Book excerpt: The electronic marketplace is a global one, and it's changing every aspect of the consumer-vendor relathionship. The marketplace is the place of exchange between buyer and seller. Once one rode a mule to get there; now one rides the Internet. An electronic marketplace can span two rooms in the same building, or two continents. How individuals, firms, and organizations approach and define the electronic marketplace of the future depends on people's ability to ask the right questions now and to take advantage of the opportunities that will arise over the next few years. The contributors to this volume are prime movers in major industries that are remaking themselves in order to shape the global marketplace. They examine the consumers' new powers to assess and exchange goods and services over unparalleled distances. They discuss the opportunities and risks posed by the new integration between manufacturer and consumer, by the erosion of centralized authority, by real-time choice in every financial contingency, and by the fact that travel and transportation have been delegated to the machine processes that can best handle them. They also reflect on how to set an intelligent value on the coming changes, on the tools and procedures required to create this new marketplace of marketplaces. Contributors Les Alberthal, William D. Bandt, Robert J. Bonometti, David Braunschvig, Stephen D. Crocker, Walter Forbes, Denos Gazis, Daniel E. Geer, Jr., Irving Goldstein, Edward D. Horowitz, Daniel P. Keegan, Raymond W. Smith, Russel B. Stevenson, Jr., Patrick E. White