Dear KivaFriends,
Being part of such a special community is a wonderful experience...
After months of lurking, some little posting, a lot of enjoyment, a much better understanding of Kiva and KivaFriends and, importantly, the privilege of talking, chatting with and having feedback from many of you, I feel it's time to start putting into written words what I've been doing and, at least, introduce myself.
(Also, this to be part of such spirit of transparency, at the basis of the Social Web, of Kiva and especially of this community).
My name is Damien Lanfrey, 29, Italian/French PhD Candidate (final year) at City University of London, Department of Sociology and Media.
I am doing my PhD on emerging platforms for activism and social change and on the modes of engagement these platforms enhance, one of my case studies being, as some of you now know, Kiva+KivaFriends.
(My other case studies is an Italian Meetup-based network for civic engagement, see
http://beppegrillo.meetup.com/ )
I decided to plan a study on Kiva since almost its very beginning, when of course very few in academia were looking at it (and is still almost unknown, especially in Europe), when Kiva was still much smaller (with a staff of less than 10 people) and when KivaFriends wasn't there, almost unthinkable right now…:) (although I know that many of you were already Kiva supporters)
I am of course a Kiva lender too (before as a family, now with a personal account, although still very small) and like very much the idea of spreading the word about Kiva across the academic community and the increasing networks I belong to.
If KivaFriends has brought your experience with Kiva to a new, richer level, well, it has had a the same impact on me and my research.Thanks to Joe's toolbar I was able to follow every conversation and forum statistics, but this is just a single part of the contribution I got from KivaFriends.
Most important, I was able to chat with you and have long conversations (a special thank goes to Oli, Scott, Diane, Queen, PeterS for the amount of time they dedicated me) or even meet up (thanks Christopher, in London) and have precious feedbacks from several others who responded to an online survey I sent them via PM. (Please don't post its link here for the moment, as the survey was specifically built for KF most active or long-term contributors)
For those of you who have received the survey via PM but weren't sure about filling it or didn't care about their inbox, you still have a chance, if you want, to join the wonderful group of feedbacks I am collecting
For those of you who have filled the survey and would be happy to discuss their answers in a follow-up chat, together with talking about their Kiva and KivaFriends experience, you can always PM me, e-mail me at damien.lanfrey at unicatt.it or damien.lanfrey.1 at city.ac.uk or Skype or AIM me at damienlanfrey, or simply respond to this thread.
For everybody else interested in this research or wanting to share her/his specific Kiva+KivaFriends experience, my contact details are the same as above.
This research will be donated to Kiva and shared with KivaFriends.In the spirit of transparency and collaboration, I also wanted to share with you this chart I've put together about Kiva, its organisation and the broader Web sphere, including your contribution (something in between a flow chart and an organizational sphere), I have only had the chance to show it to Christopher before.
(The link should be working, if not please tell me) -
http://www.DrawAnywhere.com/live/15455.jpg -
UPDATED TO JANUARY 15TH 2009One of the goals of this thread (finally), if you like, is to hear your comment, additions, proposed modifications, remarks on this chart.
- Your comments might also of course include:
- "Hey, my name should be there! I've done this and personally worked on that..."
- Highlight some of the most important or interesting flows or elements in the chart (don't care about the mess, just point to the ones you think are relevant to you and why)
- Tell me about any Web space or related project you know or participate in is still not included
- Point out any inconsistency/mistake/modification/addition
- "Hey, great one, Damien!"
Have a great Sunday,
Damien
