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The 55^th Annual National Conference on Citizenship is taking place today at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. Thanks to the leadership of new Executive Director David Smith, a major component of this year’s session is the use of technology and new media as an indication of civic health and a tool for effective community organizing.

The morning’s sessions have already proven interesting and useful for Social Citizens on a variety of levels, and a longer blog is to come, but I just couldn’t wait to pose the following questions to you from this morning’s panel. Sean Parker of Facebook and Bill Galston from the Brookings Institution, engaged in a panel discussion moderated by Joe Trippi entitled “Can Facebook replace face-to-face?” which took an in-depth look at social networks as communities and organizing tools. Read more »

Today’s guest blogger is Zach Maurin, an AmeriCorps alum who co-founded and co-directs ServeNext.org. Recently, ServeNext completed a 30-city, 60-day Greyhound bus tour across America to unite citizens to advocate for the expansion of national service programs. The tour was just featured by the Chronicle of Philanthropy: Road Trip With a Mission: Expanding National Service

Eighteen months ago I started an organization, ServeNext.org, with a couple of friends to help put national service expansion (AmeriCorps, City Year, Teach for America, etc.) atop our country’s to-do list. Our strategy, from afar, is simple: unite a critical mass of constituents who, through collective action, can advance national service legislation.

Starting ServeNext poses a lot of challenges that I expect and welcome: strategic planning, fundraising, and the like. But there is one challenge that I did not expect: keeping up with and strategizing around the social web. Read more »