Identifying the Kony 2012 campaign among the innovations that changed global development over the past year might seem perverse. After all, what started out in March as a viral video campaign highlighting the atrocities of the Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony culminated, a month later, with a failed attempt to translate digital activism into real-life action. Factor in charges that the campaign was oversimplified, inaccurate and reinforced media stereotypes about Africa – not to mention the well-publicised problems experienced by film-maker Jason Russell – and it could be argued the whole thing was a disaster.