Inherently Social, Decentralised, and for Everyone

self publishing entails that an actor can register identifiers for their content, shape and store data where they have access to, set access control[s], and use preferred applications to achieve them.

Data on the Web should not be locked in to particular systems or be only readable by the applications which created it. Users should be free to switch between applications and share data between them.

The aims of the Solid project are in line with those of the Web itself: empowerment towards an equitable, informed and interconnected society. Solid adds to existing Web standards to realise a space where individuals can maintain their autonomy, control their data and privacy, and choose applications and services to fulfil their needs.

	Solid Protocol	ActivityPub
Identifiers	URI owner	Implementation specific
Data	Personal	Social objects
Applications	Domain-centric	Social activity-centric
Protocols	Client-Server, ..	Client-Server, Server-Server
Authentication	Solid-OIDC, HttpSig*	Implementation specific
Authorization	WAC, ACP	Implementation specific
Notifications	LDN, WebSockets	LDN*

Container

A collection of [..] resources that responds to client requests for creation, modification, and/or enumeration of its linked members and documents [..].

Storage

[..A] space of URIs that affords agents controlled access to resources.

Inbox

An [..] endpoint to which notifications are sent or from which they are consumed.

Outbox

[A] stream contain[ing] activities the user has published.

Standards are like wine: some will age well, and others spoil. — Henry Story

Adoption in the wild takes time and influenced by many variables.

• Standards evolve;
• shaped by cooperation
• adherence to principles (process, consensus, transparency, balance, openness);
• collective empowerment;
• availability;
• voluntary adoption.

DecisionsStandards are made by those who show up.

But.. it is a privilege to have the opportunity to show up.

NIH 🙈 🙉 🙊 FUD

• Bolster Legitimacy
• Focus Discussion of Centralization
• Target Proprietary Functions
• Enable Switching
• Control Delegation of Power
• Enforce Boundaries
• Consider Extensibility Carefully

• How can harassment and abuse be prevented or handled?
• How would moderation or civil discourse work?
• How can a resource prohibit or consent to be annotated at fine granularity?
• How can the conditions to annotate and notify be indicated and monitored?
• How can a resource’s annotation policy and rules be respected?
• What may be the conditions to associate different identities?
• How can domain expertise be factored in?

Circumstances under which profiles are used or shared:

• Communication and use of multiple profiles for different purposes.
• Connectivity of multiple profiles and cross-context recognition.
• Cascade of profile information.
• Persistence and evolution of profiles.
• Anonymous and pseudonymous profiles.
• Self-controlled and third-party-controlled identities.
• Information for the purpose of verification, authentication, authorization purposes.
• Compilation of preferences, choices, activities and interactions of an agent.
• Social graph for different kinds of relationships between agents.
• Factors specific to physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural, social, or behavioural identity.

Forces

Actor

Content

Accessibility

Applicability

Functions

Registration

Awareness

Certification

Archiving

.., Activity Vocabulary, ActivityPub, Authorization Capabilities for Linked Data, Data Privacy Vocabulary, Event Notifications in Value-Adding Networks, Fedora API Specification 1.0, Linked Data Platform, Linked Data Notifications, Memento, Open Digital Rights Language, Solid Notifications Protocol, Solid Protocol, The Cognitive Characteristics Ontology, The PROV Ontology, vCard Ontology, Web Access Control, Web Annotation Data Model, ..

• Share use cases.
• Propose and assess solutions, e.g., moderation, specification extensions.
• Highlight emerging patterns and share implementation experience.
• Identify lacking standards or gaps in standardisation.
• Host storage/nodes for public good.
• ..
• What do you think?