New Xprize contest to give out $7 million for mobile apps promoting adult literacy

The global leader in incentivized prize competitions Xprize has just announced a new global competition that challenges mobile apps developers to improve adult literacy skills. The contest aims to turn the fight for adult literacy from the classroom to the digital devices.

Xprize has partnered with The Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy and the Dollar General Literacy Foundation, to come up with a $7 million prize money to be awarded to mobile device developer teams who can best provide a solution to address adult literacy needs.

The contest begins June 2015 to a December 2015 registration deadline. Thereafter, teams are given 18 months to develop the software. By June 2017 the top five finalists will be determined. Field testing over a 12-month period begins in October 2017 until January 2019. The Xprize will be awarded in June 2019.

TechCrunch reports the prize money will be distributed as follows: the $4 million grand prize for the mobile app that performs best across all adults; additional prizes for the finalist teams; special prizes for the product that performs best with native English speakers and non-native speakers; and for the US city that best promotes the finalist adult literacy apps.

Barbara Bush Foundation CEO Liza McFadden notes that most literacy efforts target children although the United States Education Department reports indicate that there are 36 million Americans with below Grade 3 level literacy skills, with less than 1 percent enrolled in adult literacy classes.

Putting the fight for literacy on digital devices is predicted to reach a broader audience of adults who might neither have time nor the inclination to get into classes, according to McFadden.

Jennifer Bravo, developer of the new Xprize for adult literacy, shared that the challenge is to make the literacy program a continuous engagement for adults as consistency over a period of time can make the difference.

The Xprize contest envisions empowering nearly 1 in 10 low-literate adults in the United States. The contest reasons that a 1 percent rise in literacy skill score can result in an estimated $225 billion per year labor productivity increase. Increased literacy is seen to also decrease annual health care cost in the U.S. by an estimated $230 billion a year.

Xprize is a known innovator of competitions to challenge people to create solutions for known needs in the areas of exploration, global development, energy and environment, learning, and life sciences.