The course discusses issues related to the definition of the digital economy and information economy. In particular, the special characteristics of digital goods are studied and how they influence and transform the economy and the related activities that develop within it. After successful completion of the course, students are expected to be able to:

• Define the concept of the digital economy
• Understand the special characteristics of digital goods
• Recognize when a good has the dimension of a digital good
• Analyze and discuss digital goods within the context of economics
• Understand the changes that digital goods bring to business strategy and decision-making issues
• Understand the transition from economies of scale to the network economy facilitated by digital goods
• Understand the policies that can be applied to digital goods
• Study and analyze quantitatively and qualitatively businesses operating in the area of digital goods
• Define the concept of e-business, describe the forms of e-commerce and distinguish the business models of digital businesses
• Define the basic theoretical concepts that constitute the technological infrastructure of cryptocurrencies and describe the architecture and operation of specific cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoin
• Recognize the concept of intellectual property rights in information goods and explain concepts of “openness”, such as open knowledge, open data, Creative Commons licenses, Free Software/Open Source Software
• Study cases of digital businesses and identify elements of their business model and the impact of digital goods.

The Information Age and the Digital Economy. Key ICT and Industry 4.0 advancements (such as AI, IoT, and blockchain) as the technical foundation of the digital economy. The Information Economy and Digital Goods. Pricing Information. Versioning Information. Rights management. Recognizing Lock-in. Managing Lock-in. Networks, network effects and positive feedback. Cooperation and Compatibility. Wagging standards wars. The digital enterprise and electronic business. Electronic commerce and digital business models. Case studies such as multi-sided platforms. Business models for digital goods businesses.

Lectures (2 hours per week) and Laboratory exercises (1 hour per week)

• Quizzes on the E-Learning platform and Homework assignments (oral presentation and examination): 60%
• Capstone project conducted in teams (Case-study with oral presentation and examination): 40%

• Use of e-class
• Slides and notes to support lectures
• Use of the E-Learning platform eclass in order to:
  • Organize the course material (slides, notes, examples, code snippets etc)
  • Perform weekly online quizzes to evaluate the understanding of the related course material
  • Hand in homeworks
  • Communicate with the students and the class