Will USDA Join "Virtual USA"?

Federal Computer Week has an article on a meeting between DHS and some Southern states, looking to share geo-spatial data:

"Officials say the goal is to make local- and state-owned geospatial data interoperable and usable across jurisdictions, with non-federal authorities maintaining control over the data and deciding what data to share.

The program was inspired by the success that Alabama had in using information gathered at a local level to aid first responders. The recent meeting was hosted by Alabama’s Homeland Security Department, which created Virtual Alabama. [Google link here and Alabama link here]That is a system built on Google Earth Enterprise software that allows authorities to create data mashups by quickly pulling together information from an array of sources across the state’s 67 counties and make it available to first responders. "

As usual, I'm torn between the thought some top-down direction would be a whole lot more efficient and recognition that, in the current state of today's weak federalized government, this sort of initiative is the best we can expect.