MIT Solve

Solution Overview

Our Solution

ReliablyME Lifelong Learning Credential

One-line solution summary:

A commitment-based SMS/WhatsApp nudging platform empowers users with a character credential based on evidence of experiential learning

Pitch your solution.

We are helping people with limited connectivity and insufficient formal credentials to be recognized for their authentic self and social worth based on objective evidence of their experiential lifelong learning in order to gain equitable access to education, employment, housing, credit, insurance, and social groups.

ReliablyME empowers them with the ability to register their commitments via SMS or WhatsApp instant messaging using their feature phone or entry-level smartphone to earn digital completion badges from people and organizations that acknowledge the nature of their experiential learning. Hiring employers can adjudicate an objective, evidence-based digital credential that attests to the candidate's reliability, punctuality, personal integrity, and accountability related to demonstrated soft and hard skills.

If scaled across India and Indonesia, everyone will have equal access to technology that empowers them with an opportunity to gain equitable (unbiased) access to opportunities anywhere by being able to present objective evidence of their lifelong experiential learning and good character.

Film your elevator pitch.

Which dimension of the Challenge does your solution most closely address?

Increase and leverage the participation of underserved communities in India and Indonesia — especially women, low-income, and remote groups — in the creation, development, and deployment of new technologies, jobs, and industries

In what city, town, or region is your solution team headquartered?

Toronto, ON, Canada

Is your solution working in India and/or Indonesia?

My solution is being deployed or has plans to deploy in India

What specific problem are you solving in India and/or Indonesia?

By 2030, automation is expected to displace an estimated 23 million jobs in Indonesia, and nearly 70 percent of jobs in formal employment could be automated in India during the same period — including 12 million jobs held by women.

India has 1.3 billion people, communicating in 22 official languages, using 1 billion mobile phones, of which only 400 million are smartphones, and only 450 million have Internet access.

How do we reach so many people who have don't have smartphones and have minimal connectivity?

ReliablyME is designed to increase and leverage the participation of underserved communities in India and Indonesia — especially women, low-income, and remote groups — in the co-creation, co-development, and deployment of new applications that help them demonstrate their progress toward attaining the soft and hard skills required to qualify for evolving job opportunities.

ReliablyME is a highly customizable digital utility that supports a broad spectrum of applications, both inherently and when integrated into other software applications. It is designed to address each of these causal factors and catalyze rapid change, sustainably, at a population scale.

Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?

Through our active membership in Catalyst 2030 we are cultivating collaborations to empower people in support of the UN SDGs - a global community of collaborating social entrepreneurs.

In each case, ReliablyME is being introduced to recognize people (mostly youth) for their experiential learning through extracurricular and uncompensated activities with a tool that helps them adopt behaviors conducive to prosperity and wellbeing.

Our technology platform enables local service delivery organizations to define commitments-based applications that earn participants badges. Badge policies specify the name and nature of each badge issued, as well as the processes and standards that need to be met in order for a badge to be awarded. Each application of ReliablyME is, therefore, unique to the implementing organization. In all cases, participating individuals are nudged to demonstrate a desirable behavior that is valued by the service provider and/or third parties to which the individuals are applying for opportunities.

In each case, they can register their corresponding commitments via SMS text messaging or WhatsApp on ReliablyME in order to build a commitment portfolio that demonstrates their ongoing commitment to contributing to the community and financial empowerment. It gives them an opportunity to demonstrate their reliability, punctuality, personal integrity, and accountability.

ReliablyME can help them gain experience with designing and developing digital technologies by using the platform to co-create applications that award additional badges to community members and empower them with evidence of alignment with their self and social worth for their local context.

How does the problem you are addressing, the solution you have designed, and the population you are serving align with the Challenge?

Employers can give more equitable access (based on objective evidence of their experiential learning and good character) to a digital workforce in underserved populations, including those lacking connectivity, those who are differently-abled, and those with undervalued talents - especially youth, women, migrants, and refugees.

ReliablyME gives people without access to learning and development and the ability to use required technologies an opportunity to instantly adopt technology for learning that helps them build digital skills and helps employers transform their workforce needs.

ReliablyME gives underserved populations an accessible technology onramp that gives them an equal opportunity to gain equitable access to opportunities based on objective evidence of their self and social worth.

ReliablyME offers most of the population to use the technologies they already have to begin learning, adopt desirable behaviors that demonstrate their experiential learning, and be recognized for all the relevant things they do in their communities.

What is your solution’s stage of development?

Pilot

Who is the Team Lead for your solution?

Alex Todd has 40 years of experience with emerging information technologies in leadership roles as both a corporate innovator and executive, and entrepreneur. His focus has been on leveraging technologies to optimize conditions for trust. This has helped him envision new possibilities for creating value from emerging technologies.