June 2008

Welcome to another edition of GDRC Mosaic! This month, GDRC Mosaic is being sent to more than 2,000 subscribers in 130 countries worldwide. THIS MONTH'S SPOTLIGHT: Japan Urban Observatory, from GDRC's Programme on Urban Environmental Management. Urban environments mean different things to different people. GCRC's urban environmental management programme illustrates it as the intersection of natural, built and socio-economic environments. This broad-based approach helps us understand the causes and effects of a number of disparate issues and problems. The Japan Urban Observatory was set up as a part of the Global Urban Observatory network, and provides an overview of the management of the environment at the local levle in Japan. Much still needs to be done to make it more comprehensive and relevant on a host of issues, but it does provide a snapshot of the environmental problems being faced by Japanese cities today. GDRC has been working on these and related issues. Resources on this topic are available at: http://www.gdrc.org/uem/observatory/index.html As with all sections of GDRC, contributions, comments and suggestions are always welcome from users and subscribers! Please contact GDRC's Coordinator at - hsrinivas@gdrc.org FOCUS ON GDRC: LEARNING LESSONS The 200-page Manual Information designers all over face the same dilemma - that of the "200-page Manual" How can you distill a fat 200-page document into different product types so that different stakeholders can adopt and use it? You cannot, for example, take a 200-page manual on environmental management to a city mayor and ask him to improve the city environment. He actually needs only a single sheet of paper with bullet points - enough to take a decision. A bureaucrat, on the other hand, needs just a little bit more - enough to make sure it is relevant, and confirms to city laws and policies/strategies. And a city engineer, of course, needs the full document and maybe more - to fully implement it. So the basic 200-page document, in different forms, has helped different people for different purposes. This lies at the core of GDRC's capacity building policy, explained in the following page: http://www.gdrc.org/about/cb-policy.html MONTHLY STATISTICS FOR GDRC'S WEBSITE Total hits encountered - 1,220,636 Total files downloaded - 1,038,001 Total pages viewed - 393,958 Total web visitors - 161,748 Total KBytes - 15,031,250 Pages per day - Avg: 13,131 Max: 24,428 Visits per day - Avg: 5,391 2Max: 6,625 See what has been happening in GDRC at: http://www.gdrc.org/about/whats-new.html ABOUT GDRC MOSAIC The "GDRC Mosaic" is a monthly email newsletter that provides information bites, and summarizes programme activities of GDRC, including new items added to the website. To subscribe or unsubscribe: http://www.gdrc.org/about/newsletter.html Comments, suggestions and contributions: mosaic@gdrc.org CONTACT ADDRESS: Global Development Research Centre 1-5-1-1013, Mori Minami Machi, Higashi Nada ku, Kobe - 658-0011, Japan Tel and Fax: +(81-78) 452-8414 Email: info-mosaic@gdrc.org URL: http://www.gdrc.org/ © 2008-2010, GDRC. All rights reserved.