October 8, 2007
African readers get access to information via cellphones
According to the AFP, a South African newspaper Sunday became the first on the continent to offer readers the opportunity to access information via cellphones with Internet connectivity.
"The Sunday Times is inviting readers to take a picture of a front-page bar-code with the camera on their mobile phones, which will then give them automatic access to a website of one of the Springbok rugby team's chief sponsors.
... The bar-code technology has been in widespread use in Japan where it was invented in the 1990s but, according to Daniels, it is the first time that it has been used in Africa.
"In Africa, this is major. They all have cellphones but they are not online yet. This could help in bridging the divide between print and new media as well as the technological and social divide."
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