Hi folks,

Here are some of the links Prof Bugg-Levine mentioned in class yesterday, as well as a link to a cool development-oriented fund and a quick primer on posting to the blog.

First, Gapminder's Human Development Trends presentation, which we saw in class. This page lets you download the presentation to your Mac or PC.

Second, the Gapminder 2010 World Map, also in both Mac and PC versions.

Third, Prof Bugg-Levine recommends you check out the Grassroots Business Fund, which provides investment capital and capacity building to businesses in several developing countries. You can read their Fall 2010 newsletter here and join their mailing list here.

Fourth, we really envision this blog as a discussion hub for everyone in the class. To that end, I'll be sending everyone an invitation to become a blog author, so you'll be free to post relevant links etc whenever you'd like. If you see a cool international development article somewhere, for instance, you won't need to go through Prof. Bugg-Levine or me, but can instead go ahead and post it directly to the blog.

Posting is easy. After you've accepted the invitation to become an author (and set up a Gmail account, if you dont already have one), you'll see "New Post" in the upper right-hand corner of the screen when you're on the blog homepage. That'll take you to a text box where you can add the post's title and content. If you want to embed a link, first ensure you're in the "Edit HTML" tab of the text box (as opposed to the "Compose" tab). Then highlight the text you'd like to hyperlink, click on the third icon from the left on the dashboard (the green globe with what looks to me like a little gray halo), add your link, and click "OK". You can check whether it worked by clicking "Preview". Pls holler with any questions.

Finally, we've posted the second set of survey questions below. Please remember that the deadline for submitting answers is Tuesday Sept. 14 at 10am.

Thanks! J