The Community Solid Server — A Research and Development environment
The Solid ecosystem is rapidly growing and evolving. This means that, in addition to production infrastructure, we also need an experimentation environment designed for the specific purpose of performing research on potential future directions for Solid.
Within SolidLab, we address those research needs through the Community Solid Server (CSS), a modular open-source framework to enable flexible explorations of what Solid can do today and in the future. The CSS deliberately focuses on Technology Readiness Levels 1–3 (Experimental Proof of Concept), functioning as an incubator towards Technology Readiness Level 4 (Technology Validated in Lab) using simulated data.
Supported usage
The core target audience of the Community Solid Server are:
- technology researchers within the SolidLab project
- technology researchers at partner universities and institutions across Europe and the world
- specification authors and editors
Think of the CSS as the experimentation framework for prototyping, that helps researchers and editors obtain input for the Solid specifications and production software with higher Technology Readiness Levels (5–9).
Design limitations
The Community Solid Server is designed to work with simulated data for testing and benchmarking (using tools such as SolidBench). CSS is not designed, intended, nor certified for Personally Identifiable Information (PII) and should not be used in such setups. Our choice for a Technology Readiness Level below 4 is an intentional design decision, reflected in every part of the architectural design. Systems handling PII require different architectures.
Research conducted using the CSS
- What’s in a Pod? – A knowledge graph interpretation for the Solid ecosystem
- Linked Data Event Streams in Solid LDP containers
- A Policy-Oriented Architecture for Enforcing Consent in Solid
License
MIT License
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