Information and networking have come to occupy a central position in our lives. We thrive on information and would find it very difficult to achieve anything of substance without network partners. I must confess, nearly two years after we took the plunge, that the decision of Development Alternatives to join the Building Advisory Services and Information Network - basin - was driven more by the consideration of strong strategic positioning for our organisation in the field of shelter than an increase in emphasis on information management. DA was, of course, committed to the collection, analysis and dissemination of information but these were activities the Shelter Group had probably begun to consider as subservient to other project objectives. Somewhere in our hearts, there grew a feeling of discomfort.
 
Management guru Tom Peters has slipped a line into his book, "The Pursuit of Wow" which says, "How do I know what I think, until I see what I say"
(attributed to W.H. Auden and E.M. Forster).
 
And so it happened that my colleagues and I took a leap into the world of information management without really looking at what we were getting into or trying to think through the process. Are we happy with our decision to do so? I’d say yes.
 
Sharing information has become much more of a credo within the Shelter Group of Development Alternatives. This is in fact why we have considered it absolutely vital to bring out a succession of thematic Newsletters on shelter, building technology and livelihoods which I hope, readers would agree, have been both interesting and useful. In this endeavour, we have been particularly enthused by the unfailing support of friends all across India and the world who have made contributions to the DA Newsletter. Some even tell us they read it.
 
Our satisfaction also stems from something more fundamental than the dissemination of information in the form of Newsletters, brochures, reports and manuals. We have begun to see the difference that knowledge can make to micro and small scale entrepreneurs across the country; the building material producers and contractors that I call the "real builders of India".
 
Numerous authors have written about how the world is making a "Millennium change" from an industry based to an information based economy. I can assure you that this is true not only of hi-tech products and services but for something as basic as building technology as well. When analysed, it is not difficult to find that a critical amount of value addition - enough to differentiate a product or service in a competitive environment, which means almost everywhere, village or city - comes from having information of the right kind at the right time. Material, manpower, energy and money are not enough. After all, how much can you really do with them.
 
My colleagues and I can now also see how information technology is going to make information exchange possible between people who would have otherwise spent their entire working lives and precious resources scripting technological and methodological breakthroughs that had already been made in other places. Yes, It does take getting used to and has its costs, but is information technology too expensive for the poor and too complex for the illiterate in real terms? It may be today, but will not be so tomorrow and the potential benefits are enormous. Remember the time when we didn’t have STD telephone booths? It wasn’t so long ago.
 
It would be presumptuous to argue that information systems will, in themselves, solve problems as complex as those of homelessness, unemployment and environmental degradation. And, it is certainly not our intention to do so. We have come to think, however, as we take our first faltering steps in information management, that they can create a whole new world of opportunity. Let’s find out together.
 
The Development Alternatives family wishes you a very happy and prosperous Year 2000.