March 2005

THIS MONTH'S SPOTLIGHT: Sustainability Concepts from GDRC's Programme on Sustainable Development "Ultimately. sustainability is about common sense. And a number of concepts developed in the last few devades have shed light on what we have to do ... " GDRC's feature on Sustainablity Concepts, in the form of strategies, tools, ideas and models, are weapons that we can use to achieve sustainability. A number of such sustainability concepts have been developed for different purposes, targetted at different stakeholders - but each having the common goal of eventually leading to a sustainable future. The 22 concepts presented in the feature are presented with brief descriptions of its criticality, and addtional resources http://www.gdrc.org/sustdev/concepts.html If there is a concept that is missing and you would like to see featured in the above list, please do contact GDRC's Coordinator at - mosaic@gdrc.org FOCUS ON GDRC: LEARNING LESSONS The Info Design Cycle Packaging information properly so as to facilitate its contextualizing and customizing by the user to create tacit knowledge is an iterative cycle Where is information available? Who has it? How can we match user needs with information available? What are the interlinakages between the different pieces of information? What enhancements can be envisaged to the info patterns? How can the products developed be improved further? How can the info products be delivered to the user? These are some of the questions that are covered in the cycle. Ultimately, good information management is an aid to decision-making, of understanding what and how information is used, and developing a channel to deliver it to the user. Based on a user-needs assessment, information is collated and analyzed to build patterns. The iterative process is repeated by incorporating feedback and review it until it matches the needs of the user. This is the 'Information Desgin Cycle' See GDRC's programme pages on Information Design for more information! MONTHLY STATISTICS FOR GDRC'S WEBSITE Total hits encountered - 1,019,183 Total files downloaded - 817,010 Total pages viewed - 316,920 Total web visitors - 114,897 Total KBytes - 7,439,827 Pages per day - Avg. 10,223; Max. 14,412 Visits per day - Avg. 3,706; Max. 4,533 WHAT'S NEW AT GDRC'S WEBSITE? Highlists from new items added to GDRC's programme pages: Urban Environmental Management: City Networks - added links to four associations of local governments in Indonesia Urban Environmental Management: Sustainable Transportation - link to Kyoto World Cities Challenge Technology Transfer: Added info on email list. "Technology Transfer in International Development [DEVEL-L]" Microfinance: Case Studies - a number of resources were added to the Microfinance country files, and to the French and Spanish editions. 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. This month, it was sent out to more than 540 subscribers in 83 countries. To subscribe: http://www.gdrc.org/about/newsletter.html To unsubscribe: unsubscribe-mosaic@gdrc.org Comments, suggestions and contributions: info-mosaic@gdrc.org CONTACT ADDRESS: Global Development Research Center 5-13-3-1601, Nakano-cho, Miyakojima-ku, Osaka 534-0027, Japan Tel / Fax: +(81-6) 6925-8005 Emial: info-mosaic@gdrc.org URL: http://www.gdrc.org/ © 2003-2005, GDRC. All rights reserved.