Digital Transformation: An Opportunity for Knowledge and Reading

Maralys Domenech Hidalgo is a young project leader at the Cuban company Citmatel and has come to the ITU World Youth Summit to share her team's experience in digitizing digital content.

"I work in the publishing division," she tells us, specifying that she is responsible for projects related to the creation and dissemination of digital content:

"We take a content piece, evaluate it in an editorial board, and once approved, it moves to the development area, where we define the formats to work on —whether it’s an e-book, a game, an app, and so on."

Among their goals is promoting digital reading and making content more appealing to young people: "We have a wide collection of educational books created in different formats, apps that complement books, multimedia, and educational games," Maralys explained.

This Citmatel project is part of the country's digital transformation and contributes to a large volume of digital content, with over 500 titles on various topics, all authentically Cuban. However, what brings Maralys the most joy is working for children:

"When we create products for children, and we see how they are received by boys and girls —apps, educational games that help them with colors, numbers, the alphabet— it’s rewarding to see how they learn through these games."

There are proposals for all ages and educational levels within the project: "For high school students, for example, we have a chemistry collection and an app that complements those books."

The most challenging part, as is often the case, is perhaps the most beautiful: "Some games we developed in collaboration with the Neurogen Center are specifically designed for children with certain neurodevelopmental disorders, such as attention deficit. These are more specialized games, with parameters that are evaluated. That was a challenge; we had to conduct tests and make adjustments."

Maralys is thrilled with the opportunity to present this project at the Summit and invites us to visit the digital libraries where all the content is accessible. One of these libraries even has an international focus, offering products in different languages.

Translated by Sergio A. Paneque Díaz / CubaSí Translation Staff