Best Kiva Apps

[Guest]

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[halle]

Hey Everyone!

We're excited to announce the top Kiva apps. 

#1 KIVA ALERTS: A suite of tools for facebook, mobile, and the web that tell alert you when loans of your interest appear on Kiva.

#2 KIVA WORLD: A live map of global Kiva loans in all stages: fundraising, funded, in repayment, and paid. Click on the markers to read more about the entrepreneur in the area.

#3 KIVA HEADS: Lets you browse loans on Facebook, and show off your loans in your Facebook page.

Check out these apps, and the top 10 winners here: http://blog.build.kiva.org/2009/06/02/the-winners-your-favorite-kiva-apps/

[wthepoo]

Hi halle,

thanks for your post -

I am a little less excited about the winners, though.

With KivaAlerts when I tried it a while back, the delay between posting of the loan and alert was too long to be of any use in most cases (loans were long funded when the alert arrived). Maybe this has been improved, though, I cannot say. But the idea is neat in any case, and if it worked really fast, it could be a real winner for many as it's actually of some use.

I just really tried KivaWorld for the first time because it's not more than a nice "gimmick", only to discover that the "100 most recent loans" shown there weren't any recent. The "fundraising" loans have been funded in late April, for example.

KivaHeads finally seems to work for me and is nice, but I don't quite see the advantage of browsing the loans on Facebook compared to Kiva.


Anyway, I think you probably heard that rather a lot, already, but I cannot help being partial to the only really useful tools making use of Kiva's API, the Excel macros/spreadsheets compiled by KF Ian (YowieFreak), in particular the summary spreadsheet that fills a void left by Kiva, namely providing a tool to easily evaluate and analyze your lending portfolio's data and "making sense" of PA-2 for you.

In case you haven't tried this spreadsheet, I encourage you to do so. You can find the latest versions here: http://www.kivafriends.org/index.php/topic,3153.msg59296.html#msg59296

I think all Kiva lenders should be made aware of this application/tool, and that's why I wasn't too happy that it had been excluded from the original choices (despite that it achieved 38 votes).

Best wishes,
Wolfgang.

[Jan & John]

I don't usually post just to smile and nod and agree...

but, thanks Wolfgang and yep ...

we do think Ian is our #1 winner in terms of usefulness and not just for pretty.

jan 

[halle]

These winners were selected through an open poll we had during the month of May (on the Build.Kiva blog http://blog.build.kiva.org). 

I agree that the excel spreadsheet Ian made is fantastic.  In fact, it landed sixth place in poll!

Check out the final poll results:
http://blog.build.kiva.org/2009/06/02/the-winners-your-favorite-kiva-apps/

[wthepoo]

These winners were selected through an open poll we had during the month of May (on the Build.Kiva blog http://blog.build.kiva.org). 

I agree that the excel spreadsheet Ian made is fantastic.  In fact, it landed sixth place in poll!

Check out the final poll results:
http://blog.build.kiva.org/2009/06/02/the-winners-your-favorite-kiva-apps/

Yes, halle, thanks for reminding me but I was aware of that (and voted for Ian there).

My point is, the spreadsheet wasn't one of the choices so that most participants of the poll were (probably) not (and still are not) aware of it. Even now, the results list has no link to it. So in fact, my guess is it would have come up a winner or at least much higher in the poll had it been listed. That's what I am disappointed about.

Thanks, again, and best wishes,
Wolfgang.

[Diane R]

Halle, would you consider modifying your blog post to include a link to Ian's spreadsheet, so people reading the post can find out about it?  (And change his name to Ian from YowieFreak, maybe?)

thanks,
--Diane.

[AccountAbility]

These winners were selected through an open poll we had during the month of May (on the Build.Kiva blog http://blog.build.kiva.org). 

It really can't be called an "open poll" when the unwritten fine print prohibited entries from using the API to build a spreadsheet.

Dan

[YowieFreak]

And change his name to Ian from YowieFreak, maybe?

If they're going to edit the post, it would actually be better if they renamed it to "KivaFriends' Excel spreadsheets".

There were a lot of KFers who contributed to the development of the spreadsheets, especially with the "Summary Spreadsheet" - it was originally developed by Christopher, then modified by Richard, then I just modified it a bit more and included the usage of the API to get the data not available through the normal channels.  And, along the way, many, many people gave feedback and performed testing to ensure it was working correctly.  (Well, it works correctly for all the people who it doesn't not work correctly for!!  So I guess that means it works correctly.)

[Jan & John]

Ian, you are absolutely right and mighty humble to acknowledge the spreadsheet's 'founding fathers'.

I first got 'hooked' on Christopher's spreadsheet.

You guys have jazzed it up a lot (wayyy over my little head)

however, I still depend on the basic functions that Christopher hooked me on...

how many loans - to what countries  - and which partners.

jan 

[wthepoo]

Here's the new "AppGallery": http://www.kiva.org/about/apps/home

Best wishes,
Wolfgang.