If you haven't been hearing the word "Facebook" on a daily basis, then you likely haven't been paying attention! Over the space of six short months, this social networking site has rocketed its way to centre stage in the lives of millions of people – many of whom had never engaged in online communities before. With the launch of their developer platform in June 2007, they transformed themselves overnight from a website into a "platform", offering anyone the opportunity to create applications for Facebook users.

Some people developed silly things (like the Happy Hour app), some developed absurd things (like the Zombie app)... and some did their best to leverage this opportunity to use Facebook as a tool for social change. With the launch of the "Causes" application, we at Artez wondered whether we were watching the start of Facebook's foray into the world of online fundraising. A few months in, I have some thoughts about this.

The growing popularity of the social network web site Facebook is important in understanding how these type of sites can be effective in supporting peer based or social network fundraising. Facebook and other social network sites include new forms of online communication and interaction that allow individuals to define, organize, interact and monitor their social network.

Originally focused on a university audience, Facebook is now growing rapidly beyond this target market. It may still be used primarily by university students and recently graduated students, although the fact that over 500K people using Facebook have joined a group titled ‘Toronto, Ontario’ indicates that either Facebook is becoming significant and reaching a critical mass, or that Toronto has become a very popular city to identify with.