Solid: personal data innovation

Solid aims to restore choice
by separating data from services.

• Typical platforms nowadays store data
  inseparably from an application.
  • If we need certain data, we cannot choose our service.
  • If we need a certain service, we can’t choose a data source.
• By separating data from services,
  we create independent choices.
  • In essence, we‘re taking Web apps back to desktop mode,
    where one file can be opened by multiple apps.

Every piece of data created by a person
or about them, is stored in a data pod.

Apps and services appear similarly,
but they blend data from many sources.

A person can grant services access
to very specific parts of their data.

Separating app and storage competition
creates better offerings for all parties.

By abandoning data harvesting,
we restore permissionless innovation.

Solid is not a company or organisation.
Solid is not (just) software.

• Solid is an ecosystem
  • standards enable interoperability
• Solid is a movement
  • shifting the app builder mindset
• Solid is a community
  • different people, companies, and organisations

Anyone can build or host
software for Solid.

• a server at home and/or
  at your workplace
• rent server space
• use one of the
  free community servers

The Solid server acts as a data pod
that stores and guards your data.

• a regular Web server
  • with support for access control
  • with support for Linked Data
• application-agnostic
  • build any application
  • application-specific logic resides in clients
• just like your website
  • your data can be opened with any app

A typical data pod can contain
any data you create or need online.

• profile 👤
• photos 🖼
• comments 🗣
• likes 👍
• … ✨

Solid clients are browser or native apps
that read from or write to your data pod.

• you give apps permission
  • choose very precisely what they can access
• friends give you permission
  • choose very precisely what you can access
• apps deliver a unified experience
  • browse your friends’ pictures along with yours

Any app you can envision,
you can build with Solid.

• calendar 📅
• social feed 👥
• persona data sharing 📸
• citizen polling systems 🎤
• … ✨

The Solid server and several apps exist
and are usable for developers.

• Solid server
  • store your data online with access control
  • free storage at solidcommunity.net and inrupt.net
• apps
  • data browser
  • contacts
  • photos
  • meeting organizer
  • …
• libraries
  • authentication
  • data processing
  • …

Solid transitioned from research project
into an ecosystem backed by start-ups.

• MIT has been our home
  • initial development of server and apps
• Companies are accelerating development
  • open up the ecosystem for all
  • maintain common building blocks as open source
  • create tooling for developers
  • offer services and apps

Decentralized apps are more complex.
We need new technologies to cope.

My team at UGent – imec is looking to
collaborate on decentralized challenges.

• Our job is to envisage the problems ahead
  and perform research to find novel solutions.
• We want to work you
  to address your use cases.
  • bilateral
  • European projects
  • …
• Let’s stay in touch.