No doubt many of you read Malcolm Gladwell’s New Yorker essay about social revolution and social networks, in which he argued that Twitter and Facebook were useful for causes where you didn’t ask too much of people — for example, requiring them to share some information, rather than put themselves at physical risk or make a financial sacrifice.

Jumo: change the world

I’m thinking about this essay again because the beta version of Jumo has launched. Jumo is a social network that, according to its own blurb connects “individuals and organisations who want to change the world”.

It’s a noble aim indeed, and might see it laughed out of the room if it weren’t for Jumo’s credentials — the site has been founded by Chris Hughes, who was a co-founder of Facebook and also managed Barack Obama’s online campaigning during the 2008 Presidential election.

What is Jumo? You sign in using your Facebook profile and then you ‘follow’ charities, which in the first instance are suggested to you based on what areas you’ve indicated an interest in — poverty, the environment, education and so on. You can also follow other people, see who else follows the same causes you do and comment on their actions.

It’s heavily integrated with Facebook — at the moment you need a Facebook profile to sign in, it uses Facebook’s ‘thumbs up’ Like feature, and it’s incredibly easy to share info on a cause with your Facebook followers.

The aim of Jumo is to make it easier for people who want to help but don’t know how to find issues they care about, and then keep up with what’s going on with them. It also gives organisations a way to communicate if they need volunteers, funds and so on, with an audience that has said it is interested.

And could this be the biggest benefit for charities? Saving them thousands of pounds in building up databases of potential donors by giving people a method of registering their interest that takes one mouseclick instead of more traditional methods?

Gladwell’s New Yorker essay questioned the value of social networks in affecting real change. It’s easy to dismiss Jumo as just another way for the same crowd who already share hard when it comes to causes to spread themselves even more thinly. But if it achieves its aim of connecting people, who knows what things could happen?

In an ideal world, Jumo will help end poverty and stop global warming. But even if it only ends the scourge of chuggers on city streets, it will still have been worthwhile.