PITTSBURGH-Carnegie Mellon University will host the Fifth International Conference on Electronic Commerce (ICEC) Sept. 30- Oct. 3 at the Hilton Hotel in downtown Pittsburgh. It is the first time this leading eBusiness research conference is being held in the United States.

"ICEC provides an interdisciplinary forum where researchers and practitioners can come together, present their latest findings, and engage in discussions aimed at charting the future of this fascinating and ever expanding area," said conference general chairman Norman M. Sadeh, associate professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon.

"Despite the doom and gloom of the post-bubble years," he said, "e-Business innovation has not stopped. Adoption of electronic business practices are continuing to rise and, with annual worldwide transaction volumes poised to pass the trillion-dollar mark, it is clear that e-Business is here to stay."

Sadeh cited the emergence of Web services, the mobile Internet, agent technologies, wireless computing, automated trading and negotiation techniques and P2P as just a few examples of technologies spawned by this new way of doing business.

Unlike more specialized conferences, ICEC2003 will include tracks in technology, management, and law and policy.

Keynote speakers include:

• Glen Meakem, founder and chairman of Pittsburgh-based Freemarkets, Inc. speaking on the Global Supply Management Revolution;
• Jeffrey B. Ritter, partner, Kirkpatrick and Lockhart, LLP, speaking on Defining Systems Law;
• James A. Hendler, professor of computer science, University of Maryland, speaking on Dynamic Service Choreography on the Web.
• David J. Farber, Carnegie Mellon distinguished career professor of computer science and public policy, speaking on Digital Rights Management: Nightmare or Blessing.

The conference will also feature paper presentations and panels, including a plenary panel discussion on Next Generation Search Infrastructure for e-Commerce, chaired by Carnegie Mellon Computer Science Professor Jaime Carbonell, a panel on the ML Rule Initiative, chaired by Said Tabet, and a third on The New Supply Chain Trading Agent Competition, chaired by North Carolina State University Assistant Professor Peter Wurman.

For more details on ICEC2003, see: www.icec03.org.