Hi y'all,

My name is Chitu Okoli, and I'm a PhD student at Louisiana State University (LSU) in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA. Our professor over here is Dr. Blake Ives.

I was born and raised in Nigeria (West Africa), and I've been in the United States since 1993. I obtained a bachelor's degree in computer science here at LSU in 1996. After graduating, I worked for a couple years in Chicago doing computer systems maintenance, database design and maintenance, networking, programming, human resources administration, bookkeeping, and various other tasks.

In August 1999 I returned to LSU to pursue a Ph.D. in information systems and decision sciences, and I'm now in my second year of that program. I'm not entirely sure what area I'll be doing my thesis in, but the subjects that interest me most right now are small businesses competing effectively in e-commerce, and intellectual property commerce in the Internet economy.

I'm excited about this project. So far in our class we've been learning principles of e-commerce, looking at how various companies have tried to do business on the Internet, and understanding why some have been successful while others have not. Now we'll actually get to create a proposal for a viable Internet-powered business. I believe that if we all give it our all for these next four weeks, we can clinch that prize of $2,500, a nice bonus for doing what we're supposed to be doing anyway.

Dr. Ives gave our class a very valuable presentation based on past groups that have done this Virtual Team Exercise, analyzing the critical success factors. I'm attaching that presentation for your perusal. In particular please pay attention to slide 26, the "Road to High Performing Teams". It list nine points that, if we take to heart, can set us apart from the rest. Please let me know if you have any trouble reading the Microsoft PowerPoint presentation.

I propose that we immediately start brainstorming for possible business ideas. Two ideas I've thought of pursuing are webcasting and e-publishing, and I'm posting them to the group discussion board for comments and alternative ideas.

I look forward to hearing from you both, and I'm excited about working together!

Yours,

Chitu Okoli

-- Anonymous, October 27, 2000