Tech: key to re-empower 42 surviving communities

Dear friend

At this moment in human history, there is so much noise: wars, authoritarianism, climate crisis, learning crises, inequality, and powerlessness. We remember when the internet emerged as a network that would allow interconnection and the free flow of information; we thought it would change humanity into a better version of itself. Instead, the internet has become a tool for surveillance and control, polarization, disinformation, and loneliness. 

However, at SOLE Colombia, we have a simple yet powerful hypothesis: if we use the internet in groups, on shared devices, to learn and create, we will create not only a better version of the internet, but a more equitable, connected, and beautiful future together. Our hypothesis is materialized in our Library of the Future initiative. Imagine communities building physical spaces with connectivity and devices to use the internet as a group and connect with other communities. In these spaces, people use the internet to talk about what they know and learn from others. 

Thus, for example, in our 3 SOLE Labs in La Guajira and Cauca, our SOLEros connect to share their cultures, their recipes, play games over distance, explore new group uses of the internet. That is information that is not yet on the internet. It is only there the moment you connect as a group with each other through a video call using the SOLE methodology. This information is not within the reach of artificial intelligence to process. It is human intelligence inventing the new, inventing the future that we want to create. 

In the last months, thanks to your support and other grants we have prototyped the technologies, methodologies and networks so that the Library of the Future is a network of conversations that allows people to expand their preparation in action and reflection as citizens aware of their social, ethical and ecological responsibility. These are the other possible internets: connections that generate other ways of talking, learning and being together through the Internet.

One of the key outcomes of the SOLE Movement Workshop was the activation of biweekly “subscription spaces” to the SOLE Movement. These spaces bring together both participants from the workshop and members who could not attend, creating a shared environment for decision-making, learning, creation, and collective reflection. Through these synchronous online interactions, the SOLE Community engages as peers, with the intention of maintaining a shared level of agency and voice in shaping The Library of the Future. 

With your support, SOLE Colombia achieved a deeper contribution to its goal of building “other possible internets”: We helped communities move from being users of connectivity to becoming active shapers of how connectivity is understood, shared, and practiced.

The most important achievement was not only expanding access, but expanding agency. Through the SOLE Movement workshop, the participant communities strengthened their capacity to use the internet in groups, ask their own Big Questions, test solutions, reflect on their learning, and make decisions together. This matters because closing the digital gap is not only about devices or signal; it is about whether people can use technology without fear, with autonomy, confidence, and collective purpose.

The funding also helped us prove that The Library of the Future can operate as more than simply a physical or digital platform. It can work as a living system, a movement where communities, tools, stories, questions, and relationships interact. SOLE Voltaje became a practical expression of that vision by offering online and offline ways for people to explore connectivity and learn how to improve it from their own contexts.

This supports an internet that is open, useful, safer, and more locally meaningful. Through SOLE, the internet is explored collectively. That collective use makes learning more critical, more caring, and more connected to real community challenges.

Thank you for helping make this possible.

Your support continues to connect communities that are discovering their voice, reclaiming their agency, and building new possibilities one Big Question at a time.

With gratitude,

The SOLE Colombia Team