If a picture is worth 1000 words, then a YouTube video is worth conference fees and several hours of your life -- particularly when it's bringing you a fascinating panel from NCOC about Facebook's role in and impact on civic engagement.
That's right ... today's post is the as-promised third installment of our NCOC coverage, from our introduction [1], to Kristen's event notes [2], to the final video of Bill Galston, Sean Parker, and Joe Trippi (see below). So far, the comments and reactions here have been really thoughtful, even extending into posts/threads over at Beth's Blog [3] and PhilanTopic [4].
So give this choice piece of cinema a look-see, and then check out the rest of Kristen's coverage after the fold!
Thanks, Julia. Kristen here.
As I mentioned in my previous post [2], Millennial engagement and online tools for engaging were hot topics across this year's event. The conversations sparked as a result of the panel were thought-provoking to be certain, but at the event, as in real-life, Social Citizen engagement extended far beyond the Facebook debate.
The 2008 Civic Health Index [5] was released, profiling key findings that "Millennials are showing strong civic participation and reversing some of the declines observed amoung youth since the 1970s" and cites the emergence of the Internet as one possible reason, due to more opportunities for online interaction with causes. However, the study also found that Millennials are "less likely to vote and participate in face-to-face civil society," which may just support the theory that Millennials are involved in different ways, not necessarily fewer ways than the generations to which most of our parent's belong.
Another interesting and excitingly digitally-connected gem from this year's NCOC was the announcement of $2.3 million in grants [6]to be given by the Corporation for National and Community Service to universities, colleges, and nonprofits who are testing the efficacy of social networks and new media as tools for engagement in service. The grants, to be administered by Learn and Serve America [7], aim to blend the civic attitudes of young people and the explosion of social networking sites and create a model to be used by other national service and volunteer programs in the areas of recruitment and retention.
In addition, CNCS announced it will engage five universities [8] to "expand scholarly and policy research and deepend understanding about volunteering, national and community service, and civic engagement in America". Both initiatives are part of the Corporation's committment to engage five million college students annually in service by the year 2010.
Events like the National Conference on Citizenship are really leading the way in helping test the waters of digital tools and activism, and helping give credibility to a new generation of leaders to pave the way for new definitions of leadership and change (I should note, one of the other key findings of the Civic Health Index was a general ambivalance to the generic, jargon-loaded language in the sector...)
So what do these new definitions look like? You tell me... they're for you to write.
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