What's your vision of Government 2.0?

The Center for American Progress just wrapped up a well-attended (200 people) talk on "Web 2.0 and the Federal Government," weaving together discussion on using the government as a platform for engagement, the best of the latest developments in the field, and the risks of both using and not using new media.

Panelists Tim O'Rielly, Founder and CEO of O'Reilly Media, Inc., Alec Ross, Senior Advisor for Innovation to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Faiz Shakir, Research Director for The Progress Report and ThinkProgress.org, took a few questions from twitter/online/audience folks, but mostly focused on offering their insights on the Federal Government's engagement with online toos.

In the wake of moderator Peter Swire's new reports on White House new media, Six New Media Challenges and Obtaining Free Software (just out from CAP), the panelist's conversation offered an extension of the (mostly) positive review of new media in the government.

Takeaway ideas included:

• Technology isn't exciting, empowerment is.
• It doesn't happen often, but when it does its extremely gratifying to see the government moving at Internet speed.
• Government "2.0" should seek to become a normal piece of every Federal Government initiative.
• The power of government new media lies in harnessing collective intellegence, becoming better the more people use it.
• Online social media is a messy space, but its a messy, lateral space that breaks communication bubbles.
• This moment in history is a priceless opportunity to build a platform and to build it well.

If you missed it and want to hear more, you can check out this twitter feed from the event, and the aforementioned CAP Reports here.