Over the last few days, a number of people have floated the idea of supporting people using open source and the open web to bring civic value to the internet via Mozilla Drumbeat. There are more and more examples of people using the internet in this way. Open source healthcare. Open education. Open government data. And so on. The people doing this are blazing exciting trails, but surely also face many challenges.

An obvious question emerges: what concrete things could Mozilla and Drumbeat do to support people creating civic and social value on the web? (answer survey)

It could be that the answer relates back to other issues we’ve been talking about for Drumbeat: looking at the intersections between things like data / privacy / mobile and people working on things like open govt / healthcare / education / etc. Or, it could be different altogether, helping people tap into the ‘open model’ or tackling specific challenges like publicity or fundraising. And, of course, it could be that there is no role for Mozilla or Drumbeat here at all.

Before going any further with this idea, it would be helpful to hear what people think. I’ve asked the question above Rypple survey and have started a discussion thread. Answers in the next 24 hours are especially helpful.

If it turns out there are ways the Drumbeat could be useful in this area, we’d then need to move to the question: ‘is this a good fit for Mozilla?‘.