Mitchell Bring and his company had absolutely nothing to do with the Georgia Resource Center. A multi-disciplined team formed from the Information Resources, Media Services, and Economic Development Departments at Georgia Power company, The Multimedia Technology Laboratory at the Georgia Institute of Technology, and Technical Industries, Inc. designed, built, and installed the multimedia system known as the Georgia Resource Center. This public/private partnership was dedicated by Governor Miller in October of 1991.

I think its fair to call Mitchell the father of multimedia site searching, although the earlier systems developed at Georgia Power's Energy Planning Center in 1984 were presentation systems using laser disc technology to sell electric end-use products. We demonstrated an economic development application for the technology there, but it was never used for facility location. The power of linear video married with high end graphic images and slides intrigued us as a way to visualize economic development offerings and create high impact presentations. The technology promised to bring some efficiency to the facility location process by shortening time frames, bring some cost effectiveness to the process and allow us to market all areas of the state.

The one thing missing from the system was the data and information which facility location specialists use in screening communities against corporate location criteria. Mitchell installed another presentation system in the Georgia Business Location Center for the economic development department of Georgia Power in 1986. This time it was married (systems operating side by side) with the department's large demographic data base running on a Wang mini-computer. We began having good success in using the system to assist companies locate facilities in Georgia.

The Georgia Resource Center is truly an integrated multimedia technology platform which was designed around a flexible structure so that we can replace technology as it comes available. It is far superior to anything we know about. If we need to change code or rewrite code based on upgraded software or operating systems, we can do that. We are not restricted by a vendor, proprietary operating systems or aging technology.

Too much technical expertise, energy, and just plain hard work went into the building of the Georgia Resource Center and its continued support for me to let the readers of your magazine keep the impression that Mitchell Bring or Still Current Design designed it.

Sincerely,

Roy W. Plott
Director
Georgia Resource Center