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Brant Mitchell: We've been using
the Google Earth Enterprise
for about three years now.
Basically we took the same model
that virtual Alabama is doing.
And we have a globe that's for
our first responder community
as well as our
government community.
We use it for
day-to-day planning,
and we also use it
for emergency response.
Tamara Hewitt: That's more
focused towards
our emergency managers
in our private globe,
and we won't have that
on the public globe.
The public globe will
have all the same layers
that the government globe has,
but we will have more data
that is geared more towards
first responders and
emergency managers
in our government globe.
Mitchell: What we want to be
able to allow the people
in Louisiana to do is take
this particular tool
and help them make
faster, smart decisions
especially during an
evacuation itself.
We have information
on there for hotels,
for veterinary clinics, and
have you got hotels that
take vets-or pets.
So anything that might relate
to someone who evacuates.
The things that are
critical for them
to be successful in their plan.
Whether it's pharmacies,
grocery stores, laundromats,
anything that they might
need if they evacuate,
really that dynamic data.
How do I get information
during an actual evacuation?
I've got this big oil spill
that's taken place in the Gulf,
and we're actually providing
information specific to the
oil spill on a KMZ that people
can download from our website.
It's a sensitive
environmental area,
we talk about oyster beds.
People can literally see
that along our imagery,
along with all the
additional information
that's specific to the oil.
And again is just another way
of providing information
to the public.
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Hewitt: The main supplier
for our public globe is the
Louisiana GIS DVD, because all
of that is public information.
So for the most part we're
gonna keep that as our basis
for our data layers
for that globe.
Mitchell: We have
this opportunity,
we've got all this imagery.
That's not available in
the big Google Earth,
and we wanted to be able to
offer it to our citizens free,
as well as people outside
of Louisiana to come
and see what Louisiana
has to offer.
Hewitt: To do that, we have
a lot of our festivals
and cultural events
that are prominent in the state
that people who are out of
the state may not be aware of or
if you live in different areas,
you just may not be aware of
these certain types of events.
Mitchell: If we can take those
activities and put them on a map
so people can literally see
where they are especially
in relation to one another,
then we have an opportunity
to really promote
and sell Louisiana.
We looked at Google
Earth and it was really
not a very difficult
decision for us to make.
We were already
using it internally,
and the big thing was that
it's already being used by
hundreds of millions of
users across the country
and as well as the world.
And when they launch it, it's
already pointed to the server
they're going to be accessing,
and that just makes it a much
more user friendly process.
But more importantly it
eliminates the need for us
to support that much staff
in technical support.
Hewitt: Currently working
on virtual Louisiana,
we have three people.
Two support in the GIS realm as
far as the data is concerned,
and then one is with
software and engineering.
Mitchell: It's
just so easy to use.
And when you look at
Google Earth,
people are not afraid of it.
And the idea is they are
taking the platform
they may already be using
and be familiar with,
and just taking it and
making it unique to Louisiana.
00:02:47.070,00:00:00.000
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