The rapid development of information and communication technologies has
been one of the major issues in the world economy of the last decade.
Especially, the fast growth of the Internet has introduced completely
new economic and related issues, like world-wide Electronic Commerce and
its taxing, telework activities, distance learning, and so on. It has
become possible to split organizations into small units which may form
an electronically connected network taking new shapes in a flexible way.
Since the growth of the Internet has been fast and fairly uncontrolled,
a strong need for new laws, sometimes called Cyberlaw, has emerged. On
the other hand, the individual skills of information technologies may be
of critical importance to the success of a person in his or her
professional career. This book discusses several new aspects and
economic impacts of digital information technologies. A primer on
Internet economics provides an introduction to the structure of the
Internet and its economic issues. Further related subjects are taxing of
the world-wide Electronic Commerce, Cyberlaw, learning with hypermedia,
and distance learning over the network. We also discuss the general
impact of information technologies on innovation dynamics, labor demand,
and human capital depreciation. Results of a recent survey on European
telework activities give insight into rapid organizational changes due
to the digitalization of economies. General information technology
related aspects, like the need of a rapid transfer of new economic
knowledge and semantic integration of online information, are provided.