White Area lecture on the CERN-Solid collaboration === Maria Dimou (CERN) & Jan Schill (IT University Copenhagen) Presentation at [the January 25th 2021 White Area at CERN](https://indico.cern.ch/event/979381/) --- ## Overview 1. What is Solid 3. Why CERN should be involved 4. The Solid pod 5. The Solid servers 6. Solid specifications' overview 7. Implementations so far 8. The CERN-Solid code investigation project 9. Other relevant CERN applications 10. Conclusion 11. References --- ## What is Solid * Sir Tim Berners-Lee (TimBL) announced his Solid project (Social Linked Data) in 2016. * This Open Source platform aims to 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. --- ## Why CERN should be involved * CERN is the birthplace of the Web * Many sophisticated software projects at CERN * Already open source * Operational status (tens of thousands of users) * Solid is here to stay - we should be more actively involved than we were with W3C. --- ## The Solid pod * People store their data securely in decentralized data stores called _Pods_. (*) * Pods are like secure personal Web servers for data. * Solid connects resources in different pods by representing all data as _Linked Data_, i.e. every piece of data gets its own HTTP URL on the Web, and we use those URLs to refer to this data. * When data is stored in someone's pod, they control who and what can access it. * There will be a pod demo by Jan. (*) Pod: a usually protective container or housing (from the Webster dictionary). --- ## The Solid servers 1. **Node Solid Server (NSS):** _Open Source_ server by the MIT Solid team since 2016. NSS instances in the next slide. 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/). 5. **php-solid-server (PSS):** _Open Source_, good test results, under dev. The basis for the Nextcloud app that makes Nextcloud compatible with Solid. --- ## Solid servers' interfaces * All Solid servers have the same common interface, so they don’t need to know anything about what apps are being run on them. See [more here](https://solidproject.org/users/get-a-pod#get-a-pod-from-a-pod-provider) * Two public demo/test sites for making your own pod. They both run NSS: * [inrupt.net](https://inrupt.net/) run by inrupt, hosted at inrupt premises, USA, data in Amazom Web Services. * [solidcommunity.net](https://solidocmmunity.net) run by the Solid organisation, hosted in the UK, data in Digital Ocean. * a few others people show at the [monthly Solid World Webinar](https://solidproject.org/events). _Slide with input from TimBL_ --- ## Solid specifications Recently matured, they cover areas of: * Authentication * Authorisation * Data inter-operability * Testing suites As the **Web Access Control (WAC)** gives all privileges to the user, **Access Control Policies (ACP)** are now being defined to assist newcomers. *Specs' current location:* https://solid.github.io/specification/ *Specs' future location:* https://solidproject.org/TR/ *Test suite:* https://github.com/solid/test-suite --- ## Solid implementations By start-up companies and government agencies. Most engaged countries, so far, are Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and the UK. * UK NHS (National Health System) * Flanders' government applications * Belgian [Digita](https://www.digita.ai/) [inox](https://www.inox.app/) (connects your different pods) * 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)* *[Very comprehensive report on points 1 & 2 by Jan ](https://indico.cern.ch/event/979244/attachments/2150378/3668572/JanSchill_20201225-Solid-specs-and-implemenations-report.pdf)* *[GitHub: janschill/uni-research_project](https://github.com/janschill/uni-research_project)* --- ### Proof of Concept via Indico extensions  --- ## Conference Registration  --- ## Conference Registration Client-Side  --- ## Conference Registration Server-Side  --- ## How to Login/Register with a Solid Pod 1. Pick a provider: solidcommunity.net* or inrupt.net** 2. Register with **username\*\*\*, password, name, email address** 3. Log in using the newly created WebID with username and password 4. Go to https://podbrowser.inrupt.com/ and log in *Hosted: \*DigitalOcean (UK) , \*\*AWS (USA)* *WebID: \*\*\*username will be part of your WebID* --- ## Other relevant CERN applications Mutual benefit will derive from other PoCs with: * The CERN _Notifications project_, unilateral, via subscription and archived. * The _new CERN Authentication_ project. * _CS3MESH_, a pan-European cross-institution mesh that will offer data sharing/co-editing facilities, relying on the federation of different sites by using well-known APIs. * _InvenioRDM_, a Research Data Management, open source platform for persistent paper & data registration. --- ## Conclusion The success of the [CERN-Solid code investigation project](https://it-student-projects.web.cern.ch/projects/cern-solid-code-investigation) is important: 1. For Jan's MSc thesis at itu.dk to demonstrate that the implementation works. 2. For CERN to be inspired by the PoC and embrace Solid. * Solid is there to stay. We should embark now! 4. For Solid to show that its principles can work in an environment of tens of thousands of users. --- ## Thanks! * To TimBL for always giving advice, despite the millions who contact him. * To Michiel de Jong & Sarven Capadisli, for their answers to our frequent questions. * To Jan Schill (from Maria) for choosing this project for his MSc thesis. * To the CERN/IT-CDA management for approving this work. --- ## References current * *The Solid project web site:* 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/uni-research_project](https://github.com/janschill/uni-research_project) * *CERN-Solid entry point:* [https://indico.cern.ch/category/11962/](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/ * *Past attempts to involve CERN in W3C work:* * *CERN-W3C 2014 proposal:* https://cern.ch/dimou/personal/CERN-W3C_Collaboration.pdf * *CERN-W3C 2017 proposal:* https://cern.ch/dimou/personal/CERN-W3C_Collaboration_2017_proposal.pdf