Courtesy of Working Word

My son, who is a rather sensitive soul, was physically bullied and verbally abused at his previous school. The perpetrators were not expelled.  They were kept in for one break and reprimanded. This was not their first offense. My son, as a result, stayed in at break times and spent his time in the library. Thankfully his love of reading, drama and music were able to grow here – he plays the piano and violin and sings in the choir.

The reality is, we can still mostly deal with this type of bullying because it is visible.  This type of bullying has been around for decades. Fifty years ago a child was told to fight back. Today children are told to have the verbal prowess to diplomatically talk their way out of situations. To stand up for themselves.  To be heard. This is good advice, but today, bullying often takes a new, less obvious and digital form. Today’s bullies not only pose physical and verbal threats to their victims, but cyber attacks are becoming more prevalent. Mobile devices have given kids easy access to take embarrassing photos or videos and post them to the internet instantaneously, to wreak havoc on social networks by verbally humiliating their victims, send cruel spam messages to their target victims via email and sms. Like physical bullying, this can send these kids into a spiral of depression and social segregation.

Courtesy of Moggs Oceanlane

In extreme cases, this action can lead to suicide. The suicide in September this year of Jamey Rodemeyer, is the latest tragic example of what cyber bullying can lead to. His friends described Jamey as caring and friendly and his death has sparked various anti-bullying campaigns with police opening a criminal investigation into the suicide death.  Celebrities such as Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga have also become involved in the campaigns to stop bullying and cyber-bullying, with Lady Gaga coming to the forefront on the situation via twitter: “Bullying must become illegal. It is a hate crime,” she tweeted.  See her tribute to Jamey here.  Jamey is only one of many who have taken his life due to unnecessary cyber bullying.

Parents need to teach their kids not to bully and if they are bullied how to cope. Governments, schools, parents, teachers and students need to focus on educating themselves and others about bullying – including cyber bullying. To be aware of the attitudes of themselves and their children towards people that are different to themselves and to be more accepting. To take a stand against those that do the bullying. To start anti-bullying campaigns and to follow through.

In Qatar research has shown that approximately half of teens are experiencing some form of cyber bullying.  To create awareness of the situation ictQATAR aired an anti-bullying video in the fall of this year. This video shares some ways on how to curb the number of school children being harassed via mobile phones, online social networks, blogs and email.

Let’s all stand together and try and make a difference.

I can hear most parents smirking the inevitable “We told you so” statement.

Why did this new setup not work?  Two reasons. Firstly, children do not know how to manage their time and do not know their limits even if they do come across as responsible. If it is fun (which quite honestly we all love the games you can play online) it will overrun their lives and it did. Schoolwork was forgotten, piano practice pushed aside and even the call to dinner unheard. Secondly, which is the route of this post, came the security risk.  I am a fairly relaxed parent, but observant. I believe that children should learn through experience and make their own choices to solve challenges.  However, it is challenging, as they get older, to know what is happening in their personal lives, let alone in their online world.

Back to reason two for removing the laptops, my son was zealously playing a real-time game online while chatting to his friend via Skype on tactics within the game, and with the game in full swing the players were messaging each other.  This is what caught my attention. Being an open family my son did not mind me standing behind him watching the game. The language that was being used within the game by other random participants from who knows where was obscene and I immediately put a stop to the boys continuing with it.  With this in mind, I knew that I had to be more vigilant with watching what my kids were doing and who they were talking to online. This was a miniscule incident compared to what might have happened, and made me realize the personal security risk that I was allowing my child to be exposed to.

As our existence is transferred into the digital world, we become more vulnerable to the emerging cyber threats. The Internet is a fascinating world – it entices people to join in and overshadows reality for children and adults alike.  Then once it has its claws in you, it drags you further into its world of fantasy and online (un) reality. As we interact more closely within the cyber realm, dispensing our personal details, daily lives, and sharing information we would in the past have only shared with our closest friends or directly with banks or institutions that required it, users become higher-risk targets for malicious cybercriminals. As with all human interaction there are always fraudsters, scams and stalkers to be conscious of – even the most aware users can be scammed.  Most adults are conscious of the information they share, but are you aware of where it goes? Is the website secure? Is the information kept private or sold? Are your kids aware of the risks?

