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189 changes: 20 additions & 169 deletions README.md
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**Current Spec version:** `v.0.5.0` (see [CHANGELOG.md](CHANGELOG.md))

## Project Overview

[Solid](https://github.com/solid/solid) (derived from "**so**cial **li**nked
**d**ata") is a proposed set of conventions and tools for building
*decentralized social applications* based on [Linked
Data](http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/LinkedData.html) principles. Solid is
modular and extensible. It relies as much as possible on existing
[W3C](http://www.w3.org/) standards and protocols.

Specifically, [Solid](https://github.com/solid/solid) is:

* A tech stack -- a set of complementary [standards](#standards-used) and
[data formats/vocabularies](https://github.com/solid/vocab) that together
provide capabilities that are currently available only through centralized
social media services (think Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn/many others), such as
*identity*, *authentication and login*, *authorization and permission lists*,
*contact management*, *messaging and notifications*, *feed aggregation and
subscription*, *comments and discussions*, and more.
* A **[Specifications document](https://github.com/solid/solid-spec)**
(that's this repo here) that describes a REST API that extends those existing
standards, contains design notes on the individual components used, and is
intended as a guide for developers who plan to build servers or applications.
* A set of [servers](https://github.com/solid/solid-platform#servers) that
implement this specification.
* A [test suite](https://github.com/solid/solid-tests) for testing and validating
Solid implementations.
* An ecosystem of [social apps](https://github.com/solid/solid-apps),
[identity providers](https://github.com/solid/solid-idp-list) and helper
libraries (such as [solid.js](https://github.com/solid/solid.js)) that run on
the Solid platform.
* A community providing documentation, discussion (see the
[solid gitter channel](https://gitter.im/solid/solid)),
[tutorials](https://github.com/solid/solid#tutorials) and
[talks/presentations](https://github.com/solid/talks).

## Solid Project Workflow

To contribute to Solid development, and to bring up issues or feature requests,
please use the following workflow:

1. Have a question or a feature request or a concern about the Solid framework,
or on one of its servers? **Open an issue on
[solid/solid](https://github.com/solid)**.

2. Have an issue with the *Solid spec* specifically? **Open an issue on
[solid/solid](https://github.com/solid) anyway.** And then, as a result of
discussion, if it's agreed that it is actually a Spec issue, it will be moved
to `solid-spec`.

3. The individual [solid/solid](https://github.com/solid) issues can coordinate
and track component/dependent issues on the various affected Solid servers,
apps, and so on.

## Table of contents

* [Pre-Requisites](#pre-requisites)
* [Standards Used](#standards-used)
* [Platform Notes](#solid-platform-notes)
* [Overview](#overview)
* [Profiles](#profiles)
* [Authorization and Access Control](#web-access-control)
* [Reading](#reading)
Expand All @@ -74,119 +19,25 @@ please use the following workflow:
* [Example](#example)
* [Other Considerations](#other-considerations)

## Pre-Requisites

In order to try out some of the apps built using Solid, you will need the
following things:

1. A WebID profile from one of the Solid-compliant
[identity providers](https://solid.github.io/solid-idps/), such as
[databox.me](https://databox.me/).

2. A WebID browser certificate from the above profile (this is usually created
when you sign up for a WebID profile account).

Additionally, to get started with developing for the Solid platform, you'll
need:

1. A Solid-compliant [server](https://github.com/solid/solid-platform#servers)

2. While not required, an understanding of
RDF/[Turtle](http://www.w3.org/TR/turtle/) principles and
[Linked Data Platform](http://www.w3.org/TR/ldp-primer/) concepts will help
you understand the general workflow.

## Standards Used

The Solid platform uses the following standards.

* [RDF 1.1 (Resource Description Framework)](http://www.w3.org/RDF/)
(see also [RDF Primer](http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf11-concepts/)) is heavily
used in Solid data models. By default, the *preferred* RDF serialization
format is [Turtle](http://www.w3.org/TR/turtle/). Alternative serialization
formats such as [JSON-LD](http://www.w3.org/TR/json-ld/) and
[RDFa](http://www.w3.org/TR/rdfa-primer/) can also be used.

* The [WebID 1.0 (Web Identity and Discovery)](http://www.w3.org/2005/Incubator/webid/spec/identity/)
standard is used to provide universal usernames/IDs for Solid apps, and to
refer to unique Agents (people, organizations, devices). See also the
[WebID interoperability notes](http://www.w3.org/2005/Incubator/webid/wiki/Identity_Interoperability)
for an overview of how WebID relates to other authentication and identity
protocols.

