Becoming a California MVP (TFN)
TFN Jan 1, 2031
“Welcome to Los Angeles. Visitors and new residents should make sure they are California MVPs. Download the California MVP app or pick up a CaliMVP compatible device” Sound bites like this are a constant reminder that California wants to connect you if you want. Last year California officially rolled out their California MVP initiative, today more than 85% of residents have access to the California MVP platform via their phone, with another 14% of residents using their state-issued CaliMVP module.
When I wrote about the CaliMVP node in our previous article, “Will California’s state-funded smart device live up to its promise?” I questioned the benefits of spending hundreds of millions of dollars to create what I considered a toy of a “smart device”. How many people would want a small piece of metal and glass that had, what I believed insufficient ram, processing power, and general functionality? It turns out over 5 million residents so far, and honestly, I’m now a believer.
According to state records the CaliMVP system has saved over a quarter million life years. For those of us who aren’t actuaries, this is the equivalent of saving over 3,000 people from an early death……
Back to the Present
This post goes back to a post I did on my old blog where I investigated the idea of designing a smart phone for unhoused individuals who could be issued a low cost way of staying in touch, even when housing was difficult, at least they could reach out for support as needed. At the time I simply thought that using an off the shelf cheap phone would be sufficient, and I still think that is part of the solution in helping to make a more just society.
What I am imagining in the Cali MVP set up, is a collection of technologies working together to help people have an easier life. While many folks would assume I am referring to most valuable person, when I say MVP, the acronym is in fact a reference to a minimum viable product or in this case phone.
The current idea for the MVP is a smart device standard that can reliably provide users with access to digital services including, digital identification, medical records, digital authorization tokens, and maybe some other personal data. Ideally the MVP could look like a range of devices, of multiple sizes and shapes, but at the heart of all of these devices would be a standard collection of open-source hardware and software that ensures guaranteed compatibility. As we enter an era of good enough platforms, the iteration of hardware becomes less and less significant for many users. What if we had a standard core system that anybody could be guaranteed that if they built their program to run on it it would be able to run anywhere.
This MVP would mean that government agencies could be guaranteed that the infrastructure they set up could still be used many years later.
There are many questions on how the MVP should work and what it would require.
Potential stake holders would need to include
advocates for the unhoused, users with limited hearing and eyesight, stakeholders from multiple language groups, security experts, the list goes on.
I don’t yet have an answer as to the size of the MVP and how it will work. One version might be a two part system, where one piece is a small chip embedded in your hand that stores your critical data, where your smart devices only stores limited encrypted data off your person, lose your phone, no worries. Just grab a replacement phone and you can rebuild your user experience super readily.
If we could create this minimum viable smart device, imagine what it would mean for residents, a smart device that was so cheap you could effectively give them away.
Give everyone a device that serves as their id, credit card, phone, and if they want keys.
From disaster victims, to the unhoused, to returning citizens, there are too many people who are allowed to be shifted out of site by society. While technology on its own will not guarantee an improvement on life’s struggles, it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to develop tools to make life easier.
Obviously, there are concerns over privacy and implementation, I don’t have answers right now, just a desire to outline a potential starting point.