Solid

There are alot of notes about solid and its predecessors 'Openlink Data Spaces', RWW, CrossCloud & SoLiD threaded through past works and other notes made on this site.

The Webizen stack MAY be compatible with Solid, however this is not as yet confirmed; nor is the method about how to achieve interoperability wholly defined or designed.

ToDO: add solid related links, etc.

Description

Solid is now being advanced with the leadership support of the company inrupt who are thereby rendering meaningful assistance in a manner that cooperatively compliments the long-term leadership support previously provided by openlink software. In recent years, the solid architecture has changed and developed significantly. It is reported that there are now several large scale implementations.

'Backwards' Compatibility

An essential requirement for the webizen ecosystem is to ensure users have a means to operate their systems elsewhere, if they're booted off the webizen network for cause. Whilst the mechanisms around how SocialAttackVectors and SafetyProtocols are sought to be defined and employed for defensible decision making and support for rule of law; in circumstances where a webizen owner is no-longer able to be supported by a WebizenAllianceHostProviders or in circumstances where the webizen owner wants to migrate their environment to an alternative system, a DataPortability solution MUST BE available for them. This requirement is essential to ensure NoLock-ins and therefore protection against CommercialExploitation related factors (alongside other issues).

It also MAY be feasible to define modal operation settings where a webizen agent is able to function in a mode that is defined to be compatible with solid. This would distinguish the webizen network and its specific features, to the use of the webizen agent on foreign (solid based) systems as a primary 'host provider'.

DataPortability (methods & considerations statement)

Whilst most sites provide the ability for people to 'download their data' the systems often do not provide that data / information / electronic records of a persons life; in a useful format. One of the objectives concerning the export / data portability functionality is to seek to ensure that the user / webizen owner, is non-destructively able to take their 'digital lives' elsewhere without incurring any unnecessary further penalties. It appears to me, that the most practical way of seeking to achieve these functional requirements is to provide the software that supports; as best as is possible, the ability for users to migrate to a 'solid' based system.

Solid Specifications

The solid specifications have been under development via the W3C SOLID COMMUNITY GROUP for many years. A post by Tim Berners-Lee on the 3/11/22 suggests the groups works are progressing towards the development of; or have led to, a w3c working group, that will define the specifications for providing compatibility and/or exportability to 'solid based' servers.

Solid related R&D

Some work is being done to investigate the requirements and feasibility of [[ModdingSolid]] in some sort of useful way, to achive the ability of being able to dependably form solutions for SocialFactors that involve non-webizen users / use-cases; both in terms of primary users, but also in-terms of broader social infrastructure services where not all users interacting with webizen systems are expected to be personally operating a webizen agent. There are also various 'shifts' relating to other aspects of the webizen ecosystem that seemingly change the way 'semantic web' infrastructure traditionally works. These changes are thought necessary for the webizen environment, but they are not otherwise employed within the solid environment; as such, the solid systems provide a useful 'bridge' that may compliment and better support the needs and interests of human beings.

Personal note

Earlier attempts were entirely dependant upon various assumptions relating to the development of 'solid' which have not worked out. Yet this has provided support for informing modern considerations related to the webizen platform designs; and part of the moral considerations made by me personally - is that i hope that the materialisation of these works have the effect of paying tribute to the many who have been involved in the works leading to solid (although,there are a few un-named exceptions).

If the previous works had of attended to the issues that remain outstanding, there would be no good and/or useful reason to continue to invest into the development of what is now called the webizen platform. As such, there are differences that are considered to be significant; and as such, it is unlikely that the two systems will be 100% compatible - subject to any future changes that are presently unforseeable, etc.