There’s some good ideas.
I see there’s lots of problems that could be solved, but people either just don’t care (I get that not everyone’s like me), or really believe three things:
- It’s too big of a problem
- It requires too much technical knowledge
- They (whomever they are) won’t let me do it.
I assume all three as a default, but try to do it anyway, and I generally learn that none of those things were, in fact true.
So I think a community of sorts is possible. You have to understand, I function in a largely “user” environment with really locked-down tech. I geeked out one day when Python got installed on my machine as a part of a software package. 
In any case, I don’t think that I necessarily want to build a software dev team or anything like that in an environment that isn’t really suited to that sort of activity, but a community isn’t a bad idea. We’re engineers, but most of us still remember drawing plans by hand… not really, but the mentality is generally like that…
I have other ideas. For example, no one typically thinks of shooting videos for various purposes (a few have from time to time), but setting up a video studio to shoot decent quality video isn’t hard or expensive, and video editing is pretty easy to get the hang of. Seems like something that could be pretty valuable if we could get people to think a little more broadly about how they communicate, for example.
I suppose I’m more interested in facilitating than I am in providing specific services, but whatever it takes to get the job done, I suppose.
Anyway, I’m already talking with other state DOTs on the 3D modeling stuff. I have to invent job descriptions and a whole new work group, after all. So far as my higher purpose, I don’t know that I’ve ever seen anyone trying to do what I’m thinking of. Maybe I’ve just spent too much time in the open source community.
Anyway, thanks for the suggestions. I’ll pursue them. Don’t know that I belong on a software dev podcast, but I’ll definitely look him up.