Cybercrime typically involves stolen credit card numbers, money laundering, attacks on computer networks, botnets and other activities which impact international, national and personal networks and accounts. 2011 has seen increased cybercrime in a wider scope of areas, from social networking and mobile apps, the shortening of URLS for messaging, the new mobile devices which are more vulnerable to malware, Trojans and password scams, “friendly fire” (messages from friends containing viruses), botnets, and cyberespionage. Read more about these here.

So what do these cybercriminals look for? Mainly for information on social networks and micro-blogging sites such as MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, etc. to access and steal personal information to scam money from you via authentic looking emails. Financial banking and credit card phishing attacks with accurate details look realistic and legitimate and are aimed at persuading people to divulge their personal information such as bank account details, identity or social security numbers, etc.

Facebook recently revealed, on its official blog, that there has been an increase in scams where cybercriminals log onto user accounts, pose as that person and ask their “friends” for money.  Where kids are concerned, this can be used to update their online status to embarrass them and can ultimately lead to cyber bullying and stalking.

With this in mind there are some basic steps that users can take to safeguard their interests and personal information.

• Don’t open emails or attachments that look suspicious, delete them.
• Be aware of the latest scams and be cautious in dealing with them.
• Ensure that your system has the latest anti-virus software.
• Unsubscribe from legitimate mailing lists you no longer want to receive.
• Do not rely on links within emails or websites, rather type web addresses directly into your browser.
• Don’t let emails sit in your physical mailbox for too long.
• Clear Internet browsing data, including cookies and temporary files, after making an online purchase.
• Keep your online banking details, passwords and pins private and secure.
• Only shop online at trusted sites.
• Add content filtering software to all your pc’s to ensure that your kids are not exposed to unsavory content.
• Be aware of giving out information too freely. Use the privacy options that social networking sites offer and be careful of who you chat with and make virtual friends with.
• Ensure your kids are aware of the dangers and privacy requirements. Be their “friend” on social networking sites, but don’t embarrass them if they do something untoward, rather talk with them offline to ensure they learn the “correct” techniques and usages.

With new technology, social networking, websites, apps and device development emerging all the time, cybercrime is increasing and constantly changing its form.  Users need to be aware of what crimes are being committed and how to prevent them.  Don’t let this impede your use of the Internet, rather let it be a guide to better  your online housekeeping and overall cyber experience.

Mikko Hypponen: Fighting viruses, defending the net

This is a new way of expressing the story of your life, which is the engaging conversation you would have after those initial 20 minutes, as Mark Zuckerberg put it at the F8 Developers Conference, this is the rest of the evening’s conversation.

Timeline is a stream of information about you, it includes your stories, apps, photos you’ve posted, status updates, places you have visited on a world map, it is more visual and is a new way to express the story of you from birth to now. You have a home for all your stories and they don’t disappear as you add new information.

The exciting part of this development is that years from now the next generation can view what their grandparents and parents were up to, when they were born, where they were born and their life story. Imagine viewing baby photos of your parents and figuring who your children look like in the family or setting out to follow in the footsteps of a relative who traipsed through the Amazon.  The stories, not only of your own life, but also those of your family and friends will be written into their own pockets of history. As Zuckerberg aptly put it, “Timeline is the story of your life.”

At the third F8 Conference for Developers he expressed his excitement about the new offering that they have been working on all year, “It’s the heart of your Facebook experience, completely rethought from the ground up.” “Timeline is for you to express who you are, you have complete control over it, what you show there, how you display it and who can see it.”

Fortunately for me enabling Timeline a little bit earlier than launch was not too difficult, if you are a developer, techno savvy or just nosey like me, you can enable the new Timeline, otherwise wait with baited breadth for the much anticipated user launch which has been publicized for anytime after 4 October due to the delay from the timeline.com lawsuit.

