ConfPad

Fight the Power: Building Decentralized Social Apps with React and Solid by Sean McBride Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the Web, is concerned that powerful centralized social networks harm society by eroding individual date rights and privacy. To restore the decentralized Web, Tim and a band of MIT hackers built Solid: tools for decentralized social apps. As of late 2018, the prototype implementation of the Solid specification is complete, and the platform is ready for experimentation and side projects. This talk is going to focus on answering the following questions: * What are the advantages and disadvantages of decentralized social apps? * What does Solid look like and how does it work? * How can a React developer build a decentralized social app using Solid? While a concept like the decentralized web might sound unattainable, this talk will demonstrate that building a React-powered Solid app is more accessible than you think. We will walk through the process from planning to deployment and allow users to interact with each other using a deployed version of the demo app. At the end of this talk, you will understand the importance of reducing centralization in the web and be equipped with the knowledge needed to join the decentralized insurgency and start building your own Solid apps. Sean McBride grew up in Northern California, but not the affluent Bay Area that might come to mind. His first home was a trailer, his first crib was a Jack Daniels crate, and his childhood was a different universe from suburban upper-middle-class neighborhoods. Sean joined the Army after September 11th, which provided him structure and positive role models and altered the trajectory of his life. After leaving service in 2008, Sean used his GI Bill and moved into tech. In his daily life, he tries to live his personal motto to “code with honor, defend the right, and pursue lofty undertakings.” In his day job, Sean is a Fullstack web developer at Decipher Tech Studios, a startup in Old Town Alexandria that is building a microservices framework. In his spare time, he leads the DC Chapter of Operation Code, a nonprofit that helps military, veterans, and military spouses learn to code, break into the DC tech community, and code the future through open-source contributions to nonprofits and government digital services teams.