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| {{KidsIntro|WikiDeal organizes its information so computers can read and connect it easily — like labelling every box so anyone can find what is inside. But the most important rule is simple: '''your data belongs to you'''. You decide who can see it. On WikiDeal, you are not the product.}} | | {{KidsIntro|"Structured data" means organising information so computers can read it and connect it, like putting a clear label on every box so the right machine can find what is inside. On WikiDeal, some data is private (your identity, your bank details, photos of a flat you want to rent out) and some data is public by design (the content of certain contracts, whether a contract was signed or completed, and overall usage statistics). The goal is to handle both kinds cleanly: private stays private, public is shared on purpose.}} |
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| {{NotApproved}} | | {{NotApproved}} |
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| == Structured Data (Linked Data) == | | == Structured Data (Linked Data) == |
| ''Innovation — WikiDeal R&D'' | | ''Innovation: WikiDeal R&D'' |
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| {| class="wikitable" | | {| class="wikitable" |
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| | Origin || 🌐 Tim Berners-Lee / W3C | | | Concept origin || Linked Data / Semantic Web, [https://www.w3.org/standards/semanticweb/ Tim Berners-Lee, W3C] |
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| | Status || Prototype 1 — In testing | | | Status || Research, early prototype |
| |} | | |} |
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| === Why it matters — in plain words === | | === What this is about === |
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| On most platforms today, '''if it's free, you are the product''': your data is collected, analysed, and resold. WikiDeal is built on the opposite principle. There is no resale, no surveillance business model. You pay a small subscription ([[Gov/en/Portal:R&D/Innovations:Subscription|CHF 1/month]]) — and in exchange '''you are not the merchandise'''. That is the core difference.
| | This page describes a research direction, not a delivered feature. WikiDeal '''aims at''' expressing its information as structured, linked data (formats such as RDF and JSON-LD, with links to Wikidata) so that the data is machine-readable and can interoperate with other systems. The work is at an early stage and nothing described here is implemented yet. |
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| Concretely, Structured Data exists so that '''users have the guarantee that they are inside trust networks ([[Gov/en/Portal:R&D/Innovations:Rings Of Trust|Rings of Trust]]) where they themselves decide whether or not to share their data'''. Three guarantees sit at the heart of this:
| | === Which data are we talking about === |
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| # '''Private by default.''' Your data is '''not''' accessible — not by other [[Gov/en/Portal:R&D/Innovations:User Groups|User Groups]], not by the Ynternet.org Foundation, not by the WikiDeal operator. Nobody sees it unless '''you''' explicitly grant access. Access is opt-in, scoped, and revocable.
| | WikiDeal handles two distinct kinds of data, and the rules differ for each. |
| # '''Per-transaction control.''' For each specific transaction, you decide what to reveal and to whom. You can share more for a high-stakes deal, less for a casual one — the choice is yours, transaction by transaction.
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| # '''Choose your trust circles.''' You can affiliate with the [[Gov/en/Portal:R&D/Innovations:Rings Of Trust|Rings of Trust]] you actually trust for data sharing. For example: a User Group offering a '''hosting service for tenants and landlords''' can store a member's structured data — photos of the dwellings they want to rent out, plus account and bank details — on a '''third-party server''', because the user chose to trust that Ring. Sharing follows the trust relationship the user opted into, not a platform-wide default.
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| === A participative range of data policies ===
| | '''Private data.''' Identities, contact and bank details, personal photographs, the details of a dwelling someone wants to rent out. The design '''is guided by''' a simple principle: private data stays private by default, and the user decides whether to share it and with whom. |
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| None of this is dictated from above. Data governance on WikiDeal is decided in a '''participative context''', and there will be a '''spectrum of selectable policies''' — from more '''libertarian''' (maximum user freedom) to more '''protective''' (stronger built-in safeguards). Communities and users choose where on that spectrum they want to sit.
| | '''Public data.''' Some data is meant to be published on WikiDeal. This includes the content of certain contracts that the parties choose to make public, the state of a contract (for example whether it was signed, completed, or ended in a dispute), and aggregate usage statistics. This data is published on purpose, not collected and resold. |
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| This spectrum also covers '''advertising and hosting choices'''. Users will be able to choose their hosting model, for example:
| | The structured-data work '''intends to''' cover both kinds, so each piece of information carries the right status and is handled accordingly, private kept private, public made readable and linkable. |
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| * '''Free hosting with advertising''', or
| | === Why structure it === |
| * '''Paid hosting without advertising''',
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| * and other community-defined options in between.
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| The point is choice: no single data or advertising regime is imposed on everyone.
| | Expressing data as linked resources '''is intended to''' make it portable and interoperable, rather than locked inside one provider. For public data such as contract states and aggregate statistics, structure also makes it easier to read trends (for example how many contracts of a given type were signed or completed) without exposing the individuals behind them. |
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| === Anonymized statistics for the common good === | | === Relation to the Decentralized Web === |
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| Separately from personal data, WikiDeal publishes '''anonymized aggregate statistics'''. Personal data stays private; only de-identified trends are shared. This lets the community see, for example:
| | WikiDeal '''is following''' the broader development of the Decentralized Web and '''is exploring''' how user-owned, consent-based, portable data could be supported. We stay deliberately technology-neutral and do not commit to any single approach at this stage. Concrete trust-circle mechanics are described separately under [[Gov/en/Portal:R&D/Innovations:Rings Of Trust|Rings of Trust]]. |
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| * how many babysitting contracts or bike-rental contracts were '''signed''';
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| * how many were '''completed''' end-to-end;
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| * how many ended in a '''dispute''', and what '''type''' of dispute.