The result on enabling Timeline on my own personal profile was visually striking, it is more comprehensive and graphic, it allows you to fill in the missing pieces of your life where they have been left out, choose what is featured on your timeline, star your favorites to double their size or hide things altogether.

As you scroll down through your life, you’ll see all your posts, photos and life events through the years until birth, if there are blanks you can go back to these dates and fill them in.

The first objective when using Timeline is to add in a Cover photo, this is easy to achieve and creates a Facebook page that is visually exciting. As you scroll down the timeline, the effect is phenomenal and it makes for an eye catching viewing experience.

Timeline allows you quick and easy access to change and view all your information, update your Personal Details, view your Activity Log, Friends, Photos, Subscribers, etc and any Apps you have assigned to your account.

Your private Activity Log is where you will find everything you have shared since you joined Facebook. You can share this with your friends by clicking on any post to feature it. You can also add Apps to your timeline which allows you to show the things you like to do or listen to such as music, videos, travel experiences, recipes you try, etc. They help you to discover what your friends are up to and give your friends a good idea of what your interests are. If you are keen to see a new video, hear a new song, read a new news article and keep up to date, this is the place to broaden your horizons.

To fill in blanks is as easy as rolling the mouse over the timeline in the middle of the screen and clicking to create a new gray dot, this will then prompt the user to include a new event with a photo, video, place, status, etc, information.  The only downfall is that it takes time to update your status through the years especially if you were born before Facebook launched in 2004, which is most of us.

The fundamental idea is that every individual, location, item and action can be connected to your timeline.   It is therefore important that users acquaint themselves with the site’s Privacy Settings before posting something that they do not want out in the public domain. If you love the social networking domain, you will be captivated by the new Timeline.

For some great Timeline video and images go here

Timeline and other changes can all be viewed at F8 Keynote Video.

Is it getting too complicated? Well, the 800 million users on Facebook may be even more tempted to stay online, the likelihood is that we will get used to these changes, eventually accept them and come to love being able to view everyone’s “new” Timelines.  Love it or hate it, let us know what your thoughts are?

Could this make Facebook an even more powerful player in the media than what it already is?

Facebook has been my favourite savvy networking site since 2004, its mission to make the world more open and connected.  Its goal over the past few years was to become the biggest social network in the world.  With 800 million subscribers that goal seems to have been achieved, and now Facebook wants to become the social layer that supports, powers and connects every single piece of the web, no matter who or what it is or where it lives.

And this is just what they are slowly rolling out to all their subscribers, love it or hate it. A few months from now you won’t remember what the old Facebook looked like.

So what are some of the new features that Facebook is offering us? Over the next three days I’ll take a look at Lists, Subscribe, and the much talked about Timeline.

Let’s start with Friend Lists. Friend lists allow you to make the decision to see and subscribe to the information of friends you are most interested in.

Find Lists on the Left Hand Side of your screen

Friend Lists enables you to decide which updates you actually want to see and what information you want to post to which people.   There are three new innovative improvements to how you choose your friends; Smart Lists, Close Friends and Acquaintances Lists, and you can make your own Lists. Smart Lists automatically creates lists for you using your profile to select city, work, family and school lists, however other lists must be made manually (think Google +).

You can also add or remove friends manually to make the lists even more accurate.

Your friends can see the other people’s names on the list you’ve shared, giving them more context and allowing them to either be more open or restricted in their comments.

The Restricted list allows you to limit friends to only see your public posts. You will still be friends on Facebook so you can still connect if you want, and if you don’t, there is less need to awkwardly defriend them.

The Better Suggestions option, is where Facebook suggest friends for your smart lists, Close Friends, Acquaintances, and your own lists, making it easier to add the right friends to the right lists.

