Some basic resources for newcomers

The most obvious place to start is with the Solid website.
Also, check out the Inrupt site.
Here’s a good talk by @RubenVerborgh and @timbl at the Decentralized Web Summit. (HT @TheodoraPetkova)
And here are slides for Ruben’s talk (HT @Chiarac).

Also, here are some articles about Solid and Inrupt from xconomy, Information Week, and Fast Company.

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I find the following article on freeCodeCamp to the point: An introduction to SOLID, Tim Berners-Lee’s new, re-decentralized Web.

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@gideonro Do you know that you can make the OP into a Wiki, and invite people to edit it so it can be a list of links to resources curated by the community. We do this on the SAFE Discourse forum and it works well.

It may be a feature that needs enabling by the admin though, I’m not sure.

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Thanks for the suggestion, @happybeing. That sounds like a great idea. I just tried editing it and don’t see the option to do that. Maybe @MitziLaszlo knows how?

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I think, with default user level settings, you have to have ‘Trust Level 3 - Regular’ or higher to be able to create a wiki on a Discourse forum. I guess the forum isn’t around long enough to already have such users, except the moderators and the admins.

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@gideonro I think @draw is correct, but if you wish to change it to a wiki you can still ask the moderators or admin to do it, until you gain sufficient trust to do it yourself.

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Hi, thanks @gideonro for pointing to the resources. Indeed the website is the main hub for official links. What kind of basic resources for newcomers did you have in mind?

Hi @MitziLaszlo. I was pinging you more based on @happybeing’s suggestion of converting this post into a wiki so others can add on to it and edit it over time.

To answer your question though, I think that the most useful thing for newcomers is to get a good feel for the vision and the inspiration behind it. The website does that, but then so do Tim and Ruben when they’re out speaking about the projects. There are a few articles that seem to capture the vision too.

Once people get inspired by understanding the vision, they’re more likely to dive into the details in the rest of this community. Again, the website does a good job of painting the vision, but I’m also thinking about people who just happen to stumble directly into the forum.

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That’s a great idea and totally resonated to what I have been discussing with @Sascha over another thread. Excuse my cross-posting, but this is exactly what I want to write (rewrite) re:solid basics for non-geeks. [quote=“TheodoraPetkova, post:13, topic:122”] Promote this forum to newcomers more intensively I totally support the idea of a more welcoming narrative. I plan :slight_smile: (hopefully today or tomorrow) to create a thread within the category Non-Geeks Corner and write-up some basics - conceptual framings and more abstract whys and then we will see how that goes. Whether the thread will attract people and comments.
I have never curated or created content architecture for a Forum and maybe the best way forward is to see this content growing organically. Not sure. I am testing :slight_smile:
[/quote]

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Hi @gideonro, thanks for explaining what you had in mind. At the moment we are working to build and develop resources so it’s excellent timing.

One of the intentions of the new content to to make it more obvious where to go for what information, so before starting a wiki I’d just like to understand what you imagine getting out of a wiki and then seeing if it’s already being covered on another channel. For example, here we are looking to update all the interviews and articles https://www.inrupt.com/vision/ we are also looking into a learning centre with material. This Discourse channel is also a good place for conversations and there is an intention to streamline the information into quick easy bullet point answers too. Basically, there are a few items in the pipeline that I hope address the itch you are trying to scratch.

What do you feel a wiki would add that isn’t available on the “Solid: The Basics” channel? Great to have these suggestions, thank you @happybeing for bringing this up. Curious to hear what function you see it having that is not already covered and would like to wait for new material release to make sure it’s not one of the items we have in mind too and have tackled it some other way.

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It isn’t such a big step, so I think just try it. ‘Wiki’ is a (probably misleading) Discourse term for making a post editable by anyone. That’s it. It just means that anyone has the option to add a link or some other useful info to the first post, rather than just at the end of the topic as a reply.

So what it adds is the ability to keep the OP updated by anyone, rather than leaving it to one person, the creator. If you do that it will also be frozen and no longer editable after a period of time. Once a Wiki, always editable .

Hope that helps.

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FYI, here’s the promised write-up - Solid for non-geek users: why, how and what’s next? and it’s poetic sibling :slight_smile: http://www.teodorapetkova.com/poiesis-of-relationships/the-project-solid-as-a-road-assembling-itself-on-the-go/

Thanks @happybeing for sharing your thoughts. Curious to hear what you feel it would add in terms of outcomes rather than tool functionalities.

Nice write up @TheodoraPetkova looking forward to seeing the discussion around that.

Although I completely empathise with the drive to describe the end user perspective, I just want to reaffirm that the focus right now is towards the developer community to build apps. We’ll get there anon :slight_smile:

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I absolutely understand! If I can help you with anything towards bringing that focus into deeds and content, let me know. I just created what I want to see.i. The world :slight_smile: And when the time comes, this will be something, or just remain as an archive :slight_smile:

P.s. I can see now that the new comers category, with the besics is getting the developer’s content for starters. It is great. Maybe this forum won’t contain the non-geek corner, or as visionary content that @gideonro was talking about, will just find its way on a different platform, maybe the way it was evolving by now - on personal blogs. I am sure the best way will show itself.

The opening post remains updateable indefinitely, so doesn’t have to go stale can be a better intro to the topic because it can accumulate nuggets over time, and the information is not just spread over all the replies. Popular topics tend to get very long over time, so much of their useful content can get lost in the replies. Maybe just give it a try? You can always turn it off.

Thanks @happybeing for sharing your thoughts, will certainly make sure to raise your points when working on the new release of content. Please bear with me, it may take a moment to process and incorporate into the larger picture.

@MitziLaszlo, the wiki wasn’t actually my idea, but I think what it would do, at least conceptually, is help to crowd source keeping up with information out there. The reality, however, is that there just isn’t that much material being published about Solid at this point. People can just ping you when we see it and you can add it to the Inrupt site, as merited. I’m also cognizant of not making more work for you in this role. You’re going to have your hands full.

I’ll look forward to the new material you all are working on. I guess the main takeaway here is that you have folks who are willing to help – where it’s helpful. :slight_smile:

@gideonro absolutely! Feel free to reach out to me at any point with material and feedback, please don’t hesitate.

I had a chat with the inrupt team and agreed to focus on releasing the new material before opening yet another tool. Open to feedback after the new release too if there is an element in particular that you see is missing. Want to make sure that the material is top quality and open to edit without spreading ourselves too thin over yet another tool without a clear communication goal.

Again, please do let me know if you are looking for particular resources on a specific subject and can’t find it and I will do my very best to support.

Amazing to have you on board on generating content and great to have you contribute to this forum. Open threads on specific topics at any point, look forward to seeing the conversations evolve.

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I think maybe there’s a misunderstanding here. I’m not talking about creating a wiki on the website, but enabling ‘wiki’ edits on the opening post of this topic - making that opening post in this topic editable by everyone, which is a Discourse feature.

It isn’t really a wiki, but they call it that. Once anyone here reaches the require trust level, the feature is enabled for them and when they have created a new topic, they will have an option underneath the post to turn it into a Wiki. It just turns on the ability for anyone to edit that post.

Where a user doesn’t yet have this ability, it is something that a moderator/admin can do for them.

Sorry if I wasn’t clear enough earlier.

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