According to official UN figures, more than half of the population of the world does not have an internet connection.

The continents with the lowest internet penetration are Asia and Africa, as these regions lack the required infrastructure and people lack the skills needed to benefit from the Internet. In response, eRise is digitally empowering not only those who are not connected to the Internet, but also those who are already connected to it. With one of the main challenges being the high cost of internet access, eRise provides low-cost technology to enable them to get connected to the Internet.

eRise aims to tackle the problem of Internet connectivity for less privileged communities is the Toki Server project. The aim of the project is to provide and empower one billion people for the next five years. Toki Servers are WI-FI ready servers costing about $50 which can run on both AC power, or on batteries for up-to 72 hours and can handle 500 concurrent connections. These servers are placed in the private residences of Toki “Mayors”, who are responsible for maintaining and managing the servers.

Toki Servers come pre-installed with Digital Libraries. The curation of these libraries are compiled by Local Digital Librarians (LDL) in order to provide locally relevant content to those communities. eRise leverages decentralized content delivery systems to make websites load faster while consuming minimal power and bandwidth. This accelerates dissemination of knowledge and know-how, thereby uplifting lives in the Digital Age. “