Despite the early excitement surrounding business-to-business (B2B) e-marketplaces during the Internet boom, many exchanges have since closed, citing their inability to generate sufficient revenue from thin transaction volumes. Discussions with industry participants revealed that many firms were carefully watching developments, but were reluctant to commit serious trading volumes to online channels. For the near future at least, many firms intend to continue to conduct the majority of their strategic transactions through traditional relationship-based contracting. Surviving e-marketplaces are trying hard to come up with compelling value propositions for participants. In this survey we explore the difficulties faced by e-marketplaces and discuss potential sources of value that will encourage their adoption by preserving and complementing long-term B2B relationships. We focus on the role of e-marketplaces in B2B transactions, where long-term relationships between buyers and sellers are important, as is the case in many supply chains. Our objective is to present an industry perspective that will help a business-oriented reader to develop an understanding of the opportunities and issues associated with e-marketplaces. In addition, we use realworld examples to motivate future research and applications in this area. Along with the Internet boom came high expectations for the role of e-marketplaces and their potential to enhance supply chain efficiency. 1 From 1998 to 2000, business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce was heralded as the next major innovation in business, and analysts projected that trillions of dollars would flow through B2B exchanges by 2004. Legions of exchanges sprang up virtually overnight, supported by a new industry of e-business software vendors providing tools for everything from dynamic pricing to collaborative commerce. This brief but meteoric rise came to a sudden halt by the end of 2000. In the two-month period following the peak, many e-marketplaces failed or merged. Firms reevaluated their e-business strategies and reduced their investments in B2B activities. Investors lost confidence in B2B-related stocks. Within a year, Ariba and Commerce One, two key B2B e-commerce

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Talk about time travel is puzzling even if it isn't obviously contradictory. Philosophers however are divided about whether time travel involves empirical paradox or some deeper metaphysical incoherence. It is suggested that time travel requires a Parmenidean four-dimensionalist metaphysical conception of the world in time. The possibility of time travel is addressed (mainly) from within a Parmenidean metaphysical framework, which is accepted by David Lewis in his defence of the coherence of time travel. It is argued that time travel raises formidable difficulties which are not satisfactorily resolved by Lewis's ingenious defence of time travel. Objections to time travel considered include: (1) travel to other times is impossible because there is nowhere (or “nowhen”) to go to; (2) the problem that upon setting out on a journey to the past a time machine will collide with itself; (3) time travel generates a mysterious temporal dualism between experiential time and physical time; (4) travel to the past permits reverse causation, raising the possibility of causal loops and attendant problems arising, for example, from the prospect of empirical contradiction and the possibility of someone being one of their ancestors.

ABSTRACT. Philosophy of ecology has been slow to become established as an area of philosophical interest, but it is now receiving considerable attention. This area holds great promise for the advancement of both ecology and the philosophy of science. Insights from the philosophy of science can advance ecology in a number of ways. For example, philosophy can assist with the development of improved models of ecological hypothesis testing and theory choice. Philosophy can also help ecologists understand the role and limitations of mathematical models in ecology. On the other side, philosophy of science will be advanced by having ecological case studies as part of the stock of examples. Ecological case studies can shed light on old philosophical topics as well as raise novel issues for the philosophy of science. For example, understanding theoretical terms such as "biodiversity" is important for scientific reasons, but such terms also carry political importance. Formulating appropriate definitions for such terms is thus not a purely scientific matter, and this may prompt a reevaluation of philosophical accounts of defining theoretical terms. We consider some of the topics currently receiving attention in the philosophy of ecology and other topics in need of attention. Our aim is to prompt further exchange between ecology and philosophy of science and to help set the agenda for future work in the philosophy of ecology. The topics covered include: the role of mathematical models, environmental problem formulation, biodiversity, and environmental ethics.

We describe an IBM strategic consulting offering involving a methodology and an analytic tool. The methodology, the Risk and Opportunity Assessment, provides a systematic approach for diagnosing problems in the value chain of the enterprise, and for selecting and prioritizing e-business initiatives. Applying this methodology involves the use of an analytic tool, the Value Chain Modeling Tool, that uses management science and operations research techniques, as well as techniques from the domains of finance and supply chain management, to model the endto-end value chain of the enterprise. This approach has been successfully used to improve the financial and operating performance of several enterprises.

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