Select Lists on the Left hand side, to edit

To select the type of information you would like to view from your Friends, go to the “Choose Update Types” on the Manage Lists drop down box, top right corner and select the updates you would like to be shown e.g. Status updates, photos, games, etc.

Wouldn’t it be great to share with exactly who you want to? Well you can now. To use this great feature look for the Lists section on the left side of your homepage and click the list you want to see. It has its own News Feed, so you can see the photos, status updates and other posts of the people on the list you have selected.

When you want to share something with a smaller group of friends, you can select the dropdown audience selector in the sharing tool and simply pick one of your lists to share with.

Create your own Lists

Manage Lists on the Top Right Hand of screen. This is not a Smart List the Delete Option is available

Manage List, this is a Smart List. Delete option is not available

Finally choose who sees what on your profile by using the audience selector next to each detail on your profile.

Scroll over the Pen tool on the left of the Feed you would like to Edit

You can Edit all settings here

My only criticism about the Friend Lists is that you cannot delete certain Smart Lists. The school you attended would be a Smart List, however I now have 3 schools and even when I delete the school in my Personal Information the lists do not disappear and there is no delete option.  The merge function would not allow me to combine the 3 lists together either, so I am now stuck with these lists.  The use should be allowed to delete lists.  The saving grace here is that you can Hide a list.

Read more on Friend Lists here. Tomorrow I’ll look into the new “subscribe” features.

ictQATAR’s ICT Skills Development Manager Reem Al-Mansoori encourages youth in Qatar to take part in the upcoming World Summit Youth Awards in this guest post.

Social media, blogs, vlogs, mobile applications and websites. We’re using them all day, every day in Qatar. Are you interested in using these digital platforms to make a difference in the world?

If yes, here’s your chance to show how digital content can be used to tackle major world issues such as fighting discrimination, eradicating hunger or protecting the environment.

The World Summit Youth Award (WSYA) is an annual award that brings together young creators of e-content that use the Internet, mobile phones or other digital media advance the United Nations Millennium Development Goals.

If you are currently doing innovative work through digital media to advance the UN Goals and you are under 30, you should consider entering the awards at www.youthaward.org. There are six categories for this year’s awards:

• Fight Poverty, Hunger and Disease
• Education for All
• Power 2 Women
• Create your Culture
• Go Green
• Pursue the Truth

The deadline for registration is July 15^th 2011, so you’ll have to act quickly to submit your new media project.

An international jury comprised of young ICT experts will evaluate the projects and will pick three winners and two runners -up for each category.

If you’re one of the lucky winners of a WSYA, you’ll be invited to the WSYA 2011 Winners’ Event in Skopje, Macedonia. You’ll also get the chance to present your project on a world stage, attend workshops, meet new friends and network with the best of ICT world.

Winners of the 2010 WSYA in New York

This is a great opportunity for young e-content creators in Qatar to showcase their work and gain access the WSYA network. The Youth Award network will you offer the chance to develop your projects, refine your business plan and even find sponsors on an international scale.

For more information about World Summit Awards or to see some examples from last years’ winning projects, visit www.youthaward.org. You can also follow ictQATAR’s TumuhaTEC initiative on Twitter for frequent updates @TumuhaTEC.

Storify is cool new site that allows users to easily drag and drop elements from social media into one story. Think of it as online scrapbooking. You can take a photo from Flickr, pair it with some Tweets, include some Facebook commentary and then wrap it all about with a video from YouTube. This “story” can then be shared on Twitter or Facebook, or embedded in your website or blog. Take a look at the following video to see how it works.

Storify Overview from Storify on Vimeo.

Simple, right? Storify can of course be used for far more than re-telling a story of a past event. It also has great potential as a marketing tool for a business, showcasing what people are saying about them or their products, or promoting an upcoming event.

You currently need an invite to try out Storify because it is in its beta development phase and I was lucky enough to get one recently (can you say VIP?!). I have enjoyed playing on the site and your really can create some nice stories. I think it’s a great tool for citizen journalists and bloggers that want to tell a story in a new way. Take advantage of that flood of great content coming through social media!

