J2EE™ Technology in Practice: Building Business Applications With the Java™ 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition

1.1. The Networked Economy

There are shelves of books that describe the new networked economy, so we won't rehash those here. Simply put, in the networked economy, the exchange of information is as important as the exchange of goods and services. Even companies in traditional businesses find they have to develop new techniques for managing, disseminating, and taking advantage of their information resources. Companies need to network, to reach out to new customers, to interact more effectively with their suppliers, to engage in alliances with new partners.

This economy is largely propelled by the Internet, but it also takes in other networks, such as wireless networks of cellular phones and hand-held devices, corporate intranets, and a variety ...