[LINK] Tim Berners-Lee paints the sky a Solid blue

[Rick Welykochy]

https://www.inrupt.com/blog/one-small-step-for-the-web

28 September 2018

     "... for all the good we’ve achieved, the web has evolved into an engine of inequity and
     division; swayed by powerful forces who use it for their own agendas.

     Today, I believe we’ve reached a critical tipping point, and that powerful change for the
     better is possible - and necessary.

This is why I have, over recent years, been working with a few people at MIT and elsewhere to develop Solid <https://solid.inrupt.com/>, an open-source project to restore the power and agency of 
individuals on the web.

Solid changes the current model where users have to hand over personal data to digital giants in exchange for perceived value. As we’ve all discovered, this hasn’t been in our best interests. Solid is 
how we evolve the web in order to restore balance - by giving every one of us complete control over data, personal or not, in a revolutionary way."

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The above blog entry was discovered in this article:

https://www.fastcompany.com/90243936/exclusive-tim-berners-lee-tells-us-his-radical-new-plan-to-upend-the-world-wide-web

     "The difference here is that, on Solid, all the information is under his control. Every bit of data
     he creates or adds on Solid exists within a Solid pod–which is an acronym for personal online
     data store. These pods are what give Solid users control over their applications and information
     on the web. Anyone using the platform will get a Solid identity and Solid pod. This is how people,
     Berners-Lee says, will take back the power of the web from corporations."

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

My first impression was "Our web founder is going to save his techno child." This is a Good Thing (TM).

My subsequents thoughts have taken me into areas of rogue agents abusing PODs (personal online
data stores) - we all know that nothing is totally secure anywhere in this world.

Further thoughts lead to corporates and other power- and data-hungry mobsters wanting to control and
aggregrate Solid, perhaps in ways we've already witnessed and definitely in ways we have not.

Which leads to major concerns of unintended consequences, the very vehicle that has brought us digital
consumers to where we are at today.

I trust and entertain the wisdom and "grumpiness" of Linkers - a little bit of Luddism goes a long way
towards preventing premature digital disasters, if only someone would listen!

So let's have at it. Can those with the good intention of leading the way to producing the Solid vision of
Berners-Lee protect it from the multitude of pitfalls that await its implementation? The challenge will be
in anticipating the misuse of the technology and guarding against that misuse, a task of no small order.



cheers
rickw


-- 
--------------
Rick Welykochy

It is a gorgeous gold watch. I'm proud of it.
My grandfather, on his deathbed, sold me this watch.
     -- Woody Allen