Solid reshaping the web as we know it

http://talks.kjernsmo.net/solid/2019/ldsv.html

American startup based in Boston

CEO John Bruce

CTO Tim Berners-Lee

Kjetil Kjernsmo

Ruben Verborgh

Business models that focus on data harvesting and persuation architectures causes

stagnating innovation
alienation amongst citizens
a few winners takes all
general exploitative environment

We need a new social contract

The Solid ecosystem
brings back choice
by decoupling data and applications and
enables personal data control.

The Web strives to be universal, and thereby enables permissionless innovation.

Anyone can use the Web, regardless of
- hardware
  desktop phone tablet watch …
- software
  operating system browser app …
You don’t depend on these to innovate.
- Build for the Web!
- Standards provide interoperability.

Solid means Social Linked Data

Solid gives

Everyone a Pod, where you can store and manage your data
Everyone an identity, a WebID
An authorization system with fine grained control
Takes advantage of various security mechanisms

Linked Data

URL: http://talks.kjernsmo.net/solid/2019/ldsv.html

It is an address to something
You get a document back if you go there
It is also an identifier for that document

URI: https://solid.kjernsmo.net/profile/card#me

Generalized to identify something physical
You will get a description about me if you go there.
Can identify anything, including abstract things, like the type of weather.

Triple

Subject	Predicate	Object
`<https://solid.kjernsmo.net/profile/card#me>`	`<http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/name>`	`"Kjetil Kjernsmo"@no .`

Turtle


@prefix foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/> .
@prefix dc:   <http://purl.org/dc/terms/> .
@prefix xsd:  <http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#> .
@base         <https://solid.kjernsmo.net/> .

<profile/card#me> a foaf:Person ;
                  foaf:name "Kjetil Kjernsmo"@no ;
	          foaf:publications <http://urn.nb.no/URN:NBN:no-56537>, 
                                    <http://urn.nb.no/URN:NBN:no-2021>.

<http://urn.nb.no/URN:NBN:no-56537> dc:title "SPARQL on the Open, Decentralised Web"@en;
                                    dc:date  "2016-11-22"^^xsd:date .

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

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

Separating app and storage competition drives permissionless innovation.

Permissionless innovation

Enables people to experiment with solution to their problems.
Counteracts technological elitsm.
Has historically brought unprecedented creativity to the world.
But isn't the whole solution

Personal Data Control

When people control their own data, they are

more resistant to persuation architectures
less dependent on data harvesting business models
more resistant to forms of exploitation
they are free to choose applications that suit them
- use applications that matches their values
- enables competition based on value added
- since people are not locked in, anyone can enter with their innovations

Personal Data Control unlocks Permissionless Innovation

Personal Data Control Enables Smart Cities

Smart cities will require personal data.
Smart cities will need to respect their users
or create an unprecedented surveillance society

Shared mobility is important

It will:

Cut traffic
Cut emissions

But

City development must be democratically driven
People must have personal data control
We must not have a winner-takes all situation

Access Control Lists


@prefix acl: <http://www.w3.org/ns/auth/acl#>.
@prefix foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/>.
@base <https://solid.kjernsmo.net/profile/>

<card.acl#owner>
    a acl:Authorization;
    acl:agent <card#me>;
    acl:accessTo <card>;
    acl:mode
        acl:Read, acl:Write, acl:Control.
<card.acl#public>
    a acl:Authorization;
    acl:agentClass foaf:Agent;
    acl:accessTo <card>;
    acl:mode acl:Read.

Focus on Developer Tools

We have a prototype server
and a rewrite is in progress
We have released a Software Development Kit, based on React.
Making RDF easy to work with through e.g. LDFlex

Verifiable Presentation

Standardization underway to enable data to be verified by a third party.

Give everyone Solid

Because...

It enhances the public's security
Allows people to truly excercise their rights
Helps free them from exploitative technology companies.
Enhances innovation
Improves their ability to participate in technological development
Public services can avoid centralized architectures
Public services can be where the user is