Worldreader.org is a nonprofit organization market-oriented designed to provide a "library" available to all families on the planet, through the technology of electronic books. As mobile phones have overtaken fixed phones in much of the developing countries, e-books will become the easiest, cheapest and reliable to get the books to areas and most disadvantaged.
education and literacy are critical engines of economic growth (International Survey on Adult Literacy l'OCDE, 1994-1998). Yet in many parts of the world, children and families have access to a very small variety of reading material, which is also declining. The misadventures of transportation, logistical and payment difficulties conspire to reduce the availability of books and writings in developing countries. E-books using the GSM mobile phone to solve these problems and provide access, almost instantaneously, hundreds and thousands of entire books, newspapers and magazines at low prices.
The Worldreader first tests are scheduled for early 2010: the first is underway in Barcelona (Spain) and focuses on the use of such devices in the classroom, the second most powerful, will be held in Accra (Ghana) and focus on logistics and support. short term, we measure our success by comparing the number of books that were read before and after deployment. In the long term, we expect to observe an increase in reading in the community and, ultimately, increased literacy rates above the levels predicted by the UN.
Today Worldreader.org is raising funds to bridge the gap between the costs of devices and the price that local governments can pay for them until the unit cost down to an acceptable price for local markets. Funding also enable our organization to develop content and manage the logistics and support in developing countries, in collaboration with local governments, school systems and businesses. In short, only if we can improve not only reading fees, but also increase the constant demand of books and related local services, we can say we have succeeded.
-Worldreader.org is a nonprofit organization based in Barcelona and the USA, founded by Colin McElwee, former Director of Marketing at ESADE Business School and David Risher, former executive Amazon.com and Microsoft Corporation.
