We are delighted to announce that an Advisory Committee has been recruited to support the ODI’s work on the Solid Project. The committee will be responsible for overseeing the ODI’s work on Solid, and advising on its strategic directions and sustainability.
Solid is an open-source standard led by Sir Tim Berners-Lee, developed to give individuals and organisations greater control over their data. The technology ensures that data is no longer centralised around applications but is instead centred around the user. This shift enables individuals to re-use their data across applications and decide how their data is managed - addressing growing concerns about privacy, transparency, and control in the digital world.
Solid has applications across digital health, AI, and financial inclusion. Its technology is already being used to improve citizens’ access to services, build more resilient and sustainable food supply chains, and improve the integration of health data for analytics and sharing between service providers.
The Advisory Committee will inform the ODI’s strategy for Solid - ensuring that Solid transforms the way we all use, reuse and share data online; and that we support a diverse range of groups globally.
The members of the Solid Advisory Committee are -
- Lead of the Solid project: Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web in 1989 at CERN in Switzerland. Since then, through his work with the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), The Open Data Institute, the World Wide Web Foundation, the development of the Solid Protocol and now as CTO and Co-Founder of Inrupt, he has been a tireless advocate for shared standards, open web access for all and the power of individuals on the web. A firm believer in the positive power of technology, he was named in Time magazine’s list of the most important people of the 20th century. He has been the recipient of several honorary degrees and awards, including the Seoul Peace Prize and the Turing Prize, widely recognised as akin to the Nobel Prize for Computing.
- ODI representative: 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.
- Linked Web Storage Working Group Chair: Laurens Debackere is co-chair of the W3C Linked Web Storage Working Group and Lead Solution Architect with Digitaal Vlaanderen's data platform, specialising 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.
- Solid Community Group Chair: elf Pavlik serves as W3C Solid CG co-chair. He co-authors multiple community reports and maintains typescript sample implementation of Solid Application Interoperability (SAI) with support from NLnet.
- Solid Practitioners Group Chair: Jeff Zucker has created a dozen Solid apps and libraries, served as co-author of the WebID Profile specification, moderated the Solid Forum and Solid chat rooms, and is founder/current co-chair of the Solid Practitioners Group. Prior to Solid, he worked as a consultant to UNICEF, UNESCO, four other U.N. agencies and many NGOs involved in the intersection of IT with human rights and environmental protection work.
- Civil society organisation representative: Viivi Lähteenoja is a data strategy, policy, and ethics professional, researcher and advocate. She works towards human-centric and ethically sustainable data (re-)use to benefit people and societies, with experience in companies, nonprofits, academic institutions, and the public sector.
- Commercial sector representative: John Bruce has a background as both a founder and an executive at global tech firms. He brings to bear decades of successful business leadership and experience creating new markets around innovative software. Prior to partnering with Tim, with Inrupt, he was the co-founder and CEO of Resilient, now an IBM company, that developed a new approach to cybersecurity.
- Government – citizen data representative: Wilfred Pinfold is President of OpenCommons, partner to NIST on Smart City standards. He is a Research Professor at PSU with more than 30 years in data science. He is a former Intel R&D leader in extreme scale computing, IoT, and Smart Cities. He has a Ph.D. from Strathclyde and is part of the Stanford Executive Program alumni.
- Inclusion advisor: Doris Li is a technology policy leader with experience shaping regulatory approaches to emerging technologies and designing frameworks that center safety and accessibility. Her work bridges policy, product, and community engagement to support the inclusion of historically underrepresented voices in the development and governance of data-driven technologies.
- Open source representative: Jackson Morgan is a software engineer known for open source contributions to the Solid ecosystem, including Linked Data Objects.
- Research sector representative: Dr. David Hyland-Wood is an entrepreneur and multi-disciplinary engineer based in Queensland, Australia. He consults in data organisation, data science, protocol development, and systems architecture.
- Financial sustainability representative: Kenneth Smith is a career entrepreneur and lifelong environmental steward. He is a climate finance expert and innovator, and a former renewable energy developer.
- Server implementers: Ben Peachey has been a software developer since he was 8 years old. As an open source developer, he has contributed to almost 300 projects. He co-maintains the Solid-Nextcloud plugin and the standalone PHP Solid Server. Professionally, he is involved with Stichting Nederlandse Datakluis, and formerly at Just Eat Takeaway. Frederick Gibson is the Founder and CEO of Graphmetrix Inc, which provides the TrinPod Solid Server with Conceptual AI and Systems Twin technology. Graphmetrix's goal is to increase productivity through full supply-chain internet-scale systems understanding and information interoperability, starting with the building industry.
- Social good representatives: Hayoun Noh is a human-centered interaction researcher designing technologies to support vulnerable and marginalized populations navigating life transitions and social exclusion. Her work explores how identity, mental health, and technology intersect in the lived experiences of these users, aiming to make emerging technologies more equitable, context-sensitive, and socially empowering. Sameer Gahlot is a public policy professional and certified corporate secretary working at the intersection of policy, society, sustainability, and technology.
The roles were recruited in an open process running in April and May 2025. All roles on the Solid Advisory Committee are unpaid, with travel expenses for annual in-person meetings covered by the ODI where required.
