The Tech We Want Library, what’s that about?
The Tech We Want Library Installation (formerly The Library of the Future) is a collection of books, essays, and ideas that shape how we imagine a kinder tech future.
It’s a lo-fi moment in a hi-fi world.
A place to slow down. To read. To sit with ideas before you have to have an opinion.
Engage with the material at your own pace. Attend a workshop on community oriented tech, or black innovation.
Just you and a book that might change the way you see things.
What We Highlight:
Book shelves
Tech Critique, Futurism / Systems Design, Speculative Fiction, Economics / Finance, Business / Entrepreneurship, Community / Society, Self-Improvement / Psychology, Philosophy / History, Movement Building / Civil Rights / Activism
Highilights from the library @ SXSW 2026
We live in a world of disappearing archives and rented data.
Algorithms decide what you see. Platforms decide how long you see it. And when the terms and conditions change, your library can vanish overnight.
Books are different. You can own them. Dog-ear the pages. Scribble in the margins. Pass them to a friend.
Collective Sensemaking Board in The Library. THE LIGHT HOUSE, Austin TX 2025
We also believe in creating different speeds of engagement.
Not everyone connects through conversation. Sometimes you need to be alone with an idea before you can talk about it. The Library is for those moments.
How we built the Library
The Library installation has a lot of moving parts! Here are some steps that guide our creation process
Context, finances
and budget
- Decide whether this a standalone pop-up or part of an existing event
- Secure budget for books, supplies, printing, furniture, venue, and programming
- Look for sponsors that align with the values and content
Crowd source recommendations
- Ask our colleagues, collaborators, and friends what they’re reading
- Cluster content by topics
- Partner with a local bookstore to source the books
Design and Production
- Bring in collaborators to design programming and workshops
- Design and print interactive boards
- Host the event, and give away the books!
The Tech We Want is a responsible innovation network for tech visionaries, operators, and champions building an alternative tech economy rooted in shared power and prosperity.
Our work centers on three things:
Trust
Technology can’t serve people it refuses to be accountable to. We build trust by showing up in community, not behind closed doors.
Agency
Everyone deserves the right to define their relationship to technology. To use it on their own terms, or to refuse it altogether.
Collective Intelligence
No single founder, funder, or algorithm will fix this. We need all of us. We need the wisdom of organizers, artists, builders, and believers.
The Library is one way we put these values into practice.
The Tech We Want Library was designed and realised by Julia Solano and Maxine Yeo for TTWW with support from Caspian Agency.
We'll See You at
Library Day 1
1:30 AM – 3:30 (90 Min) | LIBRARY BLOCK 1 - Ed Farm- Designing Breakthrough Pilots: How Educators and EdTech Founders Build the Future of Learning Together.
School pilots are where innovation meets the real world, where ideas are tested, tools evolve, and teachers help shape the future of learning.
At Ed Farm, we believe that transformational technology emerges when educators, founders, and district leaders come together with a shared commitment to equity, creativity, and impact. This spirit is at the core of the Ed Farm Innovation Challenge.
This interactive workshop brings those voices into one room to unpack what makes K–12 pilots meaningful and sustainable. Participants will explore the pilot journey from multiple perspectives, hear honest insights from practitioners who navigate these decisions every day, and examine the conditions that allow new tools to thrive in classrooms.
We’ll dig into what districts actually need, the role of teacher voice in product development, and how founder–teacher collaboration accelerates innovation. We’ll also spotlight the unique leadership that educators bring to designing learning environments that center culture, community, and student empowerment.
Whether you’re launching your first pilot or refining your next one, you’ll leave with frameworks, strategies, and mindsets that help build pilots grounded in partnership, equity, and impact.
4:00 AM – 5:30 (90 Min) | LIBRARY BLOCK 2 - BIA - Clarity in Chaos: A New Framework for Entrepreneur Growth
Entrepreneurship is entering a new era.
Capital is tighter, markets are shifting, and the traditional models of founder support are proving insufficient for the complexity and pace of today’s environment.
In this session, Black Innovation Alliance introduces Source Code, a scalable, stage-based framework designed to meet entrepreneurs where they actually are. By identifying a business’s maturity level, Source Code replaces generic advice with precision and helps founders focus on the behaviors and priorities that matter most right now. Join us to explore how rethinking support models can equip entrepreneurs to build resilient, high-performing businesses in an era of uncertainty.
library Day 2
2:00 PM – 3:30 PM (90 Min) | LIBRARY BLOCK 3 - Dream Machine - Co-Creating Tomorrow: The Future of Society, Technology & Human Flourishing
This activation directly supports The Light House’s mission to reimagine an operating system for building technology that truly serves people and communities.
Our workshop embodies the event’s call to center “the collective, connective, caring kind” of intelligence by bringing participants together to envision solutions rooted in love, not extraction.
4:00 PM – 5:00 PM (60 Min) | LIBRARY BLOCK 4: Closed for a Private Session
We'll see you next time!
Bring The Library to your community!
Follow @thetechwewant on Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube and Substack for updates.
The Library is presented by The Tech We Want, a project of Omidyar Network