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| These aggregates reveal broad trends and recurring conflict patterns — which in turn allow the community to '''create alerts''' and improve contracts and safeguards before problems spread. Insight for the commons, without exposing individuals.
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| === Strategic technology choices ===
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| The guarantees above are not just policy — they rest on deliberate technical choices. WikiDeal's Structured Data layer publishes information as '''RDF, JSON-LD and Wikidata-linked''' resources, enabling semantic interoperability, federated search, and machine-readable transparency, in line with the original Semantic Web vision.
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| ==== Data minimisation & local-first architecture ====
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| WikiDeal is designed from the outset to '''minimise the platform's access to user data'''. Where mainstream platforms treat user data as a primary asset — collecting, analysing, and monetising it — WikiDeal treats data as '''belonging to users''', held only in trust, for minimum periods, in minimum quantities.
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| The architecture is '''local-first''': wherever possible, data is stored on users' own devices, and only the minimum necessary information is transmitted to shared Infrastructure. A babysitting agreement, once signed by both parties, lives on the devices of the family and the babysitter. The platform Infrastructure holds a '''cryptographic proof''' that the agreement was signed, but '''not the content''' of the agreement itself unless both parties consent to shared storage.
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| This architecture is technically challenging — it requires careful design of conflict resolution, backup, and recovery — but it fundamentally changes the data power relationship: '''the platform cannot sell data it does not have'''. Advertisers cannot be served on data the platform cannot access. And when WikiDeal eventually serves millions of babysitters, tutors, and freelancers worldwide, it will '''not''' have created a surveillance corpus of intimate human behaviour.
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| ==== Selective disclosure ====
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| For marketplace Transactions, WikiDeal uses a '''selective disclosure''' model: parties share only the data necessary to complete that Transaction; reputation scores are computed locally and verified by the platform without revealing the underlying ratings; and dispute resolution can proceed without exposing private communications to the platform operators unless legally required.
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| Funders' individual contribution data is likewise kept strictly confidential. Aggregate figures (total number of funders, total CHF raised, distribution of Community vs [[Gov/en/Portal:Economy/Cash-Rewards|Cash Rewards]] allocations) are published transparently; individual allocations are never disclosed without explicit consent.
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| ==== Decentralised identity (DIDs & verifiable credentials) ====
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| WikiDeal is evaluating '''decentralised identity''' systems (DIDs, verifiable credentials) to enable trust between strangers without a central identity database. A babysitter's qualifications, background-check results, and reputation history could be '''held by the babysitter themselves''', presented to families on demand, and verified by the platform '''without the platform storing the underlying data'''. This research is ongoing through the WikiDeal [[Gov/en/Portal:R&D/Living-Labs|Living Labs]] programme.
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| On top of that open, linked-data foundation, WikiDeal works in the context of the '''[[#Decentralized Web (DWeb)|Decentralized Web (DWeb)]]''':
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| * '''[https://solidproject.org Solid Pods]''' — Tim Berners-Lee's model of personal data stores ("Pods"), where each user owns their data and grants applications scoped, revocable access. This directly implements "private by default" and "you decide who can see it".
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| * '''[https://holochain.org Holochain]''' — an '''agent-centric''' distributed framework where each participant keeps their own validated data and shares it peer-to-peer, with no global ledger. This matches consent-based track records and trust built gradually within Rings of Trust, rather than through a central surveillance database.
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| * '''Third-party / federated hosting''' — structured data (e.g. rental photos, account details) can live on a trusted third-party server chosen by the user, consistent with the per-Ring trust model above.
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| ==== Decentralized Web (DWeb) — with or without blockchain ====
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| WikiDeal follows the general development of the Decentralized Web closely, '''with or without blockchain'''. We are deliberately technology-neutral on this point: the goal (user-owned, consent-based, portable data) can be reached through Solid Pods, Holochain agents, IPFS-style content addressing, or — where genuinely useful — distributed ledgers. We adopt what serves the user, not what is fashionable.
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| This connects to our broader stance on distributed ledgers: see '''[[Gov/en/Portal:Data/Blockchains|Blockchains & Smart Contracts]]''' for WikiDeal's position on where blockchain and smart contracts are (and are not) appropriate, and '''[[Gov/en/Portal:Data/Decentralized-Data|Decentralized Data]]''' for the data-minimisation principles that underpin the whole approach.
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| By expressing its data as open linked resources, WikiDeal keeps the door open to interoperate with Solid Pods, Holochain agents, and other DWeb infrastructures as they mature — so the platform's information remains '''open, portable, and owned by its community''' rather than locked into a single provider, and so that the user, never the data broker, stays in control.
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