The Kiva Developer Program

[Guest]

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[RichardF]

Hi guys:

The topic which we will open the Community conference call with on January 14, has been posted to the Kiva blog by Skylar, the engineer leading this intiiative.

You can read about it here: http://www.kiva.org/about/inside
The blog post is titled "Beyond www.kiva.org"

Please  note this is not a full announcement of the initiative, which will take place at a later time via the Kiva blog, but it is a reminder of each lender page's "public" and "anonymous" settings so that people can have an opportunity in advance to adjust their lender page settings prior to the initiative being launched.  Effectively, we're just giving everyone a "heads up" so that they can make any changes in advance that they'd like to.

So, we'll probably start the conference call on 1/14 with any questions about this topic, and then let the rest of the call be a pure Q&A session.

Have a great weekend!

Fiona

Beyond www.kiva.org
Jan 9, 2009

Have you ever wanted to take Kiva with you - on your phone or into your favorite social network? Perhaps instead of visiting the Kiva website, you wish Kiva could come to you - bringing you updates about your loans or new entrepreneurs you might want to fund.

We've been working hard over the past few months to create a developer program at Kiva. This will be a place online where software engineers can get creative with Kiva and build applications that use Kiva in new ways. Perhaps someone will build a spiffy new tool to help you make a loan on your iPhone, or a text messaging service that notifies you when loans from your favorite country are available. A Facebook application that helps you keep up with new journals from your loans and share them with friends would be handy too. We're looking forward to seeing what innovative ideas developers worldwide come up with to share Kiva beyond www.kiva.org!

We wanted to take a second to point out that, as a part of this program, data from public Lender Pages would be available to developers, much the same way it is currently viewable on Kiva.org and in other formats (such as RSS feeds). This means if you have a public Lender Page on Kiva, any details you have included to be viewed on your page - e.g., your name, your photo, the entrepreneurs you have lent to, as well as other details from your lender page, may also show up in other Kiva-related applications. Of course, Kiva will only make available for a developer's use the information that is already publicly viewable on your Kiva Lender Page; this would not include your credit card or PayPal payment details, as such information is not a part of a Kiva Lender's lender page profile.

As a reminder, if you ever want to hide your profile from other Internet users, all you need to do is change your Lender Page status to "Anonymous" in your Portfolio settings. You can do this by logging into your Kiva account and clicking "My Portfolio" and then "My Lender Page." If your lender profile is marked "Anonymous" your lender details are kept from public view; while we can't prevent people from using information that you've made public in the past, we can stop your Lender Page information from being shared going forward.

The developer program will be rolled out in stages, and an announcement will be made on the Kiva Blog when the first phase is launched. In the meantime if you have any questions about the use of Kiva data with the program, please contact our customer service team. Thanks!

-- posted by skylar at 01:01 pm PDT

The introduction of the Kiva Developer Program will usher in a new era of access to information about Kiva Entrepreneurs, Field Partners, Lenders and the Kiva Lending Marketplace.  Such unprecedented access offers new opportunities and challenges to everyone connected to and affected by this information. 

What are your thoughts on the developer program?  How would you like to see this information used?  How would you not like to see this information used?  Can you see yourself being a developer of new applications, in what ways?  As a consumer, what do you want developers to keep in mind?  How do you anticipate this phase of Kiva's evolution unfolding?

[JoanW]

What are your thoughts on the developer program?
I think this is great. It allows Kiva to focus on what they do best and leave the development of tools & widgets to others. If you want to know something - make your own gizmo. No more waiting/hoping for Kiva to get around to it.

How would you like to see this information used?
I see all sorts of handy Lender tools coming out of this:

Different ways to look at your data:
     - stats packages of pretty much any sort you want
           - Lender stats
           - MFI stats
           - Country stats
           - Entrepreneur stats
           - just anything.

Different ways to access your account:
     - desktop widget
     - iPhone, etc
     - personally, I hope for a Palm OS one

How would you not like to see this information used?
I really do not have any concerns with privacy as some others have expressed. I have always assumed everything in my 'public' profile could (and potentially would) be available to anyone who cared to look. This just makes it a bit handier. My main concern for privacy is for those Entrepreneurs who request privacy. Currently there are glitches in the system that allow their names to get out. That must be fixed before allowing a bunch of developers in to the information.

