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The social web has overcome geography, culture, even language to connect billions of people. Yet the primary use of this gift is still diversion. This year you and I will be tested to see if, indeed, there is a greater purpose to this amazing gift. It is the #KONY2012 project.

The idea is simple: Help make Joseph Kony famous in 2012.  If you use the internet for work or pleasure, think of this as giving back. It is a great cause and a real milestone in the power of the internt to do good. In this case stop an army that Wikipedia reports has abducted over 60,000 children and displaced over 2 million people.

I was sent a video earlier this week that made me think about all the energy we spend online each week for business and diversion and how just a small fraction of that time from all of us could do so much more.

This project is a vivid example of how global interconnectivity is changing the rules of the game for all of us and fo rthe better. I encourage you to take 20 minutes to watch the video.

Here is some background from The Invisible Children website.

Who is Joseph Kony?

Joseph Kony is the world’s worst war criminal. In 1987 he took over leadership of an existing rebel group and renamed it the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). The LRA has earned a reputation for its cruel and brutal tactics. When Joseph Kony found himself running out of fighters, he started abducting children to be soldiers in his army or “wives” for his officers. The LRA is encouraged to rape, mutilate, and kill civilians–often with blunt weapons.

The LRA is no longer active in northern Uganda (where it originated) but it continues its campaign of violence  in Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, and South Sudan. In its 26-year history, the LRA has abducted more than 30,000 children and displaced at least 2.1 million people.

What is the goal of KONY 2012?

Invisible Children has been working for 9 years to end Africa’s longest-running armed conflict. U.S. military advisers are currently deployed in Central Africa on a “time-limited” mission to stop Kony and disarm the LRA. If Kony isn’t captured this year, the window will be gone.

We are taking action to ensure these two things:

1) That Joseph Kony is known as the World’s Worst War Criminal.

2) That the U.S. military advisers support the Ugandan Army until Kony has been captured and the LRA has been completely disarmed. They need to follow through all the way and finish what they have started.

Why are we making Joseph Kony “famous”?

Invisible Children’s KONY 2012 campaign aims to make Joseph Kony famous, not to celebrate him, but to raise support for his arrest and set a precedent for international justice. In this case, notoriety translates to public support. If people know about the crimes that Kony has been committing for 26 years, they will unite to stop him.

Secondly, we want Kony to be famous so that when he is stopped,  he will be a visible, concrete example of international justice. Then other war criminals will know that their mass atrocities will not go unnoticed or unpunished.

Alibaba Group is raising $3 billion — not to buy back the 40 percent stake Yahoo holds in the parent company, as previously rumored, but to buy back the 27 percent of Alibaba.com stock currently floating around the public market.

Alibaba CEO Jack Ma (pictured above) is attempting to take the company private in order to strengthen his control of the company, Reuters reports today.

The company recently suspended public trading of its stock pending the release of a statement that a company spokesperson said would be price-sensitive.

Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, ANZ, DBS Bank, and Mizuho Corporate Bank have each pledged $500 million in loans to facilitate the deal, totaling $3 billion for Alibaba.com to become a private company again.

Currently, parent company Alibaba Group owns 73 percent of Alibaba.com, and Yahoo owns 40 percent of Alibaba Group. Yahoo was reportedly attempting to sell back its stake in Alibaba Group and a couple other Asian web powerhouses, a deal that would have left Yahoo with much-needed focus on domestic products and around $17 billion in cash.

However, those talks fell apart last week. As Yahoo’s board chair Roy Bostock noted in an open letter on the negotiations, “The complexity and unique nature of these transactions is significant. While we continue to devote significant resources to these discussions, we are not in a position at this time to provide further detail or to provide assurance that any transaction will be achieved.”

The Alibaba.com stock buy-back is reportedly unrelated to the Yahoo deal, Reuters’ anonymous sources said.

PayPal has launched a QR campaign down in Singapore’s subway system to tempt loved-up commuters to purchase Valentine’s gifts while on-the-go.

In 15 of Singapore’s subway stations commuters can use their smartphones to quickly select and purchase exclusive Valentine’s Day deals by scanning a QR code.

The codes are presented on large billboards and provide a variety of the usual Valentine’s fayre including flowers, chocolates, spa treatments and tickets for shows.

PayPal says that, part from a smartphone onto which an app with bar-code scanning capabilities has been downloaded, no additional infrastructure is required for merchants, retailers or consumers.

“With our global expertise in mobile commerce, we are bringing to life the digital wallet for Singaporean consumers by offering them a faster and safer way to pay on their way to work or while heading home,” said Elias Ghanem, Managing Director, PayPal Southeast Asia & India, in a recent blog post. “This pilot is yet another step in delivering PayPal’s vision for the future of commerce, anytime, anywhere and any way.”

Late last year travelers at Bugis and Boon Lay stations on Singapore’s subway system were able to scan barcodes to cram in some Christmas food shopping while on their way to and from work.

Wall space at the two stations was given over to a virtual store by Cold Storage, a popular fresh food retail chain in Singapore.

A number of similar executions have already been tested by companies such as Tesco and Ocado. In a first for the UK, online-only supermarket Ocado launched a similar pop-up virtual store in September last year.