One copy of the truth
Sir Tim Berners-Lee on Solid and the future of enterprise data
Run of show
14 July 2026 · 10:00 am EST / 3:00 pm UK · not recorded · put your questions in the Zoom Q&A throughout
Emma Thwaites · a brief word on the ODI
Stewarding Solid
Since Oct 2024
Steward of Solid since 2024
The Open Data Institute is a mission-driven non-profit, co-founded in 2012 by Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Sir Nigel Shadbolt, working towards an open, trustworthy data ecosystem where data works for everyone.
Since October 2024, the ODI has stewarded Solid: its standards at the W3C, its codebases, and its global community. Its stewardship aims to establish ethical data governance, addressing privacy, transparency and control so data can be used responsibly for individuals, society and the economy.
Our impact
Trusted by clients and partners
Emma Thwaites · welcome & introductions
Introduction to Solid
What it is, the problem it solves, and a live demo
Jesse Wright · Project Lead – Solid, ODI · 5 minutes
What is Solid
Your data lives in a Pod: a personal or organisational datastore with fine-grained access controls. AI agents and apps read and write only with permission, breaking down data silos and keeping data under the control of whoever it describes.
Solid extends the existing web architecture
Every service keeps its own copy of your data
The same data is collected, copied and secured many times over, yet is rarely current, portable or under the control of the person or organisation it describes. The result:
- Silos and duplication
- More places for data to be breached
- Vendor lock-in
- All-or-nothing consent
- Having to prove your identity from scratch at every institution
Solid fixes this by decoupling data from applications. Services read what they're allowed to use from the person's or organisation's Pod, instead of keeping another copy.
As AI agents act for us, they need current data the person can still control — Solid gives them a way to use it with permission.
Walled Gardens, by David Simonds
In conversation · 20 minutes
Solid & the future of enterprise data
Put your questions in the Zoom Q&A — we'll come to them next.
Audience Q&A · 10 minutes
Your questions
Hosted by Emma Thwaites.
Drop your questions in the Zoom Q&A — the moderator will bring them to the panel.
On the panel: Sir Tim Berners-Lee · John Bruce
The Solid Community of Practice
What it is, what we'll build, and how to take part
Jim Halcomb · EDM Association · 5 minutes
Jim Halcomb · EDM Association
The EDM Association community
The EDM Association convenes four cross-industry standards communities. The Solid Community of Practice sits within Data & Analytics.
AREA
Augmented Reality for Enterprise Alliance
DTC
Digital Twin Consortium
Data & Analytics
Our home — where the Solid Community of Practice lives
OMG
Standards development organization
Jim Halcomb · EDM Association
About the EDM Association
A worldwide, cross-industry community
Home of frameworks including DCAM, Cloud Data Management Capabilities (CDMC) and the Financial Industry Business Ontology (FIBO).
Learn more at edma.org
Jim Halcomb · EDM Association
Three ways to take part
Participation in Data & Analytics runs on three tiers — and the Solid Community of Practice is open to all of them.
Members
Member organisations get access to the EDM Association's frameworks, programmes and communities.
Authorised partners
Member organisations licensed to commercialise the EDM Association's frameworks, training and programmes.
Non-members
Everyone else is welcome in the EDM Association's open communities — including this one.
Jim Halcomb
Putting one copy of the truth into practice
A community of practice is a neutral, vendor-independent group where industry participants work alongside the people building Solid to make it production-ready for regulated data.
Real pilots per sector
Demonstrable deployments in finance, healthcare and government, not slideware.
Aligned to sector standards
How Solid connects to the models these industries already rely on, starting with the Financial Industry Business Ontology (FIBO) in finance.
Independent certification
A trusted, neutral way to certify that a Solid service meets a sector's requirements.
Jim Halcomb · focus A
Real pilots, in each sector
Real deployments
End-to-end pilots that can be shown, tested and written up as reference implementations, with named champions, case studies and reports, and webinars so others can follow.
Finance first
Customer onboarding and lending decisions: data checked against the customer's own Pod, reusable identity and eligibility checks, and credentials issued by a bank that the customer can use elsewhere.
Then healthcare and government
Apply the same pattern where repeated checks and copied records create cost and risk, starting with practical services that can be demonstrated.
Jim Halcomb · focus B
Aligned to the standards each sector already trusts
Connect Solid to trusted sector models
Map Solid to the data models each sector already uses, rather than asking organisations to adopt a new vocabulary.
Finance starts with the Financial Industry Business Ontology (FIBO)
Use FIBO first, so data in a Pod is understood the same way by every participating financial institution.
Describe what a Pod holds
Let a Pod describe the data products it contains and how access should be requested. Healthcare and government follow.
Jim Halcomb · focus C
A trusted, independent certification
Solid-CDMC guidance and certification
Adapt the EDM Council's Cloud Data Management Capabilities (CDMC) controls to Solid services, so Pod providers and application teams know what evidence is expected for governance, access control and operational readiness. A Solid-CDMC certification would confirm that a Solid service meets those adapted controls.
A neutral mark
Set up a model to show that Solid services are fit for deployment in a particular sector, including security, conformance and sector-specific requirements.
Re-use a proven partner model
Run assessment through EDMA's established authorised-partner model: trained partners assess Solid services, with a neutral body overseeing certification across sectors.
Jim Halcomb · get involved
Lead how Solid reshapes your sector
Registration is open to everyone; EDM Association membership is not required. Once registered, join the community calls and bring a pilot, a use case for connecting Solid to sector standards, or a certification use case when ready.
Co-chairs: Jim Halcomb & Elisa Kendall (EDM Association) · Roberto Breitman, Stuart Coleman & Jesse Wright (ODI) · Jacobus Geluk (agnos.ai).
