This is a key concept that I first coined in 1996. It really refers to the manipulation or aggregation of information to produce higher valued information-based services and products. Any successful company thrives on it today. It is what portals are all about. It is also how large companies are building their electronic commerce communities.
Companies still confuse all types of challenges facing electronic commerce and the Internet.
You need to divide them in 1. technical, 2. business and organizational, 3. legal and regulatory and 4. behavioral and educational. The new value chain. It is at the heart of the changing business requirements for competing in electronic markets. It gets re-defined. The three spheres of connectivity.