Monday, June 8, 2015

XPRIZE Launches $7M Literacy Prize For Mobile App Developers

Los Angeles-based XPRIZE has launched a new, multi-million dollar prize aimed at improving adult literacy, the company said this morning. The foundation said the new Adult Literacy XPRIZE challenges mobile app developers to create a mobile app, to help bring illiterate and low-literacy adults to basic literacy within 12 months. The prize, being funded by the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy and the Dollar General Literacy Foundation, is aimed at helping an estimated 36 million adults in the U.S. who lack basic literacy skills. XPRIZE said that there will be a six-month, team registration period, followed by 18 months where teams will be able to develop their solutions; those solutions will then be tested for 12 months in the field against a minimum of 1,000 adult learners who read at or below the equivalent of a third grade reading level.

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