Personal Emergency Preparedness Plan (PEPP) Facebook App: Using Cloud Computing, Mobile Technology, and Social Networking Services to Decompress Traditional Channels of Communication during Emergencies and Disasters

Cloud Computing, Mobile Technology, and Social Networking Services such as Facebook and Twitter has become an integral part of society during the event of an emergency or disaster. In the wake and aftermath of a disaster, a tremendous number of people used social networking sites to post and share information. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) had sponsored a challenge for software application developers to design a Facebook application to help people prepare for emergencies and to obtain support from friends and families during its aftermath. Lockheed Martin had responded to this challenge by creating a cloud and mobile based Facebook application called the Personal Emergency Preparedness Plan (PEPP). This paper discusses the design and integration of the PEPP Facebook App with the intention of serving as reference architecture for developing social networking applications using cloud computing and mobile technology.