Drumbeat/overview
This is the generalized Drumbeat framework plus goals. Based on these widely circulated slides.
1. Vision
In a nutshell: make sure the internet is still open, participatory 100 years from now.
The internet has become our global commons: a critical public resource that more than a billion people use to learn, innovate, trade, befriend and play. We envision a century ahead where this shared resource grows even richer and more vibrant. For this to happen, we must continue to build and operate an internet that is:
- Open. Built on technologies that anyone can study, use or improve without asking permission.
- Participatory, fueled by the ideas and energy of 100s of millions of people.
- Decentralized in both architecture and control, ensuring continued choice and diversity.
- Public much like a public square, with space not just for commerce but also for vibrant social and civic life.
Of course, this vision faces many challenges. Current examples: control over our digital identities and data is centralizing; and the growing mobile internet is far less open than the one on our desktop. At a more basic level, few people take the time to consider the internet as a public resource. They simply take it for granted, like air. Drumbeat is about gathering a critical mass of people to address challenges like these.
2. Mission
Mozilla Drumbeat exists to explain, protect and improve the internet as a public resource. It's about starting a drumbeat around the world -- one where everyone can help to raise awareness, generate new ideas and get involved in making the internet better. Mozilla Foundation plays a critical leadership role: framing key internet issues and growing the community that forms the heart of Drumbeat. older versions
3. Goals
In a nutshell: drive awareness, action and news ideas that create a better internet.
If Mozilla Drumbeat succeeds, the idea that the internet is a public resource will be mainstream. More and more people will make choices about technology and online life that sustain -- or even improve -- this resource. With this aim in mind, the Drumbeat community should focus on three goals:
- Awareness: Widespread public understanding that the internet is a public resource.
- result -> more informed web use, ready to take action and generate new ideas.
- Action: Large scale, decentralized volunteering and participation on big web issues.
- result -> web becoming healthier, safer, more resilient.
- New ideas: Critical internet issues focused and clear, practical new solutions on the table.
- result -> responding to internet challenges more quickly, generatively.
The best Drumbeat campaigns (projects? themes?) touch on all of these goals, starting with awareness and then inviting people to take action and generate new ideas.
4. Strategy
In a nutshell: website and local events gather people actively involved in creating a better internet. Annual Drumbeat Festival as major convening point.
The Drumbeat strategy mixes online and on the ground activities. Web campaigns. Local gatherings. A yearly event for thoughts leaders. The aim is to get people everywhere thinking and doing around the idea of the internet as a public resource.
Individual Drumbeat campaigns combine these activities with a simple idea or emotional connection to the internet. A passion for social media. A concern about online privacy. A longstanding commitment to a civic cause. These ideas provide a foundation for talking about the bigger picture of the internet as a public resource, and eventually for action and the generation of new ideas.
As the diagram above indicates, Mozilla Drumbeat is built around three core elements plus a modest grants program. The elements are:
- Online: simple and helpful email newsletters as a way to make initial contact plus online campaigns for people who want to be more involved.
- On the ground: local community events, demos and discussions where people learn about Drumbeat themes and prototype their new ideas.
- Yearly event: annual ideaswap / skillshare / festival, showcasing the best ideas and setting an agenda for the coming year.
These activities form a platform of sorts, providing a framework for all Drumbeat campaigns. At an awareness level, they help us to engage large numbers of people. At the action and idea generation levels, they give members of the Drumbeat community a chance to invent solutions, write content and create campaigns. In the process, these activities help build up new community leaders who will make our drumbeats louder and spread it further. full description of approach