Hi everyone! Welcome to September!

You have two instructors named David – David Vogt & David Porter.   You can reach us whenever you wish at david DOT vogt AT ubc DOT ca and dporter AT bccampus DOT ca via email, or by using the message system in this weblog.

Rather than two concurrent sections of the course, we’ve combined everyone in order to get some crowdsourcing happening. We’re therefore a big group, which is why building a presence for yourself through good postings will be essential to your success. However, given the group size, be smart (and courteous!) – make all of your postings brief and valuable.

A few important points about this WordPress environment we’re going to share:

• appropriate to the innovative spirit of ETEC522, we’re always trying something new. Please walk through “How To Use This Weblog” under the 1. Startup tab above to understand how this environment works.
• it’s not an experiment if it doesn’t fail sometimes, so let us know when something isn’t working, or contact the MET support crew.
• when you introduce yourself you don’t need to reveal your external email as we did above because we’re all connected via private email within this system. However, that’s one of the few things that are private. Please be aware at all times that your postings here are public – conduct yourselves accordingly. And if you do reveal your email, use a convention like I’ve done above.

Here’s your job list for this first week:

1. Carefully review everything about this course and what is expected of you by making your way through all of the section under the Startup tab above. Let us know immediately if anything isn’t clear, or if you have questions.
2. Complete Activity #1A – Introduce Yourself!
3. Complete Activity #1B – Emerging Markets Poll
4. Notify me (DavidV) by email if you have a special interest in any of the emerging market topics – if so I can try to assign you (no guarantees) to the appropriate team for Assignment #2.

Please enjoy the course – I’m really looking forward to your contributions!

DavidV