absent from publishing channels: the Net allows to skip the publishing path, and the authors of these works may put them by themselves at complete disposal of a wide reading public, at almost no cost.

There is anyway an interesting paradox: the navigator faces a quick data collection and richness of sources, but never before this period of direct and easy access to news he needs a guide to select really useful information, check their reliability, know their updating, measure their quality. So the excess of information is sometimes related with slowness, growing costs in terms of waste of time, inefficiency and often there is not production of knowledge [23].

The role of the information intermediaries is therefore getting more and more importance. These can be simple browsers given by the most famous providers, data banks of organisations, associations, consulting societies. It is not by chance that recent studies on business economy theorise the birth of the knowledge manager, a manager able to deal with and select the information travelling through an internal net or coming from an external source and, thus, to avoid dangerous phenomena of over-information [9; 10].

Service industries (as seen above for the financial sector) radically changed the job concept (to the extreme of tele-work), going from the simple automation of the work process to the creation of new procedures and ways to deal with internal relationship and the same information systems (governance of information systems). The needs for new professional skills arise, together with a development of a new kind of collaboration and of more flexible job contracts.

In Italy there is a gap in the development of ICT in comparison with other countries. In fact, on one hand, we have growing investments in ICT by service industries (till the 2.5 % of turnover) and there is almost one computer for each worker; on the other one, we observe that there is a demand for qualified human capital which is not enough satisfied [2; 8].

For this reason nowadays the Italian education policies makers forecast a massive introduction of NICT and, following the European trend, are experimenting with several public and private projects (i.e.: Area Scuola Formazione e Ricerca; Adapt LSN; Consorzio Nettuno by Confindustria) [5; 40].

The NICT will change the whole educational sector (specific and general education, university, research institutes), involving in addition the role of public sector, which in the education system covers at least three tasks: it controls the system, supplies and buys education and training services.

The professional training services will have to enlarge their range of courses as soon as possible: appropriate education, life-long training, learning in adulthood qualification of the so called Ïobsolete human capitalÓ. This is a fundamental goal also considering that the adaptation capacity for the vocational training is bigger and faster than for general training provided by the national education system (schools and universities), the latter needing institutional reforms to modify the programs.

The use of NICT allows to distribute and broadcast on the large scale the training programs, that can not have economies of scale cause to their characteristics of specific service for one enterprise/user, and thus they must use more intensive marketing tools and communication strategies and provide new models of teaching (for example a more flexible method, where the time and place unit is not required).

The variety of NICT permits to plan a very large range of education services (tele-training, open learning, self learning, tutoring on-line, groups of net-studing and net-working without geographic bonds) and offers useful checks and feed-back on results and costs supported.

This opportunity to link more users by net about a same topic - any time and any place- advantages the research work of institutions operating in this field by means of various forms of collaboration: widespread co-operation between different subjects thanks to e-mail transmission; sharing of enormous database (database of universities, statistic and research centres); simultaneous access to books placed online and to all the specific literature (e.g. working papers or workshops material) [40].

Learning and knowledge are therefore a key point for the NICT and, maybe, for the new model of goods and services production (post-fordist paradigm).

An element of this topic deserves at least some words: the European nations are on the top of cultural production and publishing sector, but a delay in the use of NICT seems now to weak this supremacy, so that Europe will probably held only the copyrights and lose the profits coming from the e-commerce of books [26].

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Conclusion

This short survey gone through the most recent publications, without being a synthesis of all the available literature, reveals some interesting aspects that future papers, also empirical papers, will be able to explore furthermore.

The changes due to the NICT are to be included in a larger portrait together with present social and economic transformations (growth of service activities; globalisation; crisis of Welfare State; advent of Wellbeing State). This situation implies a revision about the way to conceive and make the economic policies, particularly the local ones.

The NICT and the increasing weight of the financial markets (strongly connected to the ICT) are the driving forces of the globalisation and the expansion of tertiary sector in a modern economy [30].

There are two paradox in the NICT diffusion: a) they need a global spread (more users, less costs), but they stress the local dimensions (see the case of the urban centres); b) they deal with and transfer information, but they produce a very little knowledge.

All the definitions of the modern economy are concentrated around the debate information and/or knowledge: net economy, information society, knowledge or learning economy. However, the former definitions wrongly resume the so called new economy: we can think that it is a unique and describable phenomenon, but it is more probable that it includes many faces and the aforementioned paradox are only some of them.

