Two recent Brown graduates, Evan Donahue '11 and Erik Stayton '11, won first prize in the United States Department of Health and Human Services' Facebook Lifeline Application Challenge for their new emergency preparedness application. The app, called Lifeline, is set to be released to the public in late May.
Lifeline is an interface designed to help facilitate disaster relief. It allows users to select emergency contacts from their Facebook friends and in the event of a disaster alert them of their status. This allows for phone lines and other modes of communication to be free for others who are searching for friends or loved ones. People can also use Lifeline to report a missing friend, and that friend's emergency contacts can provide updates.
The application allowed the duo to "make technology about culture," Donahue said.
Donahue and Stayton, roommates for three years while at Brown, came across the opportunity while browsing through government outreach programs in technological fields. HHS Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response Nicole Lurie said the government is attempting to create new programs to encourage technological innovation.
"We hope to utilize these competitions to engage more people in technology, which is becoming more and more important," Lurie said.
HHS designed the competition so entries would take advantage of Facebook's existing social technology. But Donahue said that while the application "has a Facebook origin, it is not exclusive to Facebook," and the pair hopes to "build something to maintain itself."
Donahue and Stayton were awarded $10,000 as winners of the HHS competition. They hope to use some of the prize money as startup funding to create a business model for Lifeline, Donahue said. Though he greatly enjoyed participating in the competition and creating a practical application, Donahue said he was disappointed that the government does not have "holistic engagement with technology programs" and offers no "plans or provisions post-competition."
The duo hopes to release an improved and better functioning version of Lifeline through the website Cinnamon Bird in late May, right before hurricane season, Donahue said. Interested users can register on the site to receive a notification when the app is ready for use.
