Data Focus

1

There is a lot of emphasis on the ownership of data, however, the commercial, financial and social aspects of solid pod/wallet data is not well covered (that I can find).

If this sort of information is already somewhere … please can you indicate where?

In reality, this conversation needs a set of data-focused use-cases, data-flows and supporting global architecture to define how these points will be addressed. Is there such material somewhere?

many online services need to retain your data to perform analytics, present chat messages to others and much much more. Is this expected or would they not be permitted to do so?

there is little incentive for a social platform (or other commercial organisation) to place data in the pod … how will this become the “default” approach?

there is little incentive for data placed in the pod to be formatted in a schema to be accessible to other organisations … how would this become the “default” approach?

if data is solely held in the pod, the vast numbers of querys/transfers of data for social interactions, accessing medical records, and more could overwhelm networks, and at massively increased latencies which would be infeasible.

Cost for the individual could become large, as currently online platforms offset these costs with advertising and other data related income, so permitting a free service. Is there a view on how costs to individuals can be kept to zero or manageable levels?

Will social platforms no longer be free, or would monetisation of your data be in exchange for your data (the same as it is currently)? for the same reason above.

Regulatory and audit concerns will often (eg. health-care, finance) mean companies must retain a lot of your personal data anyway. I assume this is expected?

Data which changes continuously (bank transactions, social posts, adding to medical records etc) - how would these be added to the Pod/Wallet independently of user involvement, especially if intermittently connected (like a data wallet on a mobile) ?

Is a mobile data wallet viable, other than as a control application for a permanently connected Pod stored somewhere permanently connected to the internet? Latency, volume of data, cost of mobile data etc

2

There is a lot of emphasis on the ownership of data, however, the commercial, financial and social aspects of solid pod/wallet data is not well covered (that I can find).

If this sort of information is already somewhere … please can you indicate where?

In reality, this conversation needs a set of data-focused use-cases, data-flows and supporting global architecture to define how these points will be addressed. Is there such material somewhere?

many online services need to retain your data to perform analytics, present chat messages to others and much much more. Is this expected or would they not be permitted to do so? Any application you grant permission to read data would be able to read data which they have access to and are able to retain.

there is little incentive for a social platform (or other commercial organisation) to place data in the pod … how will this become the “default” approach? Social desire. Users may want control of their data at some point.

there is little incentive for data placed in the pod to be formatted in a schema to be accessible to other organisations … how would this become the “default” approach? I make multiple applications to create a suite. This benefits me. If I use apps which allow me to use them easily without repeating information, I will not use apps which make this more difficult.

if data is solely held in the pod, the vast numbers of querys/transfers of data for social interactions, accessing medical records, and more could overwhelm networks, and at massively increased latencies which would be infeasible. This is an active area of research in all decentralized systems.

Cost for the individual could become large, as currently online platforms offset these costs with advertising and other data related income, so permitting a free service. Is there a view on how costs to individuals can be kept to zero or manageable levels? Exchange your data for services. This is different than the default because you can choose what services to share with; and have a better idea of what data is being harvested. This is still weak to colluding entities.

Will social platforms no longer be free, or would monetisation of your data be in exchange for your data (the same as it is currently)? for the same reason above. None of these social platforms are truly “free”. See previous answer.

Regulatory and audit concerns will often (eg. health-care, finance) mean companies must retain a lot of your personal data anyway. I assume this is expected? This is expected. Digital signatures and unclonable functions may prove useful here.

Data which changes continuously (bank transactions, social posts, adding to medical records etc) - how would these be added to the Pod/Wallet independently of user involvement, especially if intermittently connected (like a data wallet on a mobile) ? Apps could be granted write access or send messages to an inbox (see ActivityPub) and intelligent agents can verify and update these, which could be pushed to your mobile wallet when connectivity is good. I have created a PoC of this.

Is a mobile data wallet viable, other than as a control application for a permanently connected Pod stored somewhere permanently connected to the internet? Latency, volume of data, cost of mobile data etc One part of data wallets is digital signatures and verifiable credentials. The mobile space is underexplored in Solid. I have done some work in this area and it looks promising, but there are some drawbacks which the Solid protocol at this time does not adequately address especially w.r.t. security.

3

social aspects of solid pod/wallet data is not well covered (that I can find)

I encourage you (and everyone interested in this issue) to attend the Solid Practitioners online meetup where addressing the social impact of Solid projects is a core goal and a frequent topic of discussion. We have had meetings on Solid approaches to homelessness, transportation and mobility issues, climate change monitoring, and healthcare. In October we will be focusing on Solid approaches to food insecurity and local supply chains. While still preliminary, the Solid Resources Catalog has tags that match those and other social issues so one can see a list of projects addressing them.

For details on the Practitioners and how to join meetups (no special software or pre-registration required), see GitHub - solid-contrib/practitioners: A hub for Solid developers .

The catalog can be found at Solid Resources Catalog .

If you wish to be added to the Practitioners mailing list to be notified of future topics, please private message me here or on Matrix.