Besides the importance of the knowledge factor, the use of Internet makes crucial the time competition (further evolution of the quality competition), based on the innovation of the product more than on the costs decreasing and promotes the co-makership (alliance between client and supplier) [17]. The increasing level of complexity, diversification and specialisation in the required services makes more advantageous for the enterprises to buy them externally than to produce them internally (outsourcing).

What will happen in the next years? In several studies the economists underline that the running change will be a constant factor of our life and it will have to modify the internal culture of companies: rapid decision-making, multitasking capability, lifelong learning, customers satisfaction, quality, high value-added products, networking [9; 13].

Some researchers [30] theorise also the coming of e-world not only concerning financial services, but also all kinds of service activities, thinking of a world composed by e-commerce, e-banking, e-service, e-marketing. We are therefore far from the use of Internet as an easy means of transmission and communication: virtual supermarkets, portals dedicated to particular topics, sophisticated mix of product and service.

This forecast is still to demonstrate, at least for the Italian case. In fact, the consumers surfing Internet are not so many for different reasons: there is a lack of computer science alphabetisation; the transactions are considered not completely sure (specific rules about e-market and payments by credit card in Internet do not exist till now); elderly people do not use the Net (the ageing process of Italian population will modify the target of service and NICT industry towards user-friendly products); the consumers keep on preferring the traditional retailing (even for services), which is however favourite by a very concentrated urban tissue. Where the time plays a crucial role, the same enterprises choose to buy a service from service societies located in the neighbourhood (e.g. legal services), because it seems to advantage the interpersonal relations needed to obtain a tailored service. The services to organisations are therefore placed next the cities centres and this explains, as shown before, the strange cohabitation of agglomeration trend and global market.

The territorial systems carry out a double task: as a precondition for the installation of technologies (providing suitable infrastructures) and as a cultural and economic resource for their diffusion (promoting relations, producing services, offering qualified human capital).

In conclusion, it seems that the presence of multiple crux (crucial nodes), which characterises the net structure, might be a good interpretation both for NICT development, and for the framework of the modern services sector or, extending the perspective, for the modern regional economies.

The knowledge and the learning, which run along these information highways, go on changing the contents and forms of services and represent the dominant element that, coming from NICT and services, reaches all the economic activities and qualifies the economy itself (learning economy).

To the learning process of institutions, that can be accelerate by a governance approach, corresponds, and often anticipates it, the one of the enterprises and individuals. It means that the economic agents are in a situation that demands flexibility, new skills and capabilities.

Than, the axe of the relations between the different agents will try to follow a bottom-up direction more often than a top-down [17; 19; 30].

In this picture, drawn by the aid of recent bibliography, the governance approach can be read as Ïgovernment with no powerÓ, not in meaning of Ïweak governmentÓ, but in the one of government where the bounders of institutional power have to be negotiated every time, above all at a local level.

It implies that all the potentialities of the relational goods and civil society arise creating a favourable ground for the socio-economic development, for the new organisations (associations, non-profit societies) and for new modalities of production (networks). The consequence is a new allocation of investments and resources that can multiply the public wellbeing.

Concerning the issue ÏNICT and servicesÓ, the literature suggests some main directions for the next economic policies: localisation of infrastructures supporting NICT; development of governance models; regulation of Internet market; info-alphabetisation of population (an appropriate training system and a digital literacy could prevent indeed the skill shortages and the info-exclusion, or digital divide, of some levels of population or some territorial areas).

Since an e-economy of services could not exist without a real economy, the risk [5; 19; 30] is now that a lack of investments in NICT, together with strategies oriented to minimise the ICT gap between different regions, makes the world evoked by the e-words only a virtual world.

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Marotta G. "Internet e turismo: À qui la Nuova Frontiera?" in "La Rivista del Turismo", Centro Studi del Touring Club Italiano, n. 3 /maggio-giugno 2000, Ed. a cura del Touring Club Editore, Milano 2000.[Internet and Tourism: is it here the New Frontier?In the review The Review of Tourism.

Martini M. "L'impatto delle tecnologie informatiche sull'industria bancaria e sui mercati finanziari" in ÏEconomia ItalianaÓ, rivista quadrimestrale, n. 2 /maggio-agosto 1999, Ed. a cura di Banca di Roma, Roma 1999.[The impact of information technologies on bank industry and financial marketsin the review Italian Economy.]

