Cover -- Contents -- Preface -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction: The final frontier for electronic trade -- Open markets: a second tier of electronic trade -- Secure electronic marketplaces open to any seller? -- Could electronic commerce ever deliver this theoretical potential? -- Government's role as initiator of new technology -- Competition between governments: a coming force in electronic trade? -- Notes -- Section one: The ultimate potential of e-trade: how open public markets might work -- 1 Demonstration: booking overnight accommodation in a GEM -- Market entry -- Complaints procedures -- 2 Growing the new markets -- Market overviews -- A market in everything -- 3 The system's relationship with users -- 4 Demonstration: connected transactions - hiring a van and driver in GEMs -- A new world of work -- 5 Contractual chains -- More complex packages -- 6 Easy access to capital -- A flexible money market -- 7 Would populations start to use a GEMs system? -- Would sellers enter such a competitive marketplace? -- Notes to section one -- Section two: A new democratic capitalism: the impact of public electronic markets -- 8 The effect of GEMs on business: a decline in big institutions -- 9 GEMs and employment: the rise of portfolio working -- A new market in local services -- The rise of sole traders -- Starting work in public electronic markets -- Training: out of the classroom into the community -- What impact would GEMs have on overall levels of work? -- 10 GEMs and society: new initiatives made easy -- A national parallel economy -- Community organization -- Grass roots initiatives to replace government provision -- Social networks: using computers to increase human contact -- Universal legal services -- Electronic voting: 'participative democracy' -- User boycotts: forcing the supply chain.

11 GEMs' impact on parliament: technologically literate politicians and small government -- Government control of a GEMs economy: precision and imagination required -- Tax and social policy -- Environmental policy -- People on benefits -- 12 A country with GEMs in a global economy: international advantage -- Notes to section two -- Section three: The battle for public markets: electronic trade becomes politicized -- 13 Could there be a backlash against electronic shopping? -- The disproportionate benefits of online trade for large sellers -- Market force: the black arts available to online marketeers -- The potential impact of uncoordinated electronic commerce on society -- Government's response to maturing e-trade -- 14 How a government could instigate GEMs -- What do governments have to offer a winning consortium? -- What concessions might politicians extract from a winning consortium? -- 15 Opposition to public markets -- Points of opposition -- Likely tactics of the opposition -- 16 Which countries would have most to gain from a GEMs launch? -- Notes to section three -- Section four: How might businesses respond to the rise of public electronic markets? -- 17 Innovation becomes decisive -- Constantly experiment with product range -- Consider expansion into previously unthinkable sectors -- Service industry innovation might acquire a new importance -- 18 Prepare to let go of customers -- 'Customer owning' would be an option, but would probably not be worthwhile -- Expect a rise in ideological customers -- 19 Exploit the flexibility now on offer -- Reassess the importance of a fixed supply chain -- Start rostering employees and assets on the system -- Be prepared for the business to erode to a core activity -- Notes to section four -- Conclusion: Electronic markets as a public utility -- Appendix one: Principles governing GEMs.

Appendix two: A business model for initiating GEMs -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- Y.