Solid: innovation through personal data control

We are facing an innovation problem
and it pertains to personal data.

Let’s look for answers to these questions:

• How has the Web enabled innovation in the past?
• Why are major companies struggling to innovate?
• What is missing from the Web for innovation today?

The Web strives to be universal
through independence of many factors.

• Anyone can use the Web, regardless of:

  hardware

  desktop

  phone

  tablet

  watch

  …

  software

  operating system

  browser

  app

  …

• Developers are free to innovate.
  • Build for the Web.
  • Standards provide interoperability.
• Unfortunately, this is not the default elsewhere.
  • App stores are a prominent counterexample.

The Web brings freedom of expression
to everyone across the world.

• Anyone can say anything about anything.
• We all have our own spaces,
  so we don’t have to agree.
• We can link to opinions of others
  to discuss about them.

The Web brings permissionless innovation
at a global scale.

• Anyone can build anything for any reason.
• The technologies are open.
• You don’t need anyone’s permission
  to join the Web and launch a new idea.
  • This contrast with app stores.

The first threat to universality
were the browser wars of the 1990s.

• No Internet Explorer?
  • You’re out of luck!
• People needed a certain computer.
  • no mobile devices
• Developers depended on Microsoft’s pace.
  • browsers were not very powerful

This battle was replaced by another:
the search engine wars of the 2000s.

• Not on Google?
  • You’re out of luck!
• Ranking high became more important
  than high-quality content.
• The reach of your innovations
  depended on one crawler.

This battle was also replaced by another:
the platform wars of the 2010s.

• Not on Facebook?
  • You’re out of luck!
• Clicks became more important
  than high-quality content.
• You either compete for innovation
  with Facebook, or depend on it.

In 2017, Tim Berners-Lee listed
three challenges for the Web.

1. We need to regain control
   over our personal data.
2. We need to reduce the spread
   of misinformation.
3. We need transparency and understanding
   of political advertising.

All three indicate a loss of control/agency.

Tim Berners-Lee is spearheading Solid
as an ecosystem to take back control.

• Solid is a way of building Web apps that
  let people keep control of their data.
• Solid combines existing W3C standards
  to define how agents should interact.
  • It is not a new Web:
    it builds on top of the existing Web.
• Like the Web, Solid is for everyone.
  • Bring back universality and permissionless innovation.

Solid aims to restore choice
by separating data from apps.

• Typical platforms nowadays store data
  inseparably from an application.
  • If we need to access the data, we cannot choose our app.
  • If we need to use the app, we can’t choose our data source.
• By separating data from apps,
  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 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.

• Solid is an ecosystem.
  • Standards enable interoperability
• Solid is a movement.
  • We need to shift the app builder mindset.
• Solid is a community.
  • Building Solid requires different people,
    companies, and organisations.

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

• It is a regular Web server
  • …with support for access control.
  • …with support for Linked Data.
• Its interface is application-agnostic.
  • Build any application, like on the Web.
  • Application-specific logic resides in clients.
• A Solid pod is essentially a website with data.
  • Its data is compatible with any Solid app.

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

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

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

• People give read and/or write permissions
  for specific pieces of data to:
  • apps
  • other people
  • automated agents
  • …
• Apps deliver an integrated experience.
  • Instead of displaying individual webpages or data items,
    apps interleave data from multiple sources.

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

• calendar 📅
• social feed 👥
• photo sharing 📸
• conference organization system 🎤
• … ✨

Client–server communication is governed
by the Solid specifications.

• They essentially demand compliance
  with a couple of existing standards:
  • HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP)
  • Linked Data Platform (LDP)
  • Linked Data Notifications (LDN)

Several open-source implementations
of servers, apps, and libraries exist.

• server
  • Use a public instance or host your own.
• apps
  • data browser
  • contacts
  • photos
  • meeting organizer
  • …
• libraries
  • authentication
  • data processing
  • …

Decentralized apps have many back-ends. Back-ends work with many apps.

The Paradox of Freedom:
you can only be free if you follow rules.

• Decentralization means making our own choices.
• Unless we agree on some basic things,
  no one will see the result of our choices.
• Agreement can be layered:
  • 100% agrees on a small set (labeling, authorship, …)
  • 80% agrees on a larger set (places, dimensions)
  • 5% agrees on many smaller sets (sizes, colors, …)

Current networks are centered
around the aggregator.

We need to create network flows
to and from the aggregator.

The individual network nodes
need to become the source of truth.

Aggregators need to become part
of a larger network.

Aggregators serve as a crucial
but transparent layer in the network.

Aggregators’ main responsibility becomes
fostering a network between nodes.

Interoperability challenges in Solid
are solved through Linked Data.

• If we all store our own data,
  how do we connect it to others’ data?
• How can apps share data,
  without too many prior agreements?
• How do we integrate data
  from multiple data pods?

Let’s assemble the brightest minds
from business, technology, government,
civil society, the arts and academia
to tackle the threats to the Web’s future.

Tim Berners-Lee