* WebIDs, when accessed, yield
[WebID Profile](http://www.w3.org/2005/Incubator/webid/spec/identity/#dfn-webid_profile)
documents (in Turtle and other RDF formats).

* The [FOAF vocabulary](http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/) is used both in WebID
profiles, and in specifying Access Control lists (see below).

* Authentication (for logins, page personalization and more) is done via the
[WebID-TLS protocol](http://www.w3.org/2005/Incubator/webid/spec/tls/).
WebID-TLS extends WebID Profiles to include references to the subject's
[public keys](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public-key_cryptography) in
the form of [X.509 Certificates](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X.509), using
[Cert Ontology 1.0](http://www.w3.org/ns/auth/cert) vocabulary.
The authentication sequence is done using the
[HTTP over TLS](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2818) protocol. Unlike normal
HTTPS use cases, WebID-TLS is done without referring to
[Certificate Authority](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Certificate_authority)
hierarchies, and instead encourages host server-signed (or self-signed)
certificates.

* In Solid, certificate creation is typically done in the browser using the
HTML5 [keygen
element](http://www.w3.org/TR/html5/forms.html#the-keygen-element),
to provide a one-step creation and certificate publication user experience.

* Authorization and access lists are done using
[Basic Access Control ontology](http://www.w3.org/ns/auth/acl) (see also the
[WebAccessControl wiki page](http://www.w3.org/wiki/WebAccessControl) for
more details).

* Solid uses the [Linked Data Platform (LDP)](http://www.w3.org/TR/ldp/) standard
(see also [LDP Primer](http://www.w3.org/TR/ldp-primer/)) extensively, as a
standard way of reading and writing generic Linked Data resources.

## Solid Platform Notes

Solid applications are somewhat like multi-user applications where instances talk
to each other through a shared filesystem, and the Web is that filesystem.

1. The [LDP specification](http://www.w3.org/TR/ldp/) defines a set of rules for
HTTP operations on Web resources, some based on [RDF](http://www.w3.org/RDF/),
to provide an architecture for reading and writing Linked Data on the Web. The
most important feature of LDP is that it provides us with a standard way of
RESTfully writing resources (documents) on the Web, without having to rely on
less flexible conventions (APIs) based around sending form-encoded data using
POST. For more insight into LDP, take a look at the examples in the LDP
[Primer document](http://www.w3.org/TR/ldp-primer/).

2. Solid's basic protocol is REST, as refined by LDP with minor extensions. New
items are created in a *container* (which could be called a collection or
directory) by sending them to the container URL with an HTTP POST or issuing
an HTTP PUT within its URL space. Items are updated with HTTP PUT or HTTP
PATCH. Items are removed with HTTP DELETE. Items are found using HTTP GET and
following links. A GET on the container returns an enumeration of the items in
the container.

3. Servers are application-agnostic, so that new applications can be developed
without needing to modify servers. For example, even though the [LDP
1.0](http://www.w3.org/TR/ldp/) specs contains nothing specific to
"social", many of the [W3C Social Work Group](http://www.w3.org/Social/WG)'s
[User Stories](http://www.w3.org/wiki/Socialwg/Social_syntax/User_Stories) can
be implemented using only **application logic**, with no need to change code on
the server. The design ideal is to keep a small standard data management core
and extend it as necessary to support increasingly powerful classes of
applications.

4. The data model is RDF. This means the data can be transmitted in various
syntaxes like [Turtle](http://www.w3.org/TR/turtle/),
[JSON-LD](http://www.w3.org/TR/json-ld/) (JSON with a "context"), or
[RDFa](http://www.w3.org/TR/rdfa-primer/) (HTML attributes). RDF is
REST-friendly, using URLs everywhere, and it provides **decentralized
extensibility**, so that a set of applications can cooperate in sharing a new
kind of data without needing approval from any central authority.
## Overview

[Solid](https://github.com/solid/solid) (derived from "**so**cial **li**nked
**d**ata") is a proposed set of conventions and tools for building
*decentralized social applications* based on [Linked
Data](http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/LinkedData.html) principles. Solid is
modular and extensible. It relies as much as possible on existing
[W3C](http://www.w3.org/) standards and protocols.

See Also:

* [About Solid](https://github.com/solid/solid#about-solid)
* [Contributing to Solid](https://github.com/solid/solid#contributing-to-solid)
* [Pre-Requisites](https://github.com/solid/solid#pre-requisites)
* [Solid Project
Workflow](https://github.com/solid/solid#solid-project-workflow)
* [Standards Used](https://github.com/solid/solid#standards-used)
* [Platform Notes](https://github.com/solid/solid#solid-platform-notes)
* [Solid Project directory](https://github.com/solid/solid#project-directory)

## Profiles

Expand Down