Towards the Knowledge Society: eCommerce, eBusiness and eGovernment The Second IFIP Conference on E-Commerce, E-Business, E-Government (I3E 2002) . in Information and Communication Technology)

BE 2002 is the second in a series of conferences on eCommerce, eBusiness, and eGovemment organised by the three IFIP committees TC6, TC8, and TCll. As BE 2001 did last year in Zurich, BE 2002 continues to provide a forum for users, engineers, and researchers from academia, industry and government to present their latest findings in eCommerce, eBusiness, and eGovernment applications and the underlying technologies which support those applications. This year's conference comprises a main track with sessions on eGovernment, Trust, eMarkets, Fraud and Security, eBusiness (both B2B and B2C), the Design of systems, eLearning, Public and Health Systems, Web Design, and the Applications of and Procedures for eCommerce and eBusiness, as well as two associated Workshops (not included in these proceedings): eBusiness Models in the Digital Online Music and Online News Sectors; and eBusiness Standardisation - Challenges and Solutions for the Networked Economy. The 47 papers accepted for presentation in these sessions and published in this book of proceedings were selected from 80 submissions. They were rigorously reviewed (all papers were double-blind refereed) before being selected by the International Programme Committee. This rejection rate of almost 50% indicates just how seriously the Committee took its quality control activities.

João Monteiro is Associate Professor of Computer Engineering in the Department of Industrial Electronics at the University of Minho in Guimaräes, Portugal. Paula Swatman is Professor of eBusiness and Director of the Institute for Management at the University of Koblenz-Landau in Germany, as well as Professor of Information Systems within the School of I.S. at Deakin University in Australia. Luis Valadares Tavares is Professor of Operational Research and Systems Engineering at IST - Technical University of Lisbon, Portugal, as well as President of IST's Center for Urban and Regional Systems and of the Portuguese eBusiness Society.