The Gov 2.0 team is in Cambridge this week hosting our Government 2.0: Wikinomics ,Government and Democracy community at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Rather than try and parse out some of the key insights myself I thought I’d point our audience to this quick hit list of insights from one of our collaborators and partners, Ian Ketcheson, who’s done the job for me.

Perhaps the most interesting presentation was our tour through Virtual Alabama with Alabama’s Director of Homeland Security James Walker.

Built on a Google Earth platform, the site has Federal, State and municipal security and safety agencies sharing local data, images and technology. The result is a phenomenally-rich 3D environment that allows near instantaneous emergency reponse capabilities, which in an area known for its hurricanes and tornadoes is a must.

And while the prospects for emergency response are evident, where else could you apply data/image mashups to create citizen value? Tourism? Economic Development? What else?