Below is a story I created through Storify promoting the upcoming Terry Fox Run in Doha. In a tight, compact way you can find out information about the run (when, where and how to register), who Terry Fox is and see photos from previous events – and I didn’t have to create a website. I definitely like the site and would encourage you to sign-up for an invite. I can’t wait to see this site grow as they incorporate more features during the beta phase – its no wonder they recently raised $2 million!

An excellent post in Mashable offers 7 easy ways to help Japan, most of which can be done from here in Qatar, with the exception of the first one, which asks people to text to donate money to the American Red Cross. Qtel or Vodafone (or both) would have to partner with a charity providing relief to make this doable here. The other ways to help include donating through Facebook, buying virtual goods in one of Zynga’s many wildly popular games, donating through iTunes, installing a free “Hello Bar” on your website or blog with simple code, and “liking” a certain page with the organization donating $1 for each like.

Google is also working to support recovery efforts, creating a webpage that allows people to donate directly to relief efforts (via the Japanese Red Cross Society), find the latest recovery information, and also access a database and message board to try to help locate loved ones.

I encourage everyone to check out the Mashable post and Google page to see if there is any way you can help the people of Japan. And also, if anyone knows a charity in Qatar that is accepting online donations that will go to recovery efforts in Japan, let me know and I will have our web team put a Hello Bar on Digital Qatar to help raise awareness.

It is times like these that the power of the Internet to mobilize support becomes most evident – our thoughts are very much with you Japan.

ictQATAR’s Social Media Specialist, Mina Nagy Takla, shares this insightful post on the important issue of cyber bullying and what can be done to help prevent it. (Also written in Arabic.)

One word. That’s all it takes for someone to get really hurt. So what about full videos or pictures or offensive words that many of today’s kids face online? It’s not just about the pain that causes – but the silence that surrounds it. Simply nobody’s talking about it – be it parents, teachers or even the bullied students themselves!

If you are a school principal or a teacher, don’t just focus on the physical fights between your students during recess. What you don’t see is far more dangerous and hurtful. You may walk around peaceful corridors in your own school but behind computer lab doors, cyber bullying can be cleverly hiding; a student faking an obscene photo of his colleague or another insulting someone on Twitter or a video of a student being beat up posted on YouTube so that the whole world can see it! Cyber bullying is here already and it’s not going away unless we do something about it!

Cyber Bullying is thought be a Western phenomenon, something that could happen in Europe or the US but not in the Arab World. Well, that’s not true – the Internet is the Internet, in any part of the world. Actually, the US has recently realized the dangers that cyber bullying causes and have taken legal measures to stop that. Sadly, laws remain just laws and they end up in drawers or on paper. 30% of American students are still being bullied online & the figures aren’t declining!

So what’s the problem? If laws aren’t stopping it, what can? That’s what the 7th Annual Conference Of The International Bullying Prevention Association discussed last November in Washington DC. The Conference called for what’s more than just law enforcement – but rather school strategies to fight cyber bullying. And it’s actually not about the stopping – it’s more about motivating the students not to bully one another online and these are too different things. So rather than enforcing school rules that set punishments for the bullies, focusing on student’s personalities and teaching them qualities of self respect and respect for one another is far more valuable.

No longer can schools sit in the spectator seat – it’s time to stop waiting for cyber bullying prevention laws and stop blaming them for being absent from Qatar. Isn’t time for Qatar’s schools to stop viewing bullying from its mere physical side to a more conceptual understanding of how invisible bullying is far more critical? So, for every school teacher or principal out there in Qatar, go beyond computer labs. Open the doors and you’ll find many scared students who are hurt but won’t talk because no one listens. Here are some of the Conference’s conclusions – a series of best practices on how schools can have their own bullying prevention strategies: (http://www.stopbullyingworld.org/Best-Practices-In-Bullying-Prevention_W418.cfm)

1. Focus on the social environment of the school. everyone in the school environment-teachers, administrators, counselors, school nurses, other non-teaching staff (such as bus drivers, custodians, cafeteria workers, and/or school librarians), parents, and students should be aware of what cyber bullying is.

