I just wrote a very long post to the Solid companion thread (but I added a TL;DR too 
). What you say, @gsvarovsky, rings very true. The kind of interoperability levels that we want to achieve are ultra-hard and it is all-too-easy and from pure practical, short term needs, to end up with something much less versatile than inititially intended.
Rephrasing my summary given to Solid to apply here on the SocialHub and the Fediverse, imho we can only hope to tap into the full potential of ActivityPub et al if we:
- Recognize the importance of the social aspects of software development. The levels of collaboration that are needed to create highly interoperable software.
- Focus on the processes that are needed to do so and continue to streamline them, instead of diving directly into code and deeply technical matters.
- Make it as easy as possible for people to tag along to our processes, to interact socially and contribute their bit, even when they lack the technical expertise to help with the low-level stuff.
Here’s my summary regarding how I feel about Solid project and some recommendations:
[Solid Project] Summary
Solid project seems most focused on a Grand Vision where its success hinges on tackling enormous complexity and widespread adoption of standards and ecosystem projects.
There’s no gradual path to adoption with stable well-productized milestones all along the roadmap and options to choose from. No way for people to get acquainted with Solid without going all-in and face the brunt of the complexity.
There’s little focus on the process of software development, how Solid fits, and what benefits it brings in the short term (i.e. before the Grand Vision is realized).
While there is a deep technical focus, there seems to be almost a business myopia, as to all the process and design best-practices that are also needed to create interoperable apps that satisfy people’s needs. Social aspects of development are neglected.
Recommendations:
Focus on all the practical things that help average developers leverage Solid technology right now in their apps. Tools, documentation, different langauges supported, etc. And with these people now invested in Solid, entice them towards deeper community involvement.
Ensure that not just tech is covered, but that Process is as well. How do I design my app with reasonable expectations for interoperability? How can and should I collaborate with others, and what organization structure and tools can we offer to help with that?
It is noteworthy that unlike Solid, we at Fediverse don’t seem to have a Grand Vision. We are satisfied to bolt additional features on top of existing Microblogging concepts and look in each other’s codebase to see how we may slightly integrate with an app.
Interconnectivity
Lastly I want to mention that the Grand Vision of broadscale seamless semantic interoperability that Solid wants to achieve, has a high risk of never coming to fruition. The high complexity being the key factor in that.
So I was delighted when I heard the term “interconnectivity” for the first time. It is a perfect companion to interoperability. It was @steffen that introduced me to it with a toot announcing:
See also: Interconnective networks: open development starts today!