Nouvelobs.com interviewed Chris Hughes, cofounder of Facebook and the manager of Obama’s digital campaign. His new project is Jumo.com, a Facebook dedicated to NGOs.
A Facebook dedicated to non-governmental organizations? That’s the goal of Jumo.com, a site launched on Tuesday, Nov. 30 and created by one of the cofounders of Facebook, Chris Hughes. “An online platform connecting individuals and organizations working to change the world” (SEE HERE); thus, the latest birth of social networking presents itself. We interviewed its young founder, who was responsible for Barack Obama’s digital campaign in 2008.
What is your objective with Jumo.com?
We want to build a social network where you can find, follow and support charitable organizations. The idea behind this is that, on the web, you have all sorts of tools to find your friends (like Facebook), to find books to buy (like Amazon), to find a restaurant to eat at, but there isn’t a unique place to find charitable associations.
As of right now, how many people do you have registered? What is your goal?
We started with about 65,000 people signed up for our newsletter. We don’t have a numerical goal in terms of how many registered people we want. We want people to have access to a true experience, an experience unique to them. We want people to build their relationships with NGOs.
Is Jumo open to all NGOs? Even to French NGOs?
Of course! Jumo is open to French organizations, Indian organizations, etc.
Are you preparing a French version of the site?
At the moment, we’re only available in English. Obviously, we hope to soon be available in French, in Spanish, in Chinese and in other languages. However, it’s impossible for me to say when that will happen.
Do you market yourselves as a competitor of Facebook?
Jumo.com is built around “Facebook Connect,” a technology that allows you to log in to the site directly and simply with your Facebook account. We are not a competitor, to tell the truth, since we’ve integrated its mode of identification.
Would you say that you are a competitor of the application on Facebook that’s dedicated to NGOs, “Causes?”
We are very different from Causes. The objective of Causes is, above all, to raise money for organizations. On Jumo, it’s possible to make donations, but that’s not the primary goal. The idea is rather to follow the latest news about current organizations and to build relationships with them.
Why did you leave Facebook in 2007?
I left Facebook to work for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. I took over the digital campaign in 2008 to introduce “social” technologies like Facebook into it. For two years, I worked on an online campaign that aimed to collect donations. It was an amazing experience. In the USA, there isn’t this militant concept of commitment like in France. Therefore, we’ve tried to give people the opportunity to throw themselves behind a candidate beyond the traditional going door-to-door and telephone calls.
Would you be willing to do it again, for example, during the 2012 campaign?
No. From here on out I’m totally committed to Jumo.com. And also, Obama has everything he needs when it comes to these issues.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.