How interoperability unlocks permissionless innovation

Ruben Verborgh, Ghent Universityimec

2nd Data Sharing Winter School, 8 December 2021

How interoperability unlocks permissionless innovation

Ruben Verborgh

Ghent University – imec

©2019 Facebook
2019
©1969 source unknown
1969 live video 380,000 km
©2020 Google Maps
2019 photo 11 km

We don’t have a privacy problem,
we have an innovation problem
due to a lack of interop.

With Solid, we aim to
redefine the relationship
between people, their data,
and the apps they use.

© David Simonds

Solid aims to restore choice
by separating data from 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 apps and people 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 platform to replace others,
but a way of building for the Web.

Anyone can build or host
software for Solid.

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

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

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

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

How interoperability unlocks permissionless innovation

@RubenVerborgh

ruben.verborgh.org