How Solid aims to impact the Web (and AI with it)

Not even so long ago, we were promised
Big Data would solve all of our problems.

• Bringing heaps of data together in one place
  will reveal new patterns and insights.
  • Find things you didn’t know you didn’t know.
• Big Data has driven a fundamental shift
  in how enterprises deal with data.
• Is it technologically so surprising?
  • Of course patterns emerge from so much data.
  • It would be more surprising if it didn’t!

Big Data comes with big problems.
Many of them are not technological.

• How do we obtain this much data in the first place?
  • Acquisition costs are high.
• How do we legally justify its storage?
  • GDPR compliance is difficult and expensive.
• How do we keep on getting more data?
  • You need to be the one with the Biggest Data.

The data you can collect
isn’t always the data you want.

• Supermarkets know better than me:
  • what I have bought
  • what I want to buy
• With Big Data, one day they’ll know:
  • how many steps and breaths I’m taking exactly where
• But what they really want to know:
  • what I am still buying from their competitors

The current Big Data craziness
is killing meaningful innovation.

• A small company creates AI
  that matches people to jobs.
  • Their AI depends on data.
• Today, a large part of activities
  necessarily focuses on data harvesting.
  • But they actually want to do AI!
• Getting bigger means competing with LinkedIn.
  • They have already lost that fight before even starting.

The Big Data fallacy is that you cannot
keep on throwing more data at a problem.

• Obtaining such enormous amounts of data
  is staggeringly expensive.
• Adding more and more data to the pile
  is even more expensive.
• Sooner or later, you will inevitably reach
  the point of diminishing returns.
  • More data does not deliver proportionally more insights.

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 current massive centralization
hurts diversity, innovation, and choice.

• If you can build 1 API integration
  • will it be facebook.com or private-identity-provider.org?
• Developers depend on centralized platforms
  for data and identity.
  • …or they have to become such a platform themselves
• People lose control of their data
  and cannot easily switch to other apps.
  • innovation cannot attract locked-in customers

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.

There will not be less data.
There will be more.

• Supermarkets can see competitor’s data.
  • Under GDPR, consumers can get their data out.
  • They can choose to share it… for a better deal!
• AI companies do not have to be harvesters.
  • Ask for data when you need it.
  • Focus on what you really want to do.

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

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
  • …

Interoperability challenges in Solid
are tackled with Linked Data in RDF.

• 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?

With JSON-LD, every piece of data
can link to any other piece of data.

{
  "@context":  "https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams",
  "id":        "#ruben-likes-pfia2019",
  "type":      "Like",
  "actor":     "https://ruben.verborgh.org/profile/#me",
  "object":    "https://www.irit.fr/pfia2019/#this",
  "published": "2019-06-02T12:00:00Z"
}

Data shapes and their semantics
enable layered compatibility.

{
  "@context":  "https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams",
  "id":        "#ruben-likes-ldac2019",
  "type":      "Like",
  "actor":     "https://ruben.verborgh.org/profile/#me",
  "object":    "https://www.irit.fr/pfia2019/#this",
  "published": "2019-06-02T12:00:00Z"
}

Different source data
can be concatenated.

{
  "@context":  "https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams",
  "@graph": [{
    "type":      "Like",
    "actor":     "https://ruben.verborgh.org/profile/#me",
    "object":    "https://www.irit.fr/pfia2019/#this",
    "published": "2019-06-02T12:00:00Z"
  },{
    "type":      "Like",
    "actor":     "https://example.org/people/marie#me",
    "object":    "https://www.irit.fr/pfia2019/#this",
    "published": "2019-06-02T12:05:00Z"
  }]
}

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

The current approach to building apps
does not play well with decentralization.

When clients do not bind to HTTP requests,
APIs can evolve independently of app logic.

Decentralization needs replication
for realistic performance.

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.

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

Agents’ main responsibility is
sustaining a network between nodes.