First a review of announcements from class today:

1. We are having an R orientation session tomorrow in K 354 (same room as lecture and section) from 7PM-8:30PM. Bring your laptop if you want to follow along. People who have never used R before are very strongly encouraged to attend! I will post the materials online for those who cannot make it.  Try to download R before you come (see the technology handout for details).

2. We are having section this Wednesday in K-354 from 7PM-8:30PM.  Section will be taped, and we will post all section material to the course website each week.

3. All the handouts are available on the course website: http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k76029&pageid=icb.page385645  The technology handout is under Computing Documentation entitled: Software You Will Need for Gov 2001.  Be sure to read it along with the syllabus!

4. Readings for this week are "Publication, Publication" and the first three chapters of Unifying Political Methodology.  You also need to watch lecture 2 on the video annotation tool.  (More on these below)

5. If you didn't sign the video release please come see me during section!

Second, a note about this list.  Feel free to use this list to email about anything related to the course -- finding groups to work with, problem sets, questions from lecture, issues about the replication paper, etc. The list is a terrific resource and you'll generally get a speedy response, no matter what your request (and no matter the time of day!). Note that you must use the email address that you used to sign up for the list in order to send an email to the list. Also note that if you hit "reply," your message will be forwarded to the entire list, not just to the person to whom you're replying!  Also don't forget the searchable list archive which is filled with tons of good info. http://lists.gking.harvard.edu/lists/gov2001_at_lists_gking_harvard_edu/

Third, you may have noticed we have a lot of new technical gadgets.  You will be receiving an invitation to register with PollEverywhere (our cell phone texting company) and NB (the text annotation tool).  You will also (hopefully) be granted guest access to the course website so that you can turn in the first problem set (due Feb 2nd).  The video annotation tool is on its way.  We will show you all of these things in section this week.  If you have a question, first check the technology handout, then email the list.

Thanks again.  We are really excited to have you all in the class!

Brandon and Molly