Transcript “What is Worldreader Mobile?” Video

(Elizabeth Wood, Director of Digital Publishing & Mobile Platforms)
“Worldreader Mobile is a mobile reading application that is designed and optimized for low-end feature phones like the phone I am holding here. Almost two billion people across the developing world have phones like this. They have small screens, very long battery life, and low processing power. But they’re incredibly cheap, around thirty dollars. People with feature phones can access the internet using mobile data connection. Worldreader mobile runs on biNu’s cloud-based platform, and the data’s highly compressed which allows our users to have a seamless reading experience. The technology effectively turns a feature phone into a smart phone. Our user interface has lots of features that enable our users to quickly and easily discover the books they want to read. We’ve got a banner on the home screen which goes directly to a book. We’ve got top and new lists. We’ve got a banner on our discovery screen and we’ve got a “surprise me” button which essentially is like book roulette. The application itself is free, for users to download, and there is a very, very low, negligible cost of using data to access them and read the books and stories. There are over 740 million illiterate people on this planet and Worldreader is trying to change that using technology. Worldreader’s mission is to bring books and reading materials to every child and her family so that they can learn to read, become fully literate and improve their lives.”