2. Assess bullying at your school. Have an anonymous questionnaire to students about bullying. A number of bullying prevention programs listed in the Resource Kit include these measures.

3. Obtain staff and parent buy-in and support for bullying prevention. Bullying prevention efforts require buy-in from the majority of the staff and from parents. However, bullying prevention efforts should still begin even if immediate buy-in from all isn’t achievable. Usually, more and more supporters will join the effort once they see what it’s accomplishing.

4. Form a group to coordinate the school’s bullying prevention activities. Bullying prevention efforts seem to work best if they are coordinated by a representative group from the school. This coordinating team might include:

• an administrator
• a teacher from each grade
• a member of the non-teaching staff
• a school counselor or other school-based mental health professional, and
  a parent

The team should meet regularly to review findings from the school’s survey; plan specific bullying prevention activities; motivate staff, students, and parents; and ensure that the efforts continue over time.

5. Provide training for school staff in bullying prevention. All administrators, faculty and staff at a school should be trained in bullying prevention and intervention.BIn-service training can help staff members to better understand the nature of bullying and its effects, how to respond if they observe bullying, and how to work with others at the school to help prevent bullying.

6. Establish and enforce school rules and policies related to bullying. Developing simple, clear rules about bullying can help to ensure that students are aware of adults’ expectations that they not bully others and that they help students who are bullied.

7. Increase adult supervision in “hot spots” for bullying. Bullying tends to thrive in locations where adults are not present or are not watchful. Adults should look for creative ways to increase adult presence in locations that students identify as “hot spots.”

8. Intervene consistently and appropriately when you see bullying. Staff members also should be designated to hold sensitive follow-up meetings with students who are bullied and (separately) with students who bully. Staff members should involve parents whenever possible.

9. Devote some class time to bullying prevention. Students can benefit if teachers set aside a regular period of time (e.g., 20–30 minutes each week or every other week) to discuss bullying and improving peer relations. These meetings can help teachers to keep their fingers on the pulse of students’ concerns, allow time for discussions about bullying and the harms that it can cause, and provide tools for students to address bullying problems. Anti-bullying messages also can be incorporated throughout the school curriculum.

ictQATAR’s Section Manager on Numbering, Interconnection and Internet Domains, Mohamed Al-Bashir, shares his insight on how government can and are taking advantage of new media to serve their constituents. Visit Mohamed’s blog!

Public service organizations around the world are jumping on the new media and web 2.0 bandwagon— engaging citizens through social networks, blogging, developing ever more sophisticated government interactive websites, investing in “Enterprise 2.0” platforms and even encouraging the public to create mashups and apps using government data.  The challenge for public servants is to look past the hype to understand the real benefits of new media and develop action plans to maximize these benefits.

Here are some great examples of how government organizations are effectively taking advantage of new media:

Improved Efficiency

Through internal blogs, wikis, collaborative planning applications, social networking platforms and mashups, organizations can increase productivity by sharing best practices across the enterprise and dramatically reduce the cost of collaboration. Canada’s GCPedia, for example, uses enterprise wikis to connect employees and enable them to share learning. Moreover, by replacing traditional desktop strategies with software-as-a-service models and cloud-based desktop strategies, public service organizations can also reduce the cost of IT and the risks associated with implementing enterprise applications.

Intellipedia is another great example. It is essentially the intelligence community’s version of Wikipedia, allowing analysts and officials across the United States federal government to share information over the Web and plan operations. About 35,000 federal employees contribute to Intellipedia, and there are some 4,800 edits made every day. It’s a good example of how to use collaboration technologies to let experts pool their knowledge, form virtual teams and make quick assessments.

