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We’re excited to be back with Solid World on 9 June! New to the ODI or Solid? Visit here to learn more.
Agenda
- Update on the ODI stewardship of Solid – Louise Burke & Jesse Wright
- Highlights of progress made in the Solid Community – elf Pavlik
- Highlights of work in the Solid Practitioners group - including the Solid Catalog – Jeff Zucker
- Updates on progress in the Linked Web Storage Working Group – Laurens Debackere
- Presentation – Jackson Morgan
- Presentation – Niko Bonnieure
Presentations
Jackson's talk will cover updates to LDO (https://ldo.js.org), including native support for Solid, React, and Svelte; link traversal; and a new data browser.
Niko will present the first version of the framework/SDK and how to develop web applications based on NextGraph, with access to RDF and SPARQL in the client-side, based on the wonderful LDO library, that offers a reactive store for React and Svelte. NextGraph treats data the same way as Solid Pods do: the user always remains in control of the locality, permissions and ownership of their data. There is even a full compatibility with Solid in the works, in partnership with ActivityPods project. Also released recently was the feature called "Social Queries" that lets end-users and developers query the data stored by other users in the social network, and gather aggregated results locally. This can be used to built many social apps like LinkedIn alternatives, social networks, search, suggestions, classified ads, mutual aid, and more. As always with NextGraph, all the data is encrypted end-to-end, and it is local-first: it works offline or with intermittent connectivity.
Speakers
Presenter: Jackson Morgan started working in the Solid Ecosystem in 2018, and was an early employee at Inrupt. He's worked on a number of open source Solid projects including the main auth library, Community Solid Server, and his current main open source project, LDO (https://ldo.js.org). He also runs the consulting company O.team (https://o.team) which provides services for organizations that want to use Solid.
Presenter: Niko Bonnieure is a software engineer specialized in encryption, local-first and linked data technologies. After working in big data startups for several years, and following the Snowden revelations in 2013, he decided to quit those jobs and dedicate his time to building a decentralized platform for secure and private apps based on graph databases, end-to-end encryption, and CRDTs. In the last years, he has been building NextGraph.org, an ecosystem of malleable apps, a sync protocol for CRDTs, and a framework for developers who want to create decentralized, secure and interoperable apps. Niko is a strong advocate for Digital Sovereignty in Europe, and for Free and Open Source Software.
Community Group update: elf Pavlik is co-chair of W3C Solid Community Group, CG representative to Solid-ODI AC, co-editor, and co-author of various CG reports, and maintainer of https://sai.js.org. Before focusing on Solid, he participated in various other W3C Community Groups, including RDF/JS and Hydra API. Between 2014 and 2015 he participated as an invited expert in W3C Social Web Working Group. Pavlik focuses on application interoperability, authorization, notifications, and develops sample implementations in typescript. For TPAC 2024 he prepared a three-part video mini-series explaining selected aspects of Solid, it is available at the official event website.
Solid Practitioners Group update: Jeff Zucker has been a close to full time volunteer with Solid since fall of 2018; has created a dozen Solid apps and libraries; served as co-author of the WebID Profile specification, moderator of the Solid Forum, moderator and admin of the Solid chat rooms, and founder and current co-chair of the Solid Practitioners Group. He previously served on the Solid Team as a Creator and as a co-chair of the DEI task group. Jeff's training is as a cultural anthropologist and prior to Solid he worked for many years as a consultant on combined IT/social issue projects with UNICEF, UNESCO, four other U.N. agencies and close to 40 NGOs involved in human rights and environmental protection work. He was an early adopter of the first web and created ten of the first few thousand websites.
Linked Web Storage Working Group update: Laurens Debackere is co-chair of the W3C Linked Web Storage Working Group and Lead Solution Architect with Digitaal Vlaanderen's data platform, specializing in Semantic Web technologies and decentralized data exchange. With deep expertise in Solid and Linked Data, he has made contributions to the Solid ecosystem through both academic research and practical implementations of real-world use cases, including the "My Professional Data MVP" launched by the Flemish government in 2023. An active member of the Solid Community Group since 2019, Laurens played an important role in the efforts to launch a W3C Working Group to further mature the Solid specification. He is currently developing a new data-integration platform for the government of Flanders, which is set to launch in 2026.
ODI stewardship update: Louise Burke is the ODI’s Chief Executive Officer and leads the team to deliver on the organisation’s mission and vision. Having joined the ODI in 2012 Louise previously held roles as chief finance officer and chief operating officer. She has expertise in data governance, data literacy, data institutions, data assurance and innovation, as well as a professional background in accountancy and finance. She was named one of the 100 Top Influencers across the UK’s open technology communities in 2021.
With a career that has involved building many businesses from the ground-up, and expertise in fundraising, mergers and acquisitions, and scaling, Louise has commercial acumen along with a commitment to deliver on the ODI’s vision.
As an accountancy professional, she has lectured in the UK and overseas for the ACCA and CIMA and has authored academic books, study systems and business articles.
Chair: Jesse Wright is a passionate advocate for a Web that empowers individuals by giving them control over their own data. With a commitment to open-source and community-driven technology, Jesse has contributed significantly to the development and deployment of Solid.
Jesse’s work on Solid spans several years, encompassing both volunteer and professional contributions to the project. He has developed and maintained a variety of libraries essential to the Semantic Web and Solid ecosystems, including eye-js, shaclcjs, N3.js, LDflex, and Comunica. Professionally, Jesse’s industry experience includes deploying Solid Pods for Indigenous health use cases at the Software Innovation Institute, as well as building foundational Solid infrastructure at Inrupt.
As an academic, Jesse is a DPhil researcher at the University of Oxford’s EWADA group, led by Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Professor Nigel Shadbolt. His research revolves around designing architectures that enable decentralized agents to autonomously negotiate and make decisions, thereby establishing a logical framework for Solid. Through his academic work, Jesse has contributed to numerous W3C standards.
Definitions
Solid Practitioners Group (PG): The Solid Practitioners Group (PG) was launched in 2023 as a hub for those putting the Solid vision into practice as consists of people actively working on projects aimed at specific real-world products using Solid. You can join the practitioners group here.
Solid Community Group (CG): The Solid Community Group (CG) was launched in 2018 to incubate the Solid Specifications. With the Linked Web Storage Working Group (LWS) now taking on the responsibility of maturing the server specifications - the CG is working on topics around application interoperability. You can join the community group here.
Linked Web Storage Group (LWS): The Linked Web Storage Working Group (LWS WG) was launched in 2024 to enable the development of web applications where data storage, entity authentication, access control, and application provider are all loosely coupled. This group will output official W3C Recommendations - with the same level of authority as specifications such as HTML, CSS and Verifiable Credentials.
How to join the event
- This event is hosted on Zoom, and you can access it here https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85662490509.
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