Can you see yourself being a developer of new applications, in what ways?
Not a chance - but I'd be a willing beta tester

As a consumer, what do you want developers to keep in mind?
Most businesses have 2 or 3 perspectives to worry about - The Business, the Customer, and often the Supplier. Kiva has 4 perspectives - Kiva, The MFIs, The Entrepreneurs, the Lenders.  If you are not balancing the needs of all 4 perspectives , then it's not going to work. Someone considering only two of the perspectives (which is normal in many other situations) is missing the boat in this case.
 
How do you anticipate this phase of Kiva's evolution unfolding?
I think has the potential to bring a richer experience to the casual Lender - those just looking for the warm fuzzies and the professional Lender - those looking for stats, details, and wants to know exactly what is going on.

[wthepoo]

How would you not like to see this information used?
I really do not have any concerns with privacy as some others have expressed. I have always assumed everything in my 'public' profile could (and potentially would) be available to anyone who cared to look. This just makes it a bit handier. My main concern for privacy is for those Entrepreneurs who request privacy. Currently there are glitches in the system that allow their names to get out. That must be fixed before allowing a bunch of developers in to the information.

  Joan - I agree completely, especially regarding the privacy of entrepreneurs.

Best wishes,
Wolfgang.

[RichardF]

Something I've never been able to figure out is how to easily search for the "(Primary) Activity" listed on the LEND page and business profiles.  One particularly slow day, I listed at About This Section ( Kiva Listings & Loan Recipients) as many different activities I could find.

At some point, I would love to be able to search/sort/select/watch Fundraising listings by Activity.

From the portfolio/educational tracking perspective, it then would be great to be able organize businesses by these activities (like Evelyn's topics, e.g., FARM ANIMALS AROUND THE WORLD) and enhance them with other information in some sort of web content management system.
 

[Sherri]

I really would like them to get rid of my invitees showing up on my profile. They have more detailed info than me, and as a result, it reveals more through them.

But, anyway, now I know what their developers have busy doing lately.

[Dottie b]

I really would like them to get rid of my invitees showing up on my profile. They have more detailed info than me, and as a result, it reveals more through them.

But, anyway, now I know what their developers have busy doing lately.

I kinda wish they'd spend more time straightening out the technical glitches and monitoring the MFI's and less on the bells and whistles like teams and invitee photos! 

Dottie B

[A Nonny Mouse]

I kinda wish they'd spend more time straightening out the technical glitches and monitoring the MFI's and less on the bells and whistles like teams and invitee photos! 

ME TOO!   


Nonny

[AccountAbility]

My concerns are twofold.  First, the privacy issue for me is more about consistently following the promises that Kiva makes regarding privacy.  And the lone choice of switching to Anonymous is too draconian for lenders who want limited privacy.

Second, the lender experience still is quite confusing as a result of PA2.  So I worry about the prioritization of resource diverting to this "new thing".  Unless someone can point out the positive economics of this initiative, I would argue that getting the confusion out of the lender experience gives more bang for the buck.  I keep running into lenders who have backed away to a "wait and see" mode because of their continuing confusion.

Personally, I think the teams initiative diverted resource in the wrong direction-- but again maybe somebody can enlighten me as to how that helped Kiva's quest for self-sustainability.

Dan

[RichardF]

Personally, I think the teams initiative diverted resource in the wrong direction-- but again maybe somebody can enlighten me as to how that helped Kiva's quest for self-sustainability.

That certainly sounds like a good question for a conference call. 

p.s. Personally, I believe most of the confusion is a design issue, not a programming issue.

[AccountAbility]

p.s. Personally, I believe most of the confusion is a design issue, not a programming issue.

Richard - I think I agree with you that it is more of a design issue, but I really don't know how Kiva staff resources are deployed to address these two projects.  So I fear a potential diversion.

As to your (re)design, I still would rather have Kiva "transparently" show the two interlinking flows of a loan distinctly -- one showing the borrower receiving and repaying to the MFI and the other showing lenders funding to Kiva and Kiva getting the credits back to its lenders.  Much of the confusion is in the ambiguous terminology in Kiva's postings, which could be addressing either flow.

Dan