Video Clip of the Month: Free Mobile Books for Africa

I first heard about nonprofit Worldreader—which gives Kindles to students with little access to printed books in rural sub-Saharan Africa—last January on the Build It Kenny They Will Come Blog….  The following line in the post really wowed me:

“Imagine, all the books a child would ever need to see them through their basic education, all packed into a ~$100 device.”

It turns out WorldReader is taking its idea of bringing free digital books to the developing world one step further. WorldReader’s newest project is turning plain old feature phones into smart phones that can be used as electronic readers.

Imagine children using cell phones to read books in parts of the developing world where they previously had few to no books. All for free, except for the costs of the cell phone. Keep in mind that an astounding 79 percent of people in the developing world had a mobile phone subscription at the end of 2011, more than percentage with access to electricity.

To quote the Build It Kenny They Will Come Blog….:

“We often say in mobiles-for-development that today most people in the developing world will make their first phone call on a mobile, and have their first experience of the Internet on one, too. Perhaps children, in the not-too-distant future, will have their first experience of reading on [a mobile phone]?”

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