Tim Berners-Lee announces Solid: Federation for the World Wide Web

Software & Operating Systems Open Source & Web-Based
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I wasn’t sure where to post this, I couldn’t find it being discussed anywhere, either.

Some quotes from the article:

This week, Berners-Lee will launch Inrupt, a startup that he has been building, in stealth mode, for the past nine months. Backed by Glasswing Ventures, its mission is to turbocharge a broader movement afoot, among developers around the world, to decentralize the web and take back power from the forces that have profited from centralizing it. In other words, it’s game on for Facebook, Google, Amazon. For years now, Berners-Lee and other internet activists have been dreaming of a digital utopia where individuals control their own data and the internet remains free and open. But for Berners-Lee, the time for dreaming is over.

The difference here is that, on Solid, all the information is under his control. Every bit of data he creates or adds on Solid exists within a Solid pod–which is an acronym for personal online data store. These pods are what give Solid users control over their applications and information on the web. Anyone using the platform will get a Solid identity and Solid pod. This is how people, Berners-Lee says, will take back the power of the web from corporations.

From their website:

Solid empowers users and organizations to separate their data from the applications that use it. It allows people to look at the same data with different apps at the same time. It opens brand new avenues for creativity, problem-solving, and commerce. Learn how it came to be.

https://solid.inrupt.com/

So I like the theory, I’m not so sure about the application. I’ve been seeing this slow trickle towards federation, and even if Solid isn’t the answer, I hope it causes a precipitation of ideas. I know there’s pros and cons of federation, but it really seems to me like it solves a lot more problems than it creates. Federation is pretty necessary if we want to preserve the open exchange of ideas, and having your own data under your control, being unable to be de-platformed, those are all good things from an information exchange standpoint. Hosting your own service that conforms with one set of standards, even of those standards are slow to update and incorporate new features, seems like a better alternative than being the member of these mega-communities that want to monetize you, and perform social engineering with the data of their huge user bases. That’s an immense amount of power that shouldn’t even be in the hands of one group. Representing yourself is the only fair way forwards.

Anyways, thought L1T would want to check this out, I couldn’t find a thread on it anywhere so it seemed worth posting here. I’m going to be checking out the server software when I get a chance. Overall, there doens’t seem to be revolutionary tech here, but with the weight of the name, hopefully this is enough to get the ball rolling on these ideas.

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Without digging deeper than that article and the “how it works” page there is no mention of how secure that identity is besides

. PODs are like secure USB sticks for the Web, that you can access from anywhere.

and the use of identity comes off as marketing, its an account, just call it an account

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It’s not an account, exactly, though, because you can self host it and then use your account to interact with other websites and web-based applications, without giving access to it to any third party. So it certainly isn’t encompassed by what I traditionally consider an account.

The technical specifications are definitely light right now, though, but this isn’t a full service, it’s more of a technological idea. We’re going to have to wait and see how it grows (or do one better, and contribute).

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2 days

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Maby its using a block chain algorithm?

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I definitely see the merit on the concept. If anything it is how the internet should work. I really hope it is not too late for it to take a foothold.

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Let me be the first tot point out … After stabbing every internet user in the back, that following a so called good cause might not be in your best interest.

Short memory everyone seems to have.

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I can disagree with TBL on implementing DRM, but life is not completely black and white and he’s done a lot more good than bad, by miles. It’s not even close. He’s certainly still someone worth paying attention to.

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Works until china or the UK or even the evil US block it. Need tor all the things no one can tell are evil and cute :slight_smile: !!!

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None has forgotten that. But you do not write off the inventor of the web and the reason why the internet begun open just because of one transgression.

His DRM stance was awful and regressive for the internet. That does not change the fact that he is absolutely right about the need for its decentralization and this concept that he is trying to push for is important.

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Is it not a bit ironic for https://solid.inrupt.com/ to have a google analytics script on a website of this nature?

Still not sure how Solid works, but seems interesting to follow. Any parallels with the decentralized facebook alternative called diaspora? Haven’t heard about that in a while.

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Those are so pervasive they might not even know it’s there.

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Looks exciting to me.

I’m all for more privacy and getting rid of all Google and such spyware!

https://solid.mit.edu/

to Berners-Lee, this is where the revolution begins. The app, using Solid’s decentralized technology, allows Berners-Lee to access all of his data seamlessly–his calendar, his music library, videos, chat, research. It’s like a mashup of Google Drive, Microsoft Outlook, Slack, Spotify, and WhatsApp.

The difference here is that, on Solid, all the information is under his control. Every bit of data he creates or adds on Solid exists within a Solid pod–which is an acronym for personal online data store. These pods are what give Solid users control over their applications and information on the web. Anyone using the platform will get a Solid identity and Solid pod. This is how people, Berners-Lee says, will take back the power of the web from corporations.

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I’m glad someone’s trying solve the problem.

I’m pretty bummed out that it’s being built on top of NodeJS… I’m trying to get less inefficient (interpreted) code in my life, not more.

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With the concept of pods, sounds a little like the model used by diaspora social network?

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Over the WAN, the network is likely to be the delay anyway…Javascript JIT is getting better, half the modern applications in web browsers are javascript anyway and things like Google maps, etc. seem to work just fine.

I’d take 2000-era web performance with privacy over what we have today, any day thanks.

Will probably end up faster anyway due to less ad/spyware saturation…

edit:
signed up for an account (jrose.solid.community), will play a bit later.

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It’s not only a question of speed. It’s less power efficient, too, which leads to leads to worse battery life on the client side and higher hosting costs on the server side.

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The description of PODs is a bit vague right now. I’m having trouble making up my mind on the model. All I have is a bunch of “ifs”.

One of the most powerful models that could be implemented is one that enables the user to leverage their own data, as they see fit, while it remains properly anonymized. It’s a difficult thing to do though.

This is why I’m so interested in the PODs model. Collecting personalized data; even for identification is going to have a path with some cons.

There’s not really much I can say about it at this point; except that I’m a little disheartened by the lack of a concise explanation of the model.

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Given that every mobile device is basically being built to run javascript web-applications these days, i’d not be too concerned about that.

Javascript lowers the barrier to entry for developers as well. Ease of development and quantity of developer pool trumps raw speed. You can throw more processing power or hardware developments at the speed/power issue. You can’t conjure developers from thin air.

I get it, the inner geek in me hates the inefficiency as well (shit, in my younger days, i’d be cheering for stuff written directly in assembly rather than some slow, inefficient language like C or C++), but in reality, if the development environment is too complicated you won’t get the developers on board and the platform won’t fly and the feature-set of your apps will be far less.

Maybe once it gets off the ground some other languages might be supported, but it needs to get off the ground first.

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It seems like that’s the idea. Basically, you control all the data in the POD. Then you can allow services and applications to access the data. To what extent, and how it’s anonymized to prevent them from tracing you, I’m not sure, and that hasn’t really been elucidated yet.

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