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SOLE Voltaje invites you to "tinker," to be curious about the Internet and how it works, and to extend its reach so we can use the Internet in groups and thus change the world together!
Welcome to SOLE Voltaje! An initiative by SOLE Colombia dedicated to improving access to knowledge through community solutions for using the Internet in groups. There are three steps to start using SOLE Voltaje:
You also have an experience to learn what the Internet is and how it works, and an invitation to help us extend the blanket of solidarity so others can connect too: SOLE Voltaje Offline.
SOLE Colombia, 2024. Choose Auto-translate option in YouTube subtitles and your preferred language.
SOLE Colombia, 2024. Choose Auto-translate option in YouTube subtitles and your preferred language.
Have you ever wondered how the Internet reaches your home? Why we pay so much to connect or what it would be like to live disconnected? Getting connected to the Internet might seem like magic, but it's actually information traveling around the world through servers - physical places that make it possible for you to read this right now.
For many, the "connected" world remains a mystery, either because they don't have access or because they don't know how it works. But here we like to question everything. We don't let ourselves be carried away by mystery; this is a safe space to explore. Together, we can understand, question, and reinvent the future of the Internet.
SOLE Voltaje is that constant tension between what we already know and what remains to be discovered, between the need to be connected and the desire for technological freedom and autonomy. Here we develop tools, provocative ideas, inspirations, and collective learning spaces that promote the use of the Internet in groups to answer Big Questions, because we believe in another possible future for network connection: one that's open, safe, and where we can all decide how we want to be connected - humanely connected.
Everything you find here is the result of collaboration and knowledge from "cacharreros" —as we call them in Colombia— people who don't accept "it doesn't work" as an answer, people willing to solve problems, to take apart what no longer works until it works again. We want more people in the world to be encouraged to build the Internet with their own hands. You too can be an active network tinkerer!
The goal of SOLE Voltaje is to enable individuals or organizations working with people who have no access or limited access to the Internet to improve their situation in a self-managed way to the extent their own resources allow.
These resources include the amount of money they can dedicate to improving their situation, the amount of time they have to self-learn, implement and test solutions, the number of people who could accompany them on their journey, and the level of complexity of the solutions they can develop.
Over time, we hope that people in rural areas and digitally excluded communities can use and link various solutions together to finally have a permanent community space with connectivity and devices for learning, dialogue, and creating flourishing communities using the Internet.