The federal government wants to leverage the power of Facebook to help people prepare and respond to emergencies by launching the ASPR Lifeline Facebook Application Developer Challenge.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (HHS ASPR) in collaboration with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), has challenged health-focused developers to create software applications to help people prepare for emergencies and natural disasters, as well as get support from friends and family afterward.
“After disasters, a tremendous number of people use Facebook to post and share information,” Assistant Secretary Nicole Lurie, M.D., a rear admiral in the U.S. Public Health Service, said in a press release.
“We’re challenging our country’s most innovative developers to create apps that help people use Facebook not only to reach out to friends and family for any kind of help they may need after the emergency but also to become better prepared in the first place.”
The online contest runs concurrently with National Preparedness Month in September and through the end of the 2011 hurricane season, closing on November fourth.
Prize for the Winning App
Judges are looking for apps that help people prepare for, respond to, and recover from the adverse effects of public health emergencies like natural disasters and pandemics.
Each submission will be judged on its capability to enhance community connections and improve individual preparedness, with the winning application developer receiving $10,000 from HHS, free admission to the 2012 Health 2.0 conference, and an invitation to attend an HHS event with Dr. Lurie.
The second-place application will win $5,000, and third place will receive $1,000. The first-place winner will then work with the US government and Facebook to launch the application within weeks of being selected.
The Lifeline Facebook App Should:
Identify three lifelines – Three Facebook friends that agree to be emergency contacts for the user and act on their behalf during an emergency situation will be listed on their Facebook page as Lifelines.
Be sharable – The Lifeline app should be acknowledged on the user’s Facebook page and encourage friends to use it as well.
Optional Elements:
Personal preparedness plan – App users should be prompted to complete an emergency preparedness questionnaire.
Share the plan with Lifelines – Lifelines will be viewable on a user’s Facebook page, but personal preparedness plans will only be visible to Lifelines.
Hopefully, this is part of a larger trend toward the federal government engaging a growing tech-savvy population of Americans to solve public health challenges. Plus, offering $16,000 in prize money is a nice way to get people excited about innovation.
Want to take a crack at developing the app? Learn more about the Lifeline Facebook Application Developer Challenge.
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