Restoring Innovation on the Web through Data

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

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.
• You don’t need anyone’s permission
  to join the Web and launch a new idea.
  • not the case in app stores

The first threat to universality
were the browser wars.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

Ironically, permissionless innovation
even allows platforms that prevent it.

The Facebook founder has no intention of
allowing anyone to build anything on his platform
that does not have his express approval.

Having profited mightily from the Web’s openness,
he has kicked away the ladder that elevated him
to his current eminence.

John Naughton, The Guardian

People choose where they store
every single piece of data they produce.

They can grant apps and people access
to very specific parts of their data.

Separating app and storage competition
drives 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.

• Place 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 👥
• photo sharing 📸
• conference organization system 🎤
• … ✨

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

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

Solid is transitioning from research project
into an ecosystem backed by a start-up.

• MIT has been our home.
  • initial development of server and apps
• Inrupt is 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 have many back-ends. Back-ends work with many apps.

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?

The developer experience is the most
crucial factor for Solid success.

• Front-end developers build
  the apps people see.
• Together with UX designers,
  they bring Solid to people.
• Enabling developers
  means enabling ourselves.