More Accessible Public Services

Web 2.0 enables organizations to provide citizens with information about accessing public services as never before; not only through government sites but also through user-generated mashups and apps, social media and personalized feeds like those provided by the District of Columbia’s Digital Public Square. Web 2.0 could also enable citizens to report problems to and request service from government more easily through social networking sites, widgets on non-government sites and mobile apps. Fixmystreet.co.uk is a h nongovernmental web 2.0 site that enable citizens to report problems to government more easily.

DC's Digital Public Square Website

Greater Citizen Participation

Through popular social networking sites and by developing their own web 2.0 e-participation tools, public service organizations can engage citizens in a more productive discourse about what they expect from public services, how public services could be improved and what they as individuals can do to improve their own or their communities’ quality of life. For example, local authorities across the UK are using online budget simulators to engage and educate the public and develop a better understanding of citizens’ public spending priorities.  Barnet Council offers a citizen portal with an application designed to help citizens understand the tradeoffs necessary to budget for and administer public services.

Improved Transparency and Accountability

Public service organizations can increase transparency and become more accountable to their constituents by developing platforms, such as the NHS Choices website, that enables citizens to rate and comment on the quality of services. Also, opening up government data banks to the public and developing web-based tools, like recovery.gov and the IT Dashboard in the US, to report on spending and results, are good examples of governments being more transparent and accountable.

When it comes to government, I don’t really expect radical change too fast. Governments are large, complex beasts subject to a number of constraints. In fact, the institutions of democratic governments were deliberately designed to induce stability and prevent radical change. But the good news is that new media is making change easier and in many ways less expensive. Hopefully governments around the world will continue to embrace new media in innovative ways to better serve their constituents!

Note from Brian: Engage with ictQATAR on our Facebook page and via Twitter @ictQATAR!

Jumo (which means “come together” in Yoruba) is currently in beta, so you need a Facebook account to join, but if you don’t have Facebook account, I doubt you would use Jumo. After joining using your Facebook details, you are taken to a page that asks you what issues you are interested in: Arts & Culture, Education, Environment & Animals, Health, Human Rights, Peace & Governance, and Poverty. You choose your interests and specify your level of interest, then a number of non-profit organizations are suggested for you to follow. I chose five organizations and then was directed to my very own Jumo page.

My Jumo Page - Don't I look caring in the photo?

Jumo looks a lot like Facebook (surprise!), but it makes in-depth news the primary focus, as opposed to status updates. The “top news” is features from the organizations you are following – content generated on their websites, through blogs, etc., and posted to Jumo. The secondary focus is on what your organizations and people in your network are saying – essentially status updates.

What I like about Jumo is that it does make it very easy for you to follow specific causes and see what the organizations you like are doing. It does an excellent job of aggregating the information you need to stay informed on the latest issues and also discover like minded people. Also, for U.S. non-profits, it makes it easy for you to donate quickly – capitalizing on that all important “I see it now and need to be able to act now” part of fundraising.

I was a bit disappointed with Jumo in terms of its integration with Facebook and Twitter though. On the homepage, you can like content, but there is no option to push the content to Facebook or Twitter instantly. Once you are on an organization’s page, you can share a bit more easily through the “Talk” feature, but only through Facebook. It seems to me that if Jumo wants to really generate action, it needs to improve this so people can transmit info to their broader networks.

The Nature Conservancy Page on Juma - One of the orgs I follow!

Another feature I would like to see added to Jumo is more of a local engagement and activity feature. Being able to share information and give money is great, but what if I want to do something beyond this? This engagement piece doesn’t really exist, and it’s hard for me to image the world changing without finding a way to mobilize action.

Overall, Jumo seems like a good idea and certainly has a lot of potential. The key will be getting individuals to join and visit the site daily – like people do with Facebook. If it is just organizations posting information and no new people consuming it, Jumo will be just another neat aggregator. It is something I wish existed though when I was working in non-profit marketing. The onus is on the smart non-profit leaders out there to make this grow – and as I said, better integration with the other major social networks seems vital.  If you are passionate about a social cause, definitely check out Jumo!