“Humanity’s Public Library” beamed from outer space

By Maria Kyriacou

“Humanity’s Public Library” beamed from outer space
A company is looking to beam virtual libraries from space to provide education to people in remote areas

We might take the Internet for granted, but it hasn’t reached all corners of the world. Now a company is looking at building virtual libraries to cater to the four billion people who don’t have access to the net.

Sounding like something straight out of a sci-fi novel, Outernet is aiming to beam data from satellites.

A new device called the “Lighthouse” can deliver access to free books and images without coming up to road blocks like costly infrastructure, data fees and censorship.

People would still require access to mobile phones, but the developers insist they are becoming much more common more in remote locations

Rather than providing full Internet Outernet will stream a data feed to the user that currently includes a collection of 49,000 free e-books in the public domain.

People would be able to store information on the Lighthouse, so they can access it whenever they feel like it. Outernet bills itself as “Humanity’s Public Library” and sees its mission as spreading information and education.

“Imagine what our world and global economy can accomplish when education is truly universal,” Karim said. “If we can can provide a Library of Congress in every village in the world, why should we not?”

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