Submitted by Jim StClair (Linux Foundation Public Health) on Wed, 01/12/2022 - 13:32
Last revised by Sovello Mgani on Thu, 01/20/2022 - 02:15.
Two Sentence Overview:
The goal of this project is to facilitate seamless travel and protect individual privacy through a secure, interoperable digital credential. This credential incorporates the DDCC and multiple global COVID-19 credential standards using privacy-preserving, open source technology, pioneered by the Linux Foundation and Foundation project member companies
Executive Summary:
The COVID-19 Credentials Initiative is a global community of more than 300 technologists, academics and healthcare professionals from more than 100 organizations working on projects that use privacy-driven verifiable credentials to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.
It’s envisioned that Digital Square investment will support operationalizing the CCI open source solution, tailored and configured specifically for DDCC:VS, DIVOC, US SHC, and other host nation or regional support in partnership with a regional integration partner.
The goal of this project is to facilitate seamless travel and protect individual privacy through a secure, interoperable digital credential. This credential incorporates the multiple global COVID-19 credential standards using privacy-preserving, open source technology, pioneered by the Linux Foundation and Foundation project member companies.
Consortium Team:
CCI is a community of individuals and organizations, organized under Linux Foundation Public Health (LFPH) with vast experience and diverse expertise. Most importantly, we are all committed to supporting interoperable and privacy-preserving of COVID/health credentials. Our core activities include:
• Facilitating the sharing of knowledge and insights related to the implementation of health credentials
• Facilitating the collaboration among implementers and connecting implementers with potential business opportunities
• Identifying market needs for health credentials and facilitating standard and technical development accordingly
• Conducting rapid standardization and producing community products to meet immediate market needs
• Providing education and guidance to implementers, policy-makers and the mass market
CCI is supported by the Linux Foundation, which has over 250 open source projects with 3000+ companies and stakeholders, contributing to projects responsible for global ICT operations, to include the Linux operating system, cloud computing edge networking, and open source security development.
CCI is governed by a steering committee, elected amongst participating member companies, who provide strategic guidance and direction to CCI activities under the oversight of the LFPH Executive Director and Board of Directors.
The LFPH Consortium team includes LFPH members Dimagi and NearForm.
Founded in 2002, Dimagi, Inc. is an award-winning, socially conscious technology company that develops scalable ICT solutions for low-resource settings. A leader in open source technology, Dimagi has performed technical strategy, systems design, software development, and research for 500+ projects worldwide, and its core product suite support thousands of Frontline Workers in over 50+ countries.
Dimagi rapidly iterates and adapts its technologies to the local environment, creating appropriate, scalable, and sustainable solutions at a low-cost. Dimagi has a strong history of successful project execution acting as a technical lead partnered with an in-country implementation lead. This model has been successfully implemented for pilot-phase projects through enterprise-wide deployments with over 75 partners, including WHO, World Bank, USAID, CDC, World Vision, UNICEF, PATH, the Rockefeller Foundation, and Acumen Fund. In addition to our strong project implementation experience, Dimagi also has 10 years of experience participating in and leading research for healthcare delivery in underserved populations.
Dimagi’s 100+ worldwide team members of engineers, physicians, public health professionals, data analysts, project managers, and field staff, are based in offices in Boston (headquarters), New Delhi, Cape Town, Maputo, and Dakar, with full time staff in Guatemala, Myanmar, and Zambia.
NearForm is a global consultancy that designs and builds mission-critical digital products at speed and scale for enterprise and public sector clients. They are experts in digital development and design. But more than that, we run every project according to a process we’ve refined through years of experience delivering solutions that don’t just meet the initial spec but enable clients to scale and adapt as their needs evolve. They specialize in Open Source, fullstack software development, training, design-led, node.js, consultancy, enterprise software solutions, DevSecOps, Performance Audit, node.js support, application development, User Experience, Capability Building, Digital Product, Customer Experience, Digital Design, API, WebApp, Solution Development, and digital health
Project Description:
The COVID-19 Pandemic has had a devasting effect of global travel and global supply chains. While often regarded as a “first world problem” there is a significant percentage of travel associated with critical business travel and keeping families united. While the World Health Organization (WHO), EU DDCC:VS, US SHC and multiple jurisdictions and nations have understandably been attempting multiple approaches to confirm vaccination status or test results, it has created a bifurcated and disjointed approach to sharing required medical information, often at the expense of promoting Privacy by Design or adhering to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
To address these challenges, LFPH launched CCI to develop the requisite open source components to support the credential process. To date, we have accomplished several notable achievements in the last eighteen months:
o Connected to 26+ governments and implementers across all continents (except Antarctica).
o Curated the creation of Cardea: a COVID credential project in machine readable governance with a vibrant community and highly-interoperable solutions among vendors and demonstrated by SITA.
o EU DCC developer community collaborating on our Slack and facilitating technical collaboration between LFPH and the EU
o The Global COVID Credential Network (GCCN): A global trust architecture, the GCCN trust registry network to provide a way for the various COVID certificate systems in every jurisdiction to find each other and decide whether to accept each other’s certificates.
The objective of this project will be deployment of a demonstrable COVID credential system (potentially in conjunction with Cardea and GCCN) that incorporates both host nation credential requirements but also supports integration with other systems to facilitate seamless cross-border travel activities (such as EU DCC to India DIVOC, India to Singapore, etc). The existing CCI open source solution will be configured for a specific host nation as deemed appropriate by digital square, hosted in a cloud native environment, and provided to a select group of individuals to demonstrate cross-border inquiry and engagement in preparation for acceptance and full deployment.
It is expected that the implementation will include an agreed-upon functional requirements that include interoperability, redundancy, security, privacy, ease of use, and preclude creating “digital inequity”. The credential system should be demonstrated with a sub-set of the travelling population that reflects a comprehensive cross-section of all expected travelers to incorporate the fully expected user experience and mobile requirements.
The anticipated timeline for demonstration is three months with full deployment in six months. The CCI project team will maintain a risk register of all potential risks, such as technical challenges, security considerations, user education, business continuity and “process risk” (risk of changes to standing national or jurisdictional processes for travel). Each risk area will have a defined mitigation strategy, with high risk items monitored closely and shared routinely with the project team and sponsors.
Application Status:
Not Approved