E-Books in Africa

by: Macy Halford

There’s a great piece by James Turner on O’Reilly Radar, about the multiple challenges of getting e-books into Africa. There are cost concerns (mobile devices are too expensive), and Internet connectivity issues in rural areas, and the non-uniformity of Arabic texts, and, of course, issues of censorship—but the piece is ultimately hopeful and, I think, quite exciting. Two companies, Electric Book Works, which is based in Cape Town, and Kotobarabia (which means Arabic Books), are working on inventive solutions to the problems, like focussing on print-on-demand technology and Internet cafes, and working on new ways of making non-uniform texts searchable. I love the tidbit, too, about how farmers have begun pooling their resources to buy shared satellite Internet connections. And the instinct behind the movement is praiseworthy: to prevent a situation like the fire at the Library of Alexandria, where “huge chunks of cultural wealth” were destroyed.

from: New Yorker