Kindle? Here comes the Talking Book!
(Credit:
Literacy bridge)
Everyone's talking about the new Kindle, but here's a product that may present an even more radical innovation in the e-book sector: The Talking Book, created and distributed by the non-profit Literacy Bridge, is a low cost audio player/recorder with special features for Knowledge Sharing and Literacy Learning. It was developed entirely by volunteers and costs less than $10. The device involves an ecosystem to produce and share locally relevant audio content, allowing users to record their own messages and distribute them within local networks through a device-to-device copying capability. Other features include slow play for reading practice and some interactive features (for educational lessons and games).
The man behind Literacy Bridge is former Microsoft program manager Cliff Schmidt, who studied artificial intelligence and spent much of his time thinking about how literacy can play a role in moving people out of poverty. Schmidt believes that in a country like Ghana having spoken information at hand will help people avoid lengthy trips to visit clinics or other offices. As a next step, he envisions using the Talking Books to reach women in Afghanistan (90% of whom are illiterate), but ideally the device could of course be used anywhere in the world.
While it may not have the media hype of the One Laptop per Child project (yet), the Talking Book may indeed yield greater impact. My colleague Jordan Kanarek nailed it: "The thinking behind the device is compelling, and the opportunities that come with using commodity components to create a rich service are fascinating."
Tim Leberecht is Frog Design's of vice president of marketing and communications. He has worked in the media, entertainment, and high-tech industries. Most recently, he was the head of corporate communications at Mindjet, a provider of mind-mapping software for the enterprise. Prior to Mindjet, he served as a press chief for the Athens 2004 International Olympic Torch Relay and in marketing communications for Deutsche Telekom in Germany. Tim runs the iPlot blog, and has published and spoken about branding, organizational communication, social media, and attention economics. Tim is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. 
"Talking Book" is the designation used for decades by the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS) for the protected-format audio books made available to eligible patrons of the service. NLS is a division of the Library of Congress. Eligible patrons include the blind, visually impaired, deaf-blind, reading disabled from a physical cause, and print-disabled due to a physical disability. www.loc.gov/nls
As a librarian serving the blind community, I would be most grateful if you and the software developers would refrain applying the "Talking Book" designation to products unrelated to this wonderful free government service offered by NLS.
Thanks for your consideration.