Freeing Knowledge from Literacy: How Digital Audio Can Become the Printing Press for Oral Cultures

Abstract for a Comm Talk from the 2022 International SBCC Summit in Morocco: 

"Imagine the possibilities of a Wikipedia for oral knowledge. With digital tools like solar audio players, we can spread audible knowledge literally anywhere. Every day, mobile phones become more affordable, even for poorer sections of the population. WhatsApp audio is changing the way billions of people communicate. Digital audio is the printing press for oral cultures. It has become ubiquitous and offers unique possibilities. We can make health knowledge available everywhere. We can develop contents not only for, but with marginalized populations. We can keep indigenous knowledge and languages alive. We can give a voice to the marginalized. For this reason, we started developing Audiopedia in 2016. Audiopedia (www.audiopedia.org) is a digital public good for accessible, audible knowledge. It combines a collaborative, wiki-based platform for localized SBCC audio information with conveniently accessible hardware and software.Digital public goods are one of the pillars of the UN Secretary-General's Roadmap for Digital Cooperation, which defines them as: "open source software, open data, open AI models, open standards and open content that adhere to privacy and other applicable laws and best practices, do no harm, and help attain the SDGs."  Audiopedia receives financial support from the Smart Development Fund, a joint initiative of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the European Commission (EC)."