Presented at NetExplo, Paris, 15 February 2013

1. m-Novels for Africa
Steve Vosloo
NetExplo, Paris
15 February 2013

2. 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

3. yoza.mobi
yozaproject.com

4. What our users commented
“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

5. Background

6. 51%
South African households that own no leisure books
(TNS Research Surveys, 2006)

7. 7%
Public schools in South Africa that have functional libraries of any kind
(Equal Education, 2009)

8. 43%
Percentage of Grade 9 learners that scored 50% or higher in home language tests
(Dept of Basic Education, 2012)

13. Kontax on MXit (2009)

14. >63,000 subscribers
>17,200 reads
MXit statistics are for period 31 October to 26 November 2009

15. Yoza Cellphone Stories

17. Yoza today

21. “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

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

23. 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

24. >575,000 reads
>50,000 comments
>200,000 unique visitors
>90,000 MXit subscribers
Period: August 2010 to December 2012

25. “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)

26. “Aha” moment:
Mobile phones are a viable
distribution platform for
longer form content and for
enabling user participation

27. “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

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

30. “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

31. Chain Story Challenge: 6 writers 6 hours 1 story
Yoza was one of six writing chain gangs
“I.LOV IT IT HAS LOTS OF ADVANTURE”
Shedow18

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

33. Beyond Yoza

34. On Vodafone Live!, zero data charges (totally free)
”Love, sex and relationships in the time of AIDS”
Yoza story:
13,000 reads
11,000 comments

35. Worldreader
Over 500,000 readers in December from Zimbabwe,
Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda, Kenya, India …
Published Yoza stories: The Awesomes, Sisterz, Kontax

36. FunDza
South African literacy
improvement initiative
>500,000 active users
across multiple channels
>50 short stories
Charge for some content

37. Final thoughts

38. 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

39. Reading, writing and
engaging in Africa

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

41. How to access Yoza and contact details
Browser: www.yoza.mobi
MXit: Add a contact (MXit Services) called yoza
Facebook: www.facebook.com/yozacellphonestories
Steve Vosloo Louise McCann
stevevosloo@gmail.com thecontentstudio1@gmail.com
www.yozaproject.com www.thecontentstudio.co.za
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