Sustainable Information Development: a journal and a concept twenty-five years on

Abstract

The twenty-fifth year of Information Development, the journal, prompts a reflection on what makes the concept `information development' sustainable. From the very beginning, the journal has been open to critical views of information programmes and policies in the developing world. Although the idea of `sustainability' has become something of a cliché, much that has appeared in the journal points in this direction. There is a strong argument that sustainability can only be built by providing information services that people want in forms and at venues that suit them. This means content and delivery that has strong roots in the culture and psychology of those to be served, as well as localised `ownership', low technology, and low cost solutions. It is suggested that mobile telephone technology meets these criteria and that it offers a more positive basis for sustainable information development than much that has been tried hitherto.