The Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response is sponsoring a challenge for developers to create a Facebook application that helps individuals prepare for the next catastrophic event.
The challenge asks for participants to create an application that identifies and connects friends willing to be lifelines that can check on you during an emergency, provide you with shelter in case of disaster and post updates on your well-being.
From the challenge:
In the aftermath of the earthquakes in Haiti and Japan, a tremendous number of people used Facebook to post and share information about those potentially affected by the disasters. We want to create an app that will refine and better support this phenomenon as it can provide a venue for emotional support to a victim’s network and help to decompress traditional channels of communication which are frequently overwhelmed during emergencies.
First place winners receive $10,000 and a chance to attend an event with the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, plus free passes to the Spring Health 2.0 Conference; second place wins $5,000; and third place wins $1,000.
