HEPiX spring 2021 - CERN-Solid collaboration === Maria Dimou (CERN) & Jan Schill (IT University Copenhagen) Presentation on [March 18th 2021 Storage track](https://indico.cern.ch/event/995485/) --- ## Overview 1. The Solid Ecosystem 1. Challenges of the Web 2. What Is Solid? 3. The Solid Pod 4. Solid Apps 5. Solid Implementations 6. CERN-Solid Code Investigation 2. Demo 1. Solid Web Server/Pod 2. Indico Solid Comment Module --- ## Challenges of the Web --- ### What the Web Stands For * Universal * Open for everyone * Platform independent * Place for innovation --- ### Browser Wars * Internet Explorer * Netscape Classic vs. Internet Explorer * One company in charge of the pace of the Web --- ### Web Search Engine Wars * Google * One crawler deciding what is visible * One company in charge of the searchability of websites --- ### Platform Wars * Facebook * People’s content hidden away from the public * One company in charge of the people’s content ---  _Taken from: [https://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/CloudStorage.html](https://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/CloudStorage.html)_ --- ## What Is Solid? **Separating data from applications** --- ## What Is Solid? * Announced in 2016 by Sir Tim Berners-Lee (TimBL) as **So**cial **Li**nked **D**ata. * Re-decentralize the Web and empower users’ control over their own data. * Solid includes standards, missing from the original Web specifications, giving back to the users: * _ownership_ of their _data_, private, shared, and public. * _choice_ on the _storage_ where these data reside and * _control_ over who has _access_ to them. * TimBL co-founded [inrupt](https://inrupt.com) to implement the Solid standards. --- ## The Solid Pod * Regular HTTP server * Everything is a URI * Location for resources, containers, identity for agents, resource descriptions * Storage support for * Any type of data * Uses RESTful hierarchy * New to the original Web idea: * Linked Data * Access control --- ### The Solid Pod Continued * A decentralized secure data vault to store **any type of data**. * Data is stored as _Linked Data_, i.e. the resource gets its own HTTP URL on the Web * When data is stored in someone’s pod, they control who and what can access it. * WebID examples: * https://timbl.inrupt.net/profile/card#me * https://dimou.solidcommunity.net/profile/card#me * https://janschill.net/profile/card#me (*) Pod: a usually protective container or housing (from the Webster dictionary). --- ## The Solid Servers A Solid server is a Web server that stores users’ pods, with support for access control. 1. **Node Solid Server (NSS):** _Open Source_ server by the MIT Solid team since 2016. 2. **Enterprise Solid Server (ESS):** inrupt’s commercial _Closed Source_ alternative, based on [Trellis](https://www.trellisldp.org/). Launched in November 2020. [Article](https://sdtimes.com/data/inrupt-launches-enterprise-solid-server-to-restore-trust-in-data/). 3. **Community Solid Server (CSS):** _Open Source_ project by Ghent University, paid for by inrupt, to rewrite NSS from scratch in [TypeScript](https://www.typescriptlang.org/). 4. More servers like PHP or Ruby are in the making --- ## Solid implementations By start-up companies and government agencies. Most engaged countries, so far, are Belgium, the Netherlands and the UK. * UK NHS (National Health System) * Flanders’ government applications * Inrupt developments - [sign-up and play](https://signup.pod.inrupt.com/) Activities summarised in the [Solid newsletter](https://solidproject.org/newsletter) and reported at the [monthly Solid World Webinar](https://solidproject.org/events). --- ## The CERN-Solid code investigation project 1. **Review Solid specifications** 2. **Evaluate Solid implementations** 3. **Enrich Indico with Solid principles** 4. Recommendations on Solid adoption in CERN applications 5. Document challenges, advantages, gaps 6. Presentation of proceedings *[Full project description](https://it-student-projects.web.cern.ch/projects/cern-solid-code-investigation)* *[Comprehensive report on points 1 & 2](https://indico.cern.ch/event/979244/attachments/2150378/3668572/JanSchill_20201225-Solid-specs-and-implemenations-report.pdf)* *[GitHub: janschill/cern-solid-code-investigation](https://github.com/janschill/cern-solid-code-investigation)* --- ## References Current * *The Solid project website:* https://solidproject.org * *Jan’s MSc Thesis description:* [https://it-student-projects.web.cern.ch/projects/cern-solid-code-investigation](https://it-student-projects.web.cern.ch/projects/cern-solid-code-investigation) * *Thesis repo.:* [https://github.com/janschill/cern-solid-code-investigation](https://github.com/janschill/cern-solid-code-investigation) * *CERN-Solid entry point:* [http://solid.cern.ch](https://indico.cern.ch/category/11962/) * *CERN-Solid chat:* [https://gitter.im/cern-solid/community](https://gitter.im/cern-solid/community) --- ## References Historical * *The original Web proposal:* https://www.w3.org/History/1989/proposal.html * *When the CERN Web was Open Source (most data missing today):* https://weboffice.web.cern.ch/WebOffice/