00:01October 2011. It was a dark and stormy night.

00:04A winter snowstorm hits Connecticut, leaving 700,000 homes without power.

00:09What unexpected federal agency is already in high gear, mapping, preparing for the worst, and working with FEMA?

00:18The US Department of Health and Human Services.

00:21Why do they care? Because lost electrical power puts hospitals, nursing homes, and medical services all at risk.

00:28Hospitals are scary enough. Imagine a hospital totally in the dark when the emergency generators run out of fuel.

00:35So if a power problem persists, HHS may be requested to help.

00:41Enter the Secretary's Operations Center, the SOC.

00:45The director's chair sits on a raised platform at the back and is flanked on both sides by GIS analysts.

00:51When it comes to understanding and communicating information, HHS has the staff in place to deliver the answers.

00:59This is their job, and this is their workplace.

01:02Staffed 24 by 7, the SOC provides situational awareness for planned events as well as natural and man-made disasters.

01:10And one of the key technologies is their MedMap web application.

01:15Everything from hospitals, nursing homes, clinics, warehouses filled with medical supplies, and deployed staff are all tracked.

01:23More than 200 map services are immediately available with role-based security for more than 500 users.

01:31During the Connecticut snowstorm, the GIS team was analyzing the reported outage areas…

01:38…and analyzing which medical resources were affected and the implications if a mass evacuation was needed.

01:46How did HHS get the outage map from the local power company? This is the sad part of the story.

01:53The local power company had a static map on their website, not a map service…

01:59…so HHS had to retype the outage areas to create their own data.

02:05While this process works, it's not the most efficient.

02:08Would you want to be the analyst retyping data in an emergency?

02:12Why did the Connecticut power company not publish a live feature service to make it easier for everyone to respond and help?

02:21There is hope in other states.

02:22Consumers Energy, which is Michigan's premier utility company, does have their outage maps registered…

02:29…and shared through ArcGIS Online, ahead of the storms and accessible to HHS.

02:36The moral of this story is you never know who's going to need your data in an emergency.

02:41I never would've thought or imagined that an agency like HHS would be looking at power outages.

02:48I think this is a message for everyone.

02:51We all need to be prepared to quickly share our data, our maps, and our analysis so others can help us.

03:00Now, our next technology update considers other ways we can help you reach out and leverage available resources…

03:08…and how you can quickly respond to the unexpected.

03:10Without saying any more, please welcome Sheila Steffenson and Craig Cleveland.

03:15Thanks, John. All of John's stories remind us how hard all of you work every day building geographic data…

03:25…and then turning that data into maps and applications to convey the information in meaningful ways.

03:32Like Jack said, turning it into knowledge.

03:35And over the years, Esri has focused on providing the capabilities to help you do this work…

03:40…which has resulted in thousands of valuable tools.

03:44But what if, in addition to that vast array of tools, you were provided with combinations of those tools in the form of templates…

03:52…that would enable you to implement much more quickly?

03:56And what if some of those templates were focused on the non-GIS user…

04:00…simple but compelling and enabling you to get your messages out to a much broader audience?

04:07Well, for the last several months, we've focused dozens of our staff on an initiative that we call ArcGIS for national government…

04:16…focused on doing just that.

04:19We've looked closely at your missions to determine the maps and applications needed to accomplish those missions…

04:25…and we've discovered numerous areas of efforts and hundreds of maps that can help.

04:30And as we build those maps into configurable templates, we'll make them freely available to you on the Esri resources website…

04:39…along with other valuable content, such as videos and messaging centers and, in time, offerings from our business partners.

04:47And we've organized those resources around the communities of the national government to make it easier for you…

04:53…to locate the specific tools and templates that you need to get your job done…

04:58…as well as to connect up with others doing similar work.

05:02So whether you're focused on oceans management, our nation's defense, imagery, or health research…

05:09…ArcGIS for national government will provide the resources specific to your community.

