Hi internet,

Here at TVO, we are constantly looking at literacy, whether in the area of reading, science, the environment, political or digital, it is at the core of what we do.

Take, for example, David Erwin and Yasmina Sekkat's interactive map of literacy.

View World Literacy in a larger map
To view data for each country, you must view the map in full screen, using the legend (on the left, below the map description) to navigate.

Lots of work went into this. The map displays statistics on global literacy broken down in several ways:

 •By the percentage of the total population in each country that is considered literate.

•The percentage of each gender that is considered literate.

•The school life expectancy for the population of each country. School life expectancy is defined by UNESCO as the total number of years of schooling which a child of a certain age can expect to receive in the future, assuming that the probability of his or her being enrolled in school at any particular age is equal to the current enrollment ratio for that age.

•The percentage of GDP each nation spends on education.

For the purposes of this map, unless otherwise indicated, literacy is defined as the percentage of the population 15 years of age and older that can read in write in the official language, or languages, of their native country.

The next stop on the TVO literacy train is the launch of our documentary series, the Empire of the Word.

This doc, which looks at the 5,000-year history of the written word, will air over the next four Wednesday's at 10 p.m. You will also be able to find it online, in the documentaries section of our video page. (I suggest watching it on air, then watching it again online so you can compare the experiences.)

But there's more. We also have Lekha's Journey - an online game where you can help Lekha track down an author who has mysteriously vanished and unravel the secret of an ancient text. Sort of a Da Vinci Code-style action thriller. You can check out the game here (along with other word puzzles), and check out the trailer below.

Check back, because new installments of Lekha's journey will be appearing as the documentary series progresses.