SOLID

Table of Contents

• Documentation
• Pros and Cons
• Example use cases
• FAIR Principles

Documentation

• Technology Description

  • Solid is a specification that lets individuals and groups store their data securely in decentralized data stores called Pods. Pods are like secure web servers for data. When data is stored in a Pod, its owners control which people and applications can access it. The Linked Data Platform (LDP) is a standard RESTful web service used to access data from Pods belonging to individuals or groups. The concept of Solid is to completely decouple the data from the applications.

• Learn from an expert

  • Recorded presentation from Mark Wilkinson: https://youtu.be/TO8iF4Am9uw

• More Information

  • The SOLID Project website: https://solidproject.org/

Pros and Cons

• Cost to setup

  • Solid Pods can be hosted personally for free, or by a hosting company for a fee. Existing applications will need development work to access data correctly from a given Pod. New applications and new infrastructure can be built more easily using Solid Pods as the data management system.

• Pros

  • Open source standards built on existing technologies
  • A lot of general web community support, support from Tim Berners-Lee etc
  • Can theoretically handle any type of data in any format
  • Very strong security, ownership, and access controls are available

• Cons

  • Still a developing technology
  • No specific data standards for biological or PGR data
  • Not many tools exist yet that are Solid Pod compatible in the biology/scientific space

Example use cases

• Decentralized Data Publication

  • Each Scientist or Lab has their own Solid Pod. When they publish a paper, the data is published to the Pod. The data can be referenced from their Pod, pulled into other applications, and re-used

• Using a Solid Pod as a portal

  • A Solid Pod can be used as a metadata storage service. Metadata is collected from a network of federated data sources. That metadata is stored in a Pod accessible to search engines or analysis tools. Data source who wish to join the federation can simply write their own metadata into the Pod.

FAIR Principles

• Findability - Metadata and data should be easy to find for both humans and computers.

  • F1 - (Meta)data are assigned a globally unique and persistent identifier

    Every "resource" within a Solid Pod has an assigned URI

  • F2 - Data are described with rich metadata (defined by R1 below)

    Metadata stored in a Solid Pod can be as detailed and rich as the user would like.

  • F3 - Metadata clearly and explicitly include the identifier of the data they describe

    All data resources, data or metadata, are assigned URIs. It is easy to connect metadata to a specific data resource through its URI.

  • F4 - (Meta)data are registered or indexed in a searchable resource

    Data stored in Solid Pods can be indexed and searched across.

• Accessibility - Once the user finds the required data, it should be clear how the data can be fully accessed.

  • A1 - (Meta)data are retrievable by their identifier using a standardized communications protocol

    Solid relies on the Linked Data Platform and RESTful HTTP as its standard communication protocols.

  • A1.1 - The protocol is open, free, and universally implementable

    The Linked Data Platform and RESTful HTTP protocols are free, open, and universally accepted.

  • A1.2 - The protocol allows for an authentication and authorization procedure, where necessary

    Data access is controlled by the data owner, who can set permissions for different users, ensuring data is accessible only to authorized individuals.

  • A2 - Metadata are accessible, even when the data are no longer available

    Data and Metadata access is controlled by the data owner.

• Interoperability - The data should easily interoperate with other data, as well as applications for analysis, storage, and processing.

  • I1 - (Meta)data use a formal, accessible, shared, and broadly applicable language for knowledge representation.

    Solid promotes interoperability by using standard data formats like RDF and JSON-LD.

  • I2 - (Meta)data use vocabularies that follow FAIR principles

    Controlled vocabularies are used at the discretion of the data owner

  • I3 - (Meta)data include qualified references to other (meta)data

    RDF and JSON-LD allow for reference to other metadata

• Reusability - Metadata and data should be well-described so that they can be replicated and/or combined in different settings.

  • R1 - (Meta)data are richly described with a plurality of accurate and relevant attributes

    Solid supports richly described data using linked data principles, but the actual quality of the metadata depends on the data owner.

  • R1.1 - (Meta)data are released with a clear and accessible data usage license

    Accessability controls is a major component of the Solid project

  • R1.2 - (Meta)data are associated with detailed provenance

    Provenance is not a required aspect of Solid data, but it is accepted

  • R1.3 - (Meta)data meet domain-relevant community standards

    Solid does not provide domain relevant community standards. Data in any standard can fit in a Solid pod.