Spotted Via : The Star & KristianWard.com
Chris Hughes, the 26 year old co-founder of Facebook, is launching a new social media site in which people can become more engaged with the pressing issues of today’s world. He declares that the online world has done little for people who want to become more involved in the world’s important issues, and he strives to fill this gap with his new social media site, Juma. Full story here.
It means “together in concert” in Yoruba, a West African language.
And it’s the name of a new Web site created by Chris Hughes, the 26-year-old co-founder of Facebook and organizer of U.S. President Barack Obama’s social media election campaign.
Hughes is launching a social media network designed to help people become “critically engaged in the world around them.”
Facebook changed the way people interact with each other; Jumo will do the same in its own way, he said. “Facebook is a place where you come to connect with the people who are most important to you. Jumo will be a place where you can connect with development issues that are important to you. Each person will have an experience that is totally customized for them.”
In a phone interview with the Star, Hughes explained his vision. “People want to be meaningfully engaged with the world but don’t know how,” he said. The online world has not yet caught up with this attitude and so Jumo will fill the gap – connecting individuals to organizations as well as issues that are personally relevant to people.
“For everyday people it’s hard to find groups that are doing good and important work that is directly relevant to who a person is,” said Hughes. “Most people know about the Red Cross but if you’re an architect you should know about Architects for Humanity or if you’re a lawyer you should know about Medeem and its work to secure for people the legal rights to their own property.”
That’s the first thing Jumo will do, he said. It will make it easy as possible for people to know about the work a group does. “I believe you have to organize the existing information in the world much better.”
Currently, to find out about a topic you have to seek out the information. The idea behind Jumo is to flip that idea on its head, Hughes said. “Once we know who you are we want to send information to you that will be inspiring and then offer opportunities for action … We can help create a world where people aren’t just giving but are engaged in the world and the causes around them in a more meaningful way.”
The official launch should be this fall, but the Web site has had a soft launch and is open and running for the curious. It is an organic ever-moving creation, Hughes explains. And will much like Facebook change as its users needs change and evolve.
A not-for-profit organization, he is hoping to run the project on a $2.5 million (U.S.) budget which he said will be raised by individual donations and support from foundations.
After working on Facebook and the social media campaign during the U.S. presidential election Hughes was looking for something else to do. “I have been fortunate enough to be part of two organizations that saw the importance of networking organizations and saw the way people engage with social issues,” he said.
Hughes spent some time travelling around the world, including West Africa, and realized there weren’t any easy answer or solutions to long-standing issues of the developing world. But it sparked his interest enough to come up with a way he could apply his talents to helping out in the global arena – something he had been eager to turn his attention towards.
He’s not the first to use social media applications for social causes or global action. Facebook has a Causes application; and there are other Web sites that hook up people and organizations, including Ushahidi.
But Hughes believes his site will be very different, tailoring information to an individual’s interests and needs. And instead of searching for information, it will come to you.
Hughes hopes Jumo, once fully up and running, will connect people and places to build a better world. Hard to know just how successful the Web site will actually be, but Hughes has big plans for it. He said it should be operational by September or October. The team is opening offices in New York City’s Soho this month.
“We’re hiring some Web developers and a designer and outreach director. We want to keep the group small and agile and focused. The functionality of the Web site won’t come for another six months.”
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