Worldreader is an American non-profit organization which gives kids in the developing world access to digital books. 77,886 e-books have been sent to Sub-Saharan Africa till March 2012. In a recent effort, Worldreader has launched an e-reading app designed for “non-smartphones”.
This beta app will enable low end phones to run e-books which can help people from the lower socio-economic rung gain access to knowledge and make it easier to educate kids. The technology is similar to what Snaptu used to be.
Snaptu, which was acquired by Facebook in March 2011, did something similar in the field of entertainment and social media but an effort like this for education is really commendable
- Manish Malik, CEO, Hazel Media
Snaptu was a light weight mobile application platform which could be run on low end phones with a bare necessity of internet ability. It allowed users to access popular services like Twitter, Flickr, Facebook or other popular sites by asking for the bare requirements.
Worldreader performs in a similar fashion and gains access via the app biNu. The app has been released in an effort to take eBooks to as many people as possible.
This is how the app works (Worldreader director of digital publishing, Elizabeth Wood)
