Tim Berners-Lee’s Solid - Trick or Treat?

Solid is a set of conventions and tools developed by Tim Berners-Lee. It aims to build decentralized social applications based on Linked Data principles. It is modular, extensible and it relies as much as possible on existing W3C standards and protocols. This open-source project was launched earlier this month for “personal empowerment through data”.

Why are people excited about Solid?

Solid aims to radically transform the way Web applications work today, resulting in true data ownership as well as improved privacy. It hopes to empower individuals, developers, and businesses across the globe with completely new ways to build innovative and trusted applications. It gives users the freedom to choose where their data resides and who is allowed to access it.

Solid collects all the data into a “Solid POD,” a personal online data repository, that you want to share with advertisers or apps. You get to decide which app gets your data and which does not.  Best thing is that you don’t need to enter any data in apps that support Solid. You can just allow or disallow access to the Solid POD, and the app will take care of the rest on its own.

Moreover, Solid also offers every user a choice regarding where their data gets stored, and which specific people or groups can access the select elements in a data. Additionally, you can link to and share the data with anyone, be it your family, friends or colleagues.

Is Solid a trick or a treat?

That being said, a majority of the companies on the web are extremely sensitive when it comes to their data and might not be interested in losing control over that data. Hence, wide adoption seems to be a hurdle as of now. Also, since its only launched this month, there isn’t enough community support around it.

However, Solid is surely taking us a step ahead, to a more free and open Internet, and seems to be a solid TREAT (pun intended) for all of us.

For more information on Solid, check out the official Inrupt blog.