TL;DR

TL;DR is an
app that shortens news article to make them easier to consume. Inspired by the
autotl;dr bot on reddit, it uses smmry.com to shorten articles while
maintaining as much content as possible. The user could potentially decide how
reduced they want their articles. The shorter articles will hopefully keep a
broader range of people interested in news. News can be consumed more quickly,
which means more people reading news and reading more articles.

TL;DR sorts
articles by geographic area of pertinence. Based on a user’s geolocation, the
user can decide how local they want their news (Town/City -> Region -> Country
-> International Region->World). This lets the user consume local news,
but also news from around the world. The user picks his geographic range with a
slider at the top of the homepage.

TL;DR can
also help you learn to read. A user clicks on a word to listen to it; double
clickling brings up the definition (inspired by my trusty Kindle). In a
semi-literate environment, this means people would not be limited by their
vocabulary.

The technology
behind this app (SMMRY and the dictionary) work in any language (I think?) so
this app could be available universally. For local governments, the app would help
raise literacy standards while also better connecting to local community. This
app is not only for people learning though: the shortening function is useful
for everyone, regardless of literacy.

People will
keep using TL;DR because it is the only app where you can see condensed news
from a spectrum of news agencies. Because the summarizer is a bot, there is no
need for human curation. Hopefully, as the app doubles as a method for improve
reading skills, people will also keep using the app for the educational aspect.
Implementing some smart vocabulary tests, Duolingo style, would strengthen the
app’s learning capabilities. The app uses a “card” UI because, per reddit administrator spez, they have 4x as much engagement with that sort of UI: the goal is to get
people to click on articles and consume news.