The Student Peace Alliance and the Peace Alliance are proud to annouce the creation of a new social networking tool: DoPeace. The DoPeace site is a community of, by and for volunteers with The Peace Alliance, the Student Peace Alliance and the Campaign for a U.S. Department of Peace. We come together to celebrate, support and foster effective and FUN citizen-based peace activism. We encourage you to visit the site, join the discussion and create your own DoPeace profile.

Grassroots activism and citizen-driven social action have been made more effective with the advent of social networking sites. The ability to instantly connect with like-minded individuals across the planet for the purpose of supporting a single cause is priceless.

Why DoPeace? Why now?

As a grassroots campaign it is important for all participating members to be able to stay in touch, to share ideas and information freely and quickly. Until now, information was delivered to the campaign via the website or through email updates. Updates about national actions or stories from the field have come from the national or state level to the grassroots. Although important information is shared in this manner, the full scope of what's happening in the Student Peace Alliance is not captured. When information is delivered one way it is easy to forget that we are a part of a large community of people working for peace.

DoPeace gives us the ability to share information dynamically, from one grassroots participant to the next, without having to pass through the hands of the national or state leadership. DoPeace has the potential to connect everyone in the campaign, to share in our successes and challenges as we work to create a more peaceful society. A SPA chapter in Maryland, for instance, can now connect with a SPA chapter in Oregon to brainstorm fundraising ideas, or share tips on meeting with congressional representatives.

I already have a Facebook (or MySpace, or Twitter, or Whatever) account, how is this any different?

The functionallity of DoPeace, which is driven by Ning, is very similar to other social networking tools. If you've used one of these other social networking sites, DoPeace will be very familiar to you. The difference between DoPeace and these other social networks is that it connects people with a single interest. In other words, it's like Facebook, except only SPA and TPA members are using it. On Facebook it is easy to get overwhelmed with the number of groups to join, causes to support and applications to use. You are connected to all of your friends from different circles of life all in one place. With so much to do, groups and causes often become ineffective after the novelty wears off.

DoPeace is very purposeful; everything is related to the work of the Student Peace Alliance and Peace Alliance. All of the groups are connected, and you don't have to join them to find out what's going on. If you live in Texas, for example, you can easily see the activity of SPA chapters in California without joining a California group. On Facebook chapter and state groups are disconnected (there are actually over 140 separate SPA groups on Facebook).

What can I do on DoPeace?

There are many things that you can do on DoPeace, including:

• Sign up for your own personal profile and custom 'MyPeace' page.
• Connect with friends and invite more friends to join DoPeace.
• Join a local group for your state or chapter, or create your own group if one doesn't exist (be sure to follow the group guidelines)
• Upload and share photos and videos.
• Post events that are happening in your area on the calendar.
• Blog about topics that are important to you or comment on other interesting blogs.
• Start a discussion thread.
• Chat with all members on the DoPeace site, or enter into a private chat with one member.