# 5774
Nearly thirty years ago I made a fairly good living as a computer programmer. Of course, things weren’t quite as sophisticated as they are today.
The Internet didn’t exist, an IBM-PC with two floppy drives for storage and 256K of RAM was the hot computer of the day, and we wrote laborious code using stone knives and a BASCOM 1.0 compiler.
While the technology has long since passed me by (the languages that I once knew are now only found in museums), I still have a deep appreciation for the programmer’s art.
So I’m delighted that Lisa at CIDRAP sent me a link to the following contest, offered by the HHS, for the development of preparedness apps for FACEBOOK,
Here are some excerpts from the press release.
News Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 22, 2011Contact: HHS Press Office
(202) 690-6343HHS sponsors contest for Facebook personal preparedness applications
Federal officials are challenging software application developers to design new Facebook applications to help people prepare for emergencies and get support from friends and family after an emergency strikes – from personal medical emergencies to natural or man-made disasters.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) issued the ASPR Lifeline Facebook Application Developer Challenge in collaboration with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), a health-focused online community of developers, designers, patients, providers, health care organizations that promotes health technology innovation.
The online challenge runs throughout National Preparedness Month in September and the remainder of the 2011 hurricane season, closing Nov. 4.
“After disasters, a tremendous number of people use Facebook to post and share information,” said Assistant Secretary Nicole Lurie, M.D., a rear admiral in the U.S. Public Health Service. “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 emergency but also to become better prepared in the first place.”
The person or team developing the best application will receive $10,000 from HHS and free admission from Health 2.0 to the 2012 Health 2.0 conference, and will be invited to an HHS event with Dr. Lurie. Second place will be awarded $5,000, and third place will receive $1,000.
As noted above, September is National Preparedness Month, and you are encouraged to join the NPM coalition.
Related Post:
- Safe Rooms: Improving Your Odds
- Do1Thing: A 12 Step Preparedness Program
- Resolve To Be Ready: 2013
- Ready or Not? TFAH Report 2012
- Public Health Practices (PHP) Update
- Black Swan Events
- The Gift of Preparedness 2012
- National Family History Day
- Paper: Are We Prepared For A Pandemic In Low Resource Communities?
- MMWR: Carbon Monoxide Exposures Related To Hurricane Sandy
- Canada: Another West Coast Temblor
- USGS: Eastern Earthquakes - Rare But Powerful
- Unreasonable Expectations
- Shaken, And Hopefully Stirred
- Sandy Strengthens Overnight
- Preparing For After The Storm Passes
- Sandy: Northeast Increasingly Under The Gun
- Reminder: ShakeOut Drills On Oct. 18th
- Dozens Of Ways To Spell `I-L-I’
- NPM12: Because We Don’t Know What Tomorrow Will Bring
- NPM12: One For The Home, And One More For The Road
- NPM12: Those Who Forget Their History . . .
- NPM12: The Ethics Of Preparedness
- NPM12: Disaster Buddies
- IDSA: Pandemic and Seasonal Influenza Preparedness
- HHS: Call For Public Comment On H5N1 Research
- CDC Statement On OIG Report On Vaccine Program For Children
- IOM Report On Vaccine Safety Concerns
- HHS Proposal To Improve Human Medical Research
- CDC Grand Rounds Webcast: Electronic Health Records
- Video: H5N1 – The Next Pandemic?
- Promising Practices & Pandemic Toolkits
- HHS Webcast Today: Pregnant Women And Flu
- Influenza Social Media Toolkits
- 2010 Flu Season: A Look Ahead
- Two From CIDRAP
- HHS Unveils Emergency Medical Countermeasures Report
- The Amazing Growth Of New Media
- PHE.GOV: Public Health Preparedness Has A New Home
- Pandemic And Preparedness Video Roundup
- AHRQ Report: Little Progress Seen On HAIs
- HHS `New Media’ Interview Today
- HHS Video: We Heard The Bells
- An Open Letter To The American People On The Flu Vaccine
- National Influenza Vaccination Week
- IOM: Priorities For The National Vaccine Plan
- HHS To Review Vaccine & Public Health Response Policies
- Thanksgiving Is National Family History Day
- HHS Webcast Monday
- NPM12: Because We Don’t Know What Tomorrow Will Bring
- NPM12: One For The Home, And One More For The Road
- NPM12: Those Who Forget Their History . . .
- NPM12: The Ethics Of Preparedness
- NPM12: When Evacuation Is The Better Part Of Valor
- NPM12: Giving Preparedness A Shot In The Arm
- NPM12: Disaster Buddies
- NPM12: The Gift Of Preparedness
- NPM12: Everyday Preppers
- An Increasingly Complex Flu Field
- NPM12: Surviving Disaster – Texas Style
- Making The Most Of The Day Before Tomorrow
- August Tropical Climatology
- NCDP’s Preparedness Wizard
- National Preparedness Month Kicks Off
- Weathering Heights: Billion-Dollar-Plus Weather Disasters
- National Preparedness Month Just Two Weeks Away
- NOAAWatch: Your Daily All-Hazards Briefing
- NPM 2011: Just Over A Month Away
- NPM 2011: A Time To Remember, A Time To Prepare
- Countdown To National Preparedness Month
- Become An NPM 2010 Coalition Member
Widget by [ Iptek-4u ]