05:15Now, tomorrow morning we're going to have breakout sessions where we'll dive in deeper…

05:20…so that you can get a better understanding about this initiative, but for now, my colleague Craig Cleveland…

05:26…will give you a glimpse into the templates so you can begin to understand how they might be of benefit. Craig?

05:33Thanks, Sheila. A lot of us work on campuses.

05:36Wouldn't you like to have a web application to help you locate someone's office?

05:40Well, on the resource center, you'll find the Campus Place Finder template to help you do just that.

05:45You could type the name of a colleague, select their name from a list…

05:50…and now you know where to find them and how to contact them.

05:53You can also move through the floors of a building if you need to locate an office on a different floor.

05:59To help you prepare your data for use with the Campus Place Finder, we've provided multiple desktop templates.

06:04The first is an editing template to help you build out features for interior spaces and exterior places.

06:12The second is a basemap template to help you publish off your data with rich cartography.

06:19If you're interested in reporting, we're going to have a Reporting template as well.

06:24The Reporting template allows you to summarize statistics based off of a particular geography.

06:30Once you've chosen your geography of interest, you're then presented with summary statistics for that particular geography.

06:39In this example, I can see where grant monies are going as well as compare state funding to national averages.

06:49If you're working on projects all across the country or even all across the world…

06:53…it can be very difficult to keep track of where they are.

06:56To help you with that, we're working on a Data Collection template.

07:00Using this template, you can search for a location, capture it as a project, and then enter in information about that project.

07:15Now we're all familiar with an atlas of maps, the rich cartography and wealth of information…

07:21…but have you ever wanted to access an atlas of dynamic maps at any time or anywhere?

07:27Well, on the resource center, you'll soon find the Atlas Viewer template to help you build out that atlas of dynamic maps.

07:34Using the Atlas Viewer, you can move through a series of maps based on different categories…

07:40…as well as access pop-ups to help you see a further detailed breakdown of the information being displayed.

07:48Templates can also provide for more sophisticated analysis, such as determining a viewshed.

07:54This is an environmental impact application to help you determine whether or not you can see potential wind turbines from the shore.

08:02First, you specify the average height of the wind turbines, then draw in their potential location…

08:10…and what's returned to you is the area on land that those turbines can be seen from.

08:18Templates can also provide for more sophisticated workflows. Here is one to help me discover imagery.

08:24I'd like to see what imagery we have available for Tehran.

08:30Specifically, I'm interested in eight-band, multispectral, high-resolution imagery…

08:35…which I know is provided by the WorldView-2 sensor.

08:39I'd also like to specify a maximum cloud cover of 30 percent on the date of capture…

08:44…and narrow my search to the area just around the city.

08:49I can then see the details of all the imagery that's been returned to me, as well as that of an individual image.

08:56I can also preview that image to make sure it's what I need.

09:01Lastly, I can queue all this imagery in preparation for publishing it off as an imagery service.

09:08I can then share off that imagery service with colleagues for use in more detailed analysis.

09:14I hope this quick glimpse of the map and app templates excites you…

09:17…and you're already thinking about ways that you and your organization can utilize them. Sheila?

09:22Thanks, Craig. Last year, I attended a presentation by an NIH scientist, and she stated, "I don't do GIS.

09:31"I do cancer research, and GIS helps me do it better."

09:35That's what ArcGIS for national government is all about--helping you do it better…

09:40…helping you more rapidly implement and more widely disseminate your good work…

09:45…enabling you to focus more on your missions and less on the details of technology.

09:52Finally, this initiative is in its initial stages, and we really need your help.

09:57So please, attend the sessions tomorrow and learn more about ArcGIS for national government, but then give us your feedback.

10:04Tell us what we've done right, but more importantly, tell us where should we go next.

10:10Bring your business cards and write your ideas on the back of them, and then give those to the presenters.

10:15Because we want to partner with you on the future for ArcGIS for national government.