yoza cellphone stories (netexplo winner 2013)

m-Novels for Africa

Steve VoslooNetExplo, Paris 15 February 2013

The Yoza Project

• Yoza enables reading, writing and engagement via mobile phones

• South African project launched August 2009, initially funded by the Shuttleworth Foundation

• Through Yoza, short stories, poems and classic literature are published on MXit and on a mobisite -- a website for mobiles

• Highly interactive: users can comment, vote, enter writing competitions and review stories

yoza.mobiyozaproject.com

“It's great ... for me it really hard to pick up a book to start readin but i don mind readin on my phone”dotty1

What our users commented

Background

51%South African households that own no leisure books

(TNS Research Surveys, 2006)

7%Public schools in South Africa that have functional libraries of any

kind (Equal Education, 2009)

43%Percentage of Grade 9 learners that scored 50% or higher in home

language tests(Dept of Basic Education, 2012)

Kontax on MXit (2009)

>63,000 subscribers

>17,200 reads

MXit statistics are for period 31 October to 26 November 2009

Yoza Cellphone Stories

Yoza today

“If friar's plan wrks, then romeo wil b able 2 cum nd take juliet wit hm 2 liv hapily 2geda at mantua bt if it fails, sumbdy's gna b dead. Lol!”Elsie

“I loved the book, wish it didnt have an ending. Shakespear please bring another one like this one. IT WAS MWAAAH!!”Blessed1

The basics

•A growing library of titles: 31 m-novels, 18 poems, 5 Shakespeare plays

•Some stories are serialised (a chapter a day) and every chapter of every story has a comment prompt or vote prompt

•Stories in English, Afrikaans and isiXhosa

•Stories are free but costs for mobile data (less than 1c EUR per chapter)

•All stories are either openly licensed (CC) or in the public domain

Period: August 2010 to December 2012

>575,000 reads

>50,000 comments

>200,000 unique visitors

>90,000 MXit subscribers

“I realy lv de story, it ws touchy evn painful again i hv learnd a lot 4rm it. Am gona pass it 2 my frnd nd family 2 read 4 dem self”(Anon)

“Aha” moment:

Mobile phones are a viable distribution platform for longer form content and for enabling user participation

“Yes I know about Shakespeare we are doing Romeo + Juliet and next year Macbeth. This is actually such a relief because we might not have had enough books for 2011.”English teacher, Cape Town

Anthony Baatjies, Zandile Ntlatli, Christopher Mzamo and Lamla Nyikila + Louise McCann

“Wow wat a story i like it shame it realy uplifts da spirits of those livng with HIV it shows tht being hiv+ is no death sentence wow am so touched as im also livng wit hiv”Yonela

Chain Story Challenge: 6 writers 6 hours 1 storyYoza was one of six writing chain gangs

“I.LOV IT IT HAS LOTS OF ADVANTURE”Shedow18

“I alwayz (H)ur stories guyz and i alwayz learn smthing new”Sisipho

Beyond Yoza

On Vodafone Live!, zero data charges (totally free)

”Love, sex and relationships in the time of AIDS”

Yoza story: 13,000 reads11,000 comments

Worldreader

Over 500,000 readers in December from Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda, Kenya, India …

Published Yoza stories: The Awesomes, Sisterz, Kontax

FunDza

South African literacy improvement initiative

>500,000 active users across multiple channels

>50 short stories

Charge for some content

Final thoughts

Mobile phone is the e-reader of Africa

Participatory culture happens through mobile devices: consumption, creation, engagement

Interactivity is key

Txtspk iz hr 2 stay

Emerging mobile literacies

Reading, writing and engaging in Africa

“The stories r interesting nd fun 2 read, they kip ma englsh gng”Hlengiwe gulube

How to access Yoza and contact details

Browser: www.yoza.mobi

MXit: Add a contact (MXit Services) called yoza

Facebook: www.facebook.com/yozacellphonestories

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Louise McCannthecontentstudio1@gmail.c

om www.thecontentstudio.co.z

a

Steve Vosloostevevosloo@gmail.com

www.yozaproject.com