In remote areas of less developed countries, word of mouth often remains the most important source of information. With limited access to mass media, and no control over them, people can be ignorant of events in the next village, let alone the wider world.
For the world's elite, by contrast, the problem is how to absorb and manage all the information now thrust upon us by multiple communications revolutions. From New York to New Delhi, information superhighways are jammed with megabite traffic. All our in-trays overflow.
China, as in so many ways, reflects two realities at once, both the super modern and the supremely ancient. Large disparities abound.
A small, but pertinent example: dozens of specialist bulletins compete to provide financial and business intelligence to the international investor community. But for many in the international community who want to invest in China's social and human development, information comes sporadically, often by word of mouth.
China Development Briefing aims to help fill this information gap. Published in Hong Kong by the Asia Pacific Social Development Research Centre, with a grant from OXFAM Hong Kong to cover costs for this pilot issue, it is intended to improve the quality and flow of information to and between development agencies, particularly international non government organisations.
This issue focuses on education, with a sectoral summary and project digest. It also contains news reports, profiles of the Amity Foundation and the World Bank, and the first instalment of a compendium of bilateral aid projects.
A second issue is planned for publication at the end of May. Thereafter it is expected to publish every two months, and distribute to paid subscribers only.
But if a newsletter is to succeed in plugging an information gap, the gap must first be defined. We need to know how potential subscribers view the project, and how they see their own information needs. So we are encouraging feedback, and to give it some structure are mailing out a questionnaire with this issue.
Please respond, and be candid. That is the best way of stopping China Development Briefing becoming just another bit of junk in the in-tray.