English 420Y - Business Writing Online

Considering this was our groups first week together, it took us a while to get going. We started off emailing each other about who we were and really trying to give each person in our 4 person group a feel for who we are and how we work. It was very neat to see the diversity we have in our group and how far away our message are traveling just to get this project done. Matt seemed to be a very outgoing senior and wanted to be the leader, which turns out to be great because our first step, the Gnatt Chart, is due today.

This week has been a learning experience on how to work in groups online. It has been difficult to stay in touch with everyone on a consistent basis. This is mainly due to conflicting schedules and group members communicating from different time zones. I started the week by writing an email to introduce myself and throw out a few ideas on splitting up the work load. As the week has progressed we have gotten better at communicating through email and have made good use of the wiki page. The only problem I have seen is, we have not set up any exact times for group meetings.

This week I contributed to my group significantly. I was the first person to send out an e-mail to the group to get the details on the best time for them to meet online in the provided chat space, or on Instant Messenger. In my e-mail, I asked that each member provide their AOL Instant Messenger screen name, the time they could most conveniently work on things, and their time zone so we could figure out the specific time frame for each person. I also assigned partners for different parts of the project.

I think that the work has been good till now. I guess i will have to rearrange my schedule as I am presently in India, and I am way behind in the time zone. But il try to work according to the american time so that there is no communication problems and the matters could be deiscussed and sorted immidiately. Alex created a gantt chat which I compared with other examples and think it looks good. I think that the task of reading response, for which we had to find a brochure will help in the next week in figuring out the pattern and various other related details.

I have attached Group 2's Gantt Chart.

This week has been a struggle for our group. We are finding it hard to coordinate everyone’s schedules. In addition, we haven’t come to a decision on when or how we will have our group meetings. Part of the problems have been a result of two of the members from our group going on holiday this weekend, myself being one of them. I have tried to jumpstart our project by creating part of our Gannt chart for the other members to finish.

The First week went very well for our group. As soon as I got to know my group members I sent them an email introducing my self and asking them what would be the best way to communicate with them, I also asked them if they had Aim or any messenger service. They all were shocked when I told them that I was in Singapore for the summer and there is a real big time difference. It’s going to be a little hard for me. But I will make the best effort I can by keeping in touch with them. Over a time period it will all work out.

This week our team met for the first time and it was very productive. During our first meeting, we introduced ourselves as well as assigned positions for each member. I was assigned the technical work of the group and my first job was to design the Gantt chart. First, we all decided which information to include on the chart and time intervals for each task. When we finished our discussion, I began to progress with the chart. After the chart, we also assigned positions to whom is responsible for design, contacting, and so forth.

After being assigned to a group, I emailed to my group members and introduced myself.

In our group this week we started out with introductions, sharing who we are and where we are for the summer. We shared contact information and are still working out the best way to communicate which will probably be all hammered out before Monday rolls around. One of our members, Suchet, is all the way in Singapore and thus 13 time zones away. This was kind of a shock and will require a little more effort than the usual 1-2 hour time gaps between members. It just means we need to communicate effectively and stick to our plans so we don't fall behind and can't contact someone.