The document proposes a browser or management app for Google's Person Finder database that allows users to manage entries more easily. It would let users create lists of people, add entries to lists, and share lists on social networks. The app would provide a fast status overview of entries and display detailed information like maps and social media posts. It could also integrate with social networks to flag entries as "seen" if a person is posting, and notify users of status changes like a missing person being found alive.

1. Browser and Management App
for Google’s Person Finder
Heiko J Schick
4/13/2011 1

2. Preliminary Statements
• All conclusions and observations are my
personal view and are based on my own
interpretation.
• The proposal is made for an major disaster
(e.g. Japan earthquake).
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3. Section 1
INTRODUCTION
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4. End-User Behavior (1)
Source: Google URL Shortener Statistic for Japan Person Finder
Source: Bit.ly URL Shortener Statistic
for Japan Person Finder
Source: Bit.ly URL Shortener Statistic
for Christchurch Person Finder
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5. End-User Behavior (2)
Source: Google Trends
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6. Sequence of Response to Earthquake
Source: Behavior During Earthquakes: A Southern Italian Example, http://www.ijmed.org/viewpdf.php?pdf=mar1990
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7. Observations (1)
• A “people finder” tool has the highest usage
during the first week after the disaster
happened.
– Quick response is a must!
– Scalable infrastructure since many requests as to be
handled.
– After the first week the usage is going dramatically down.
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8. 4/13/2011 8

9. Usage of social media
during an emergency
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10. How help will be requested
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11. Which information is useful?
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12. Pros and Cons with social media
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13. Observations (2)
• People would use social networks to
communicate that they are save.
• People would request help via a text message or
a social networks (for a known person).
• People would use social networks to get
information.
– Location of food and water
– Evacuation routes or shelter locations
– Road closures or location of medical services
• Remember the benefits, threads and challenges
of social networks!
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14. Section 2
GOOGLE’S PERSON FINDER
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15. Google’s Person Finder (1)
• Japan's Person Finder has nearly 607,400
records. Source: Google Person Finder , April 4
• Person Finder was created and launched 72
hours after the Haiti earthquake, within one
day of the February 2010 Chile earthquake,
within three hours of the February 2011 New
Zealand earthquake and within one hour after
the Japan earthquake. Source: http://money.cnn.com/2011/03/17/technology/google_person_finder_japan/index.htm?hpt=T2
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16. Google’s Person Finder (2)
• The Japanese people finder is available in 8 languages: Japanese, English, Korean, Chinese,
Portuguese, Spanish, Vietnamese.
• The application consist out of 45 Python, 25 HTML, 5 CSS, and 25 Language files. So in theory
it can be available in more as 8 languages!
• Programed in Python with Google's App Engine's API.
– Dynamic web serving, with full support for common web technologies
– Persistent storage with queries, sorting and transactions
– Automatic scaling and load balancing
– APIs for authenticating users and sending email using Google Accounts
– Task queues for performing work outside of the scope of a web request
– Scheduled tasks for triggering events at specified times and regular intervals
• The GUI has a very simple and functional UI flow.
• All data and information is handled in the People Finder Interchange Format (PFIF), so that it
can easily shared with other sides.
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17. Google’s Person Finder
Front Page
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18. Google’s Person Finder
I’m looking for someone
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19. Google’s Person Finder
Detailed Information
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20. Section 3
BROWSER AND MANAGEMENT APP
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21. Proposal
• Have a browser or management web application for the Google Person Finder database,
which can be used by friends, relatives, companies, aid agency or shelters to administrate
and manage several person entries of the Google Person Finder database.
• The browser or management web application is outside of any social network, but uses third
party social network APIs (e.g. Facebook Graph API, Twitter OAuth API) and the Google
Person Finder database.
• You can create lists, add persons to the list and share a list or a person via social networks
(Twitter, Facebook) with comments (e.g. missing, alive, etc.).
• You can get easy access to Google Person Finder database entries without the need to search
for persons or access the detail page of persons individually.
• Get a fast status overview of one person or all person within a list (e.g. 3 of 10 are missing).
• Display detailed data of a person (including maps, social network posts, etc.).
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22. Further Ideas
• Add a “seen” button, which is similar the Facebook “like” button. Increased click rate indicates that
the person is alive. Also, you can see which people pressed the “seen” button, so that you can
request more information.
• Use the information which a person is sharing within its status network as indication that the
person is alive. For example: If someone posted a status update, the coresponding Google Person
Finder database entry can reflect this as “it is likely that person is alive”.
• Use the last known geo tag location (e.g. address) of a person to display additional useful
information on a map. This information can be use by friends, co-workers, etc.
For example:
– If the status is “missing” display emergency routes, hospital and shelter location that are close to the geo
tag location. This gives people an idea where they can search for the missing person.
– If the status is “alive” display food and water locations to give better advices.
• If the status of a person changes (e.g. from missing to alive) sent an e-mail, SMS, Facebook message
or Twitter message. This enables easy usage of push notification services for mobile devices like
smarphones.
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23. Nulla dui purus, eleifend vel, consequat
non, dictum porta, nulla. Duis ante mi,
Lists People
Information
1 1
2 2 Header
•List item 1
•List Item 2
3 !
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non, dictum porta, nulla. Duis ante mi,
laoreet ut, commodo eleifend, cursus nec,
lorem. Aenean eu est. Etiam imperdiet
turpis.
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24. 1,2,6 Examples (1)
1
4
3
5
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Source: TweetDeck

25. Examples (2)
2
6
4
4,5
3
1
5
4/13/2011 Source: Seesmic 25
Web

26. Legend
1. Social Network Activities (Sharing, Tagging,
Marking, etc.)
2. Search
3. Short Information about a List or a Person
4. Detail Information about a Person
5. Status Updates
6. List Management
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27. More Examples
Display more Information and Search
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28. More Examples
Sharing on Social Networks
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29. More Examples
Login and Authentication
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30. End
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