An introduction to the Solid ecosystem

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

You freedom to use the Web shouldn’t be influenced by:

• technological concerns
  • hardware
  • software
  • network access
  • …
• personal concerns
  • language
  • culture
  • disability
  • …

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 an unprecedented scale.

• Anyone can build anything for any reason.
• You don’t need anyone’s permission
  to join the Web and launch a new idea.
  • This contrasts with app stores,
    where your app has to be approved
    and you have to share your revenues.

Many social media platforms
reduce the Web to television.

• Rather than deliberately choosing content,
  we let The Stream decide in our place.
• We do not actively control
  what parts of other’s data we see.
  • Our comments and reactions
    also get engulfed by The Stream.
• Hyperlinks lose their value as a currency
  and voting mechanism.

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

Decentralization in Solid is not needing
centralized platforms to enjoy the Web.

• Decentralization is broader than blockchain.
  • Decentralization in blockchain means that
    no central party is needed to reach a decision.
  • Blockchains replicate data across many nodes.
• Solid decentralizes to avoid a dependency on
  a central party’s data ownership or permission.
  • Store your data where you want.
  • Still use the apps that you want.
  • Switch at any time.

Different platforms tackle decentralization
at very different scales.

You can choose where you store
every single piece of data you produce.

You can grant apps and people access
to very specific parts of your data.

Separating app and storage competition
drives permissionless innovation.

The traditional way of building apps
does not work well with decentralization.

Building apps over decentralized data
requires different app techniques.

Linked Data in the RDF model
solves crucial challenges for Solid.

• 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?

Through URLs and RDF, every piece of data
can link to any other piece of data.

PREFIX as: <https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams#>
PREFIX xsd: <http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#>
<#ruben-likes-lds2019> a as:Like;
  as:actor  <https://ruben.verborgh.org/profile/#me>;
  as:object <https://onderwijsaanbod.kuleuven.be/syllabi/e/F0XO5AE.htm#this>;
  as:published "2019-11-14T08:00:00Z"^^xsd:dateTime.

Shapes (and hopefully soon semantics)
enable layered compatibility.

PREFIX as: <https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams#>
PREFIX xsd: <http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#>
<#ruben-likes-lds2019> a as:Like;
  as:actor  <https://ruben.verborgh.org/profile/#me>;
  as:object <https://onderwijsaanbod.kuleuven.be/syllabi/e/F0XO5AE.htm#this>;
  as:published "2019-11-14T08:00:00Z"^^xsd:dateTime.

Different source data can be concatenated
(but let’s track provenance).

PREFIX as: <https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams#>
PREFIX xsd: <http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#>
<#ruben-likes-lds2019> a as:Like;
  as:actor  <https://ruben.verborgh.org/profile/#me>;
  as:object <https://onderwijsaanbod.kuleuven.be/syllabi/e/F0XO5AE.htm#this>;
  as:published "2019-11-14T08:00:00Z"^^xsd:dateTime.
<#tom-likes-lds2019> a as:Like;
  as:actor  <https://www.kuleuven.be/wieiswie/en/person/00084411#me>;
  as:object <https://onderwijsaanbod.kuleuven.be/syllabi/e/F0XO5AE.htm#this>;
  as:published "2019-11-14T08:05:00Z"^^xsd:dateTime.

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

• Solid is an ecosystem.
  • Standards explain how different instances interoperate.
• Solid is a movement.
  • We’re shifting the mindset on how to build apps.
• Solid is a community.
  • Different people, companies, and organisations build it.

Anyone can build or host
software for Solid.

• You can have a server at home
  or at your workplace.
  • Open-source implementations are available.
• You can rent server space
  or even dedicated Solid space.
• You can use one of the
  free community servers.

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

• Your Solid data pod is a regular Web server.
  • with support for access control
  • with support for Linked Data
• Your Solid data pod is application-agnostic.
  • You can build any application.
  • All application-specific logic resides in clients.
• Your Solid data pod is like your website.
  • Yet your data can be opened with all apps you want.

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 to parts of your pod.
  • You can choose very precisely what they can access.
• Friends give you permission to parts of their pod.
  • They can choose very precisely what you can access.
• Apps build a unified experience with all that data.
  • Browse your friends’ pictures along with yours.

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

• calendar 📅
• social feed 👥
• photo sharing 📸
• academic peer review 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 start-ups.

• 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

Solid needs a diverse community
in order to succeed.

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