In the News: Department of Energy Releases Lantern Live App

(FEMA) Author: Jessica StapfThis week, our friends over at the Department of Energy released their newest venture: the Lantern Live app. Available for Android devices, Lantern Live gives people the ability to report the status and location of nearby fuel stations (alternative and conventional), check their area for power outages and easily access safety tips.A screen shot of the Lantern Live interface showing a map of gas stations in the Washington, DC area.Lantern Live is built on open source code, so developers will be able to integrate Lantern Lives capabilities into applications of their own. Theres also the potential for this apps capabilities to be available for an even larger audience. According to the Department of Energy, future releases of Lantern Live will likely include the ability to crowdsource information on the status of gas stations via standardized hashtags for social media.This app comes as part of a series of innovations made possible by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policys Disaster Response and Recovery Initiative. These innovations are designed to increase the presence of open data in disaster. As part of that initiative, we at FEMA collaborated with the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy to provide a new documentation system to help survivors find housing and receive financial housing assistance after disaster strikes.The Lantern Live app is available for Android devices at the Google Play Store.Source: www.fema.gov