Massaroni E. e Vagnani G. "La banca virtuale: inquadramento teorico e stato dell'arte in Europa" in "Economia e diritto del terziario", rivista quadrimestrale, n. 2 /anno 2000, Ed. FrancoAngeli, Milano 2000.[The virtual bank: theory and work in progress in Europe in the review Economy and law of tertiary sector.]

Micossi S. "Il networking delle Pubbliche Amministrazioni: l'impatto sulle politiche e le istituzioni nell' Unione Europea" in ÏEconomia ItalianaÓ, rivista quadrimestrale, n. 2 /maggio-agosto 1999, Ed. a cura di Banca di Roma, Roma 1999.[The networking of the Public Administrations: the impact on European Union policies and institutionsin the review Italian Economy.]

Ongaro E: "Reengineering dei processi; strumenti per l'innovazione della Pubblica Amministrazione" in "Economia & Management", n. di luglio 2000, Ed. ETAS-RCS, Milano 2000.

Reengineering of processes; means for the Public Administration innovationin Economics & Management.]

Ordanini A. "Nuova intermediazione. Gli e-services nei rapporti tra imprese", Working Paper n. 5 anno 2000, a cura di I-LAB, Centro Ricerca Economia Digitale-Universitá Bocconi, Milano 2000.

[New intermediaries. The e-services in the relations among enterprises.]

Pacifici G., Pozzi P. e Rovinetti A., a cura di, ÏBologna cittá digitaleÓ ç FIT (Forum per la tecnologia dellÌinformazione), Ed. FrancoAngeli, Milano 1999.[Bologna, digital city.]

Pettenati C. "Nuove tecnologie per la gestione del Profilo Dell'Utente" in "Biblioteche Oggi", rivista mensile, n. di giugno 1999, Ed. a cura di Editrice Bibliografica, Milano 1999= [New technologies to manage the userÌs profile in the review Libraries Today.]

Rey G.M. "L'innovazione tecnologica come guida al cambiamento nelle amministrazioni pubbliche " in ÏEconomia ItalianaÓ, rivista quadrimestrale, n. 2 /maggio-agosto 1999, Ed. a cura di Banca di Roma, Roma 1999.[Technology innovation as a guide to the change of Public Administrationsin the review Italian Economy.]

Rey G.M. "Internet e la Pubblica Amministrazione" in "Economia e diritto del terziario", rivista quadrimestrale, n. 2 /anno 2000, Ed. FrancoAngeli, Milano 2000.[Internet and Public Administrationin the review Economy and law of tertiary sector.]

Roppo V. "Internet: i nodi della regolazione" in "Economia e diritto del terziario", rivista quadrimestrale, n. 2 /anno 2000, Ed. FrancoAngeli, Milano 2000.[Internet: the nodes of regulationsin the review Economy and law of tertiary sector]

Santarelli R. ÏLe tecnologie della comunicazione tra mondo del lavoro e formazioneÓ in ÏEconomia ItalianaÓ, rivista quadrimestrale, n. 2 /maggio-agosto 1999, Ed. a cura di Banca di Roma, Roma 1999.[The Communication Technologies between labour world and professional trainingin the review Italian Economy.]

Secchi R. "Il ruolo dell'ICT nell'impresa virtuale" in "Economia & Management", n. di maggio 2000, Ed. ETAS-RCS, Milano 2000.[The ICT role in the virtual enterprisein the review Economy & Management.]

Vaccaro E. "Il fattore umano vs Internet" in "La Rivista del Turismo", Centro Studi del Touring Club Italiano, n. 3 /maggio-giugno 2000, Ed. a cura del Touring Club Editore, Milano 2000.[The human factor vs Internetin the review The Review of Tourism.]

Vaccaro E. "La rivoluzione di Internet nel settore alberghiero" in "La Rivista del Turismo", Centro Studi del Touring Club Italiano, n. 3 /maggio-giugno 2000, Ed. a cura del Touring Club Editore, Milano 2000.[The Internet revolution in the hotel tradein the review The Review of Tourism.]

Valdani E. "I 4 fondamenti dell'economia digitale" in "Economia & Management", n. di maggio 2000, Ed. ETAS-RCS, Milano 2000.[The four basis of the digital economyin the review Economics & Management.]

Verona G.M. e Sabbaghian N. "Infomediazione e nuove competenze di marketing. ( Come CHL sta rivoluzionando la distribuzione dei prodotti ICT)", Working Paper n. 4 anno 2000, a cura di I-LAB, Centro Ricerca Economia Digitale-Universitá Bocconi, Milano 2000.

[Info-mediation and new skills of marketing.]