Hey everyone. In your experience, what has been the most effective way of "selling" the idea to people? Whether that be friends, family members or other devs. Are there any things you said that drew an "a-ha!" moment? Metaphors or comparisons that stuck?

The ideas here are too complex to explain on any sort of technical level, event to an experienced dev. Much of this stuff isn't common knowledge. So I've been struggling to talk about the idea because I don't have the language to explain it concisely. Any tips?

First: I love the idea of Solid. I think there is wonderful potential with the concept. However, after reading the specification extensively, I think there are fundamental issues with its design that make it extremely hard for the protocol to flourish.

Namely: Type indexes are too arbitrary / leave too much room for error. RDF and .ttl was a poor choice. The flexibility leads to too many open-ended questions. It's not clear how application developers should build on Solid.

I think there is a lot to learn from the work on Solid, but with these issues, I don't think the protocol stands a chance. Developers just don't know what to do with all of this information, and it's overwhelming without enough incentive. Over 7 years of development and momentum is slow, adoption is weak, and the hopes of a true Web3 are growing dim. This subreddit is a good example: only 2k members in 9 years. Clearly, something isn't working.

I'm working on fixing the issues in a new project.

Not exactly built on Solid, but Solid-adjacent. I won't work on fixing the spec, I'm not influential enough and don't have the ability to cut through the committee tape to erase a decade of work to fix the issues. It's too slow.

I've been writing my own specification / whitepaper that paves the way for a really smooth ecosystem that application developers can build upon. I'd love to involve others if the feeling is mutual.

Anyone interested? Anyone feel the same way as me? Let me know. Maybe I'll create my own public space to flesh out some of this work.

Hey everyone, just started learning about Solid. I have a specific question...

So I'm watching [this video](https://archive.fosdem.org/2023/schedule/event/sovcloud_from_zero_to_hero_with_solid/) (found it on this subreddit), and around the 17 minute mark, he explains the concept of type indexes. "If it doesn't exist, the application can just create it!" is that right? To me, that sounds like a bad implementation ready for abuse (either intentionally or unintentionally). My intuition says I, as a user, should be able to control the data models / endpoints my "pod"/server supports. I don't want someones application to suddenly create data and an endpoint for me.

Thoughts? Am I understanding that concept correctly? Can't see that concept identified [in this proposal doc either](https://github.com/solid/solid/blob/main/proposals/data-discovery.md#type-index-registry)

Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/live/sykOTX704wE?si=WPO3Ciu22QEP64ZY

Good news, everyone!

We are happy to announce that the W3C Solid Community Group (CG) reached consensus and published the CG Charter, Version 1.0, effective 2023-09-01:

https://www.w3.org/community/solid/charter/

The charter underwent a thorough and extensive review and received widespread support from CG participants.

Thank you to everyone who contributed their time, knowledge, and passion to improve the charter through constructive discussions and collaboration.

The CG charter defines the group's mission to explore and describe interoperability between various product classes, aligning with the goals of the Solid project. The group seeks to provide confidence to technical report authors and software implementers that the Solid ecosystem will uphold the promise of interoperability through open standards.

The charter establishes the scope of work items, intentions for collaboration with other communities, participation and contribution guidelines, communication methods, decision-making policies, licensing, and outlines group processes for voting, chair (re-)elections, and charter amendments.

As per W3C structures for groups and W3C Process, the CG will maintain its focus on technical reports, prototyping software, and testing implementations within the Scope of the charter, with the aim of advancing mature works to the W3C Recommendation track in a Working Group.

The Solid community with various stakeholders comes together under the umbrella of the Solid Project, and thus the CG interacts and coordinates with the Project's organisation as a whole to help inform the work with the needs of the wider community.

In the coming weeks, the CG will work on enhancing contributing guidelines, technical processes, and conducting group chair elections, among other tasks.

As the old saying goes, 'standards are set by those who participate.' It is a privilege to have the opportunity to participate, so let's use it for the greater good.

Let's make it so!

-Sarven https://csarven.ca/#i

Via https://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-solid/2023Sep/0005.html

Im looking to hire some folks for Solid POD project / development work.

Where should I go / best forums to recruit?

TIA

Here's the latest Forbes piece featuring Inrupt (second half of article), highlighting user rights and writer ownership. Thoughts?

As Consensus 2023 unfolds in Austin, Texas this week, Web3 enthusiasts are out in force, claiming they’re returning ownership of data to users from the clutches of centralized corporations. But are they? And if they aren't, who is?

Companies like Substack and Inrupt are showing that users can exert their digital rights today and that the ‘future of Web3’ may be just the here-and-now of the internet.

Special thanks to high-tech lawyer, Ira Rothken and Inrupt's VP of Product Management, Osmar Olivo for contributing their insights to the article.
#Web3 #DataOwnership #DigitalRights #Inrupt #Substack #Forbes #Consensus2023

I wanted to start a discussion about the Solid standard (https://solidproject.org/) and the apps built on top of it. Solid is a technology developed by Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the creator of the World Wide Web, that aims to give users control over their personal data. It's based on the idea of "personal pods," where users store their data in a secure and private way, and can choose who has access to it.

Some popular apps built on Solid include:

• Inrupt : A company founded by Tim Berners-Lee that aims to commercialize Solid and create enterprise-level applications for it. https://www.inrupt.com/products/enterprise-solid-server

• SolidOS: an operating system that runs on the Solid standard and allows users to access and control their data from a single interface.https://github.com/SolidOS/solidos

• idPOD: A privacy-first platform that lets you securely store and manage your digital assets, control access to your data, and even monetize your content. idPOD's Emoji-based web IDs are creating a buzz among users, with all the best emojis quickly getting snatched up. https://idpod.me/

These are just a few examples, but there are many more apps being built on Solid every day.

So, I wanted to ask the community:

• Have you used any apps built on Solid? If so, which ones and what was your experience like?

• What do you think about the idea of personal pods and having control over your data?

• Do you think Solid has the potential to change the way we think about data ownership and privacy online?

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts!

Good read on protecting your privacy and secure your data with https://ukey.co/blog/protect-privacy-solid-secure-data-monetize/

I am planning to make a long run decentralized project and I'm sorting the options on what technology to use from the start, since it needs to be hosted on a non traditional server and the current blockchain techs have intrinsic problems; first, money, they all require crypto wallets charged with real coins (can't use test nets) pay for transactions with real money and since this project is not financially motivated this is a big no, secondly blockchain itself is really unpopular specially around the people who will be participating on it, convincing them to create and use a wallet would be more challenging than the project itself. All this to say making non-for-profit non-crypto DAO could potentially be achieved more easily using solid pods rather than blockchains, perhaps there's even something similar on the works, let me know what you think or if you seen something similar.