Competition - Spreadsheet Descriptions

[Guest]

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[YowieFreak]

They say that a fool and his money are soon parted, so I am starting a competition to find the best descriptions for the three spreadsheets of which I have currently had an input in developing.

The three spreadsheets are:

• The Summary Spreadsheet
• FundraisingLoans spreadsheet
• CommonLenders spreadsheet

There is a $25 GC available for the best description for each spreadsheet.

Rules are simple (at least until Wolfgang and the other lawyers read this and make their suggestions ):

• Entries can be posted in this thread, or can be PMed to me if you want to avoid other people creating a derivative work based on your entry, any time in the seven days commencing from the date/time that I submit this post.
• All entries must state which spreadsheet the description is describing.  (Although if it isn't obvious, then it probably isn't a very good description! )
• Up to 5 entries can be posted by each entrant for each spreadsheet.
• Following the close of the period during which entries can be submitted, I will collate all entries and post them here.
• During the seven days following the posting of the collated list of descriptions, people can vote for their favourite description for each of the spreadsheets.
• Only one vote per spreadsheet will be accepted from each KFer.
• The winner in each category (i.e. each spreadsheet) will be the description with the most votes received.
• In the event of a tie in any category, I will cast a vote myself to determine a winner.
• I will give each winner a $25 gift certificate.
• The winning entries will be submitted to Kiva in the hope that they will be added to the Apps Gallery.

Regards,
  Ian

[AccountAbility]

Well I guess I can start with my suggestion for the Summary Spreadsheet:

For those with more than a few Kiva loans, this is an essential tool for managing your Kiva portfolio details.

Dan

[B. Right]

Multilender deconfuser 

[YowieFreak]

If you want to enter this contest, there are only about 8 more hours to get your suggested descriptions in.

Entries can be posted in this thread, or sent to me via PM.


P.S.  I'm going to be a bit busy tomorrow, so it will probably be sometime Tuesday (USA time) before I post the list of entries so that people can start voting.  (That should still allow me time to count the votes, declare the winner, and send the GCs in time for the winner(s) to use them when the 1st of the month loans are posted.  )

[Dagfinn]

The Summary Sheet = Microsheet


-- Dagfinn A

ps: thank you for a handy tool 

[YowieFreak]

Entries are finalised.  Voting now begins.

Below are all of the entries I have received as descriptions of the various spreadsheets.  (I hope I didn't miss any!)  The submitter of one entry in each category will receive a GC, and you (yes, you) get to help choose who, simply by submitting your vote for the best entries.

As I said in the original post in this thread, each KFer can vote for one description in each category anytime within the next 7 days.

I would suggest that your votes be sent to me by a PM, which can be as simple as saying "1i, 2a, 3n".  (But, obviously, if you give those specific choices I'll know you haven't bothered to even notice that there is no "3n" choice. )


Category 1: Summary spreadsheet

a) Allows you to easily manage and make sense of your Kiva portfolio, whatever its size.

b) Everything you ever wanted to know about your loans.

c) All information you ever wanted (and more) about your Kiva portfolio.  (Requires MS Excel for PC; includes functionality to browse and filter currently fundraising loans.)

d) Statistics galore regarding your Kiva portfolio - fun and useful for every lender, virtually essential for Kiva's core lenders.

e) The A-to-Z of your loans.

f) Microsheet.

g) Excel-based macro spreadsheet analyzing your individual Kiva portfolio, returning a comprehensive overview of your lending, loans and cash-flow as well as extensive statistics and a loan-by-loan breakdown.

h) Your one stop for tracking your Kiva portfolio, the Summary Spreadsheet imports your portfolio and transactions to provide detailed information about each of your loans.  For example, your total invested, paid back, donated, late, and  much more is quickly shown.  Using Microsoft Excel, you can export your account details from your Kiva account, and this spreadsheet then presents it in a simple summary page, as well as pages with detail that drills down to highlight delinquent loans, estimated monthly repayments, and a host of other great info about your loans.  As your portfolio grows, this tool is a "must have" for its ease of use and information simply presented.

i) Multilender deconfuser.

j) For those with more than a few Kiva loans, this is an essential tool for managing your Kiva portfolio details.



Category 2: FundraisingLoans spreadsheet

a) Returns an overview of all fundraising Kiva loans in one of two detail levels.  Use filters, sorting and searches to find loans you are interested in, and either follow the link to the Kiva loan page or pre-populate your basket right from the spreadsheet.

b) Browse, filter and search all currently fundraising Kiva loans in an Excel spreadsheet.

c) Who's borrowing now.

d) An essential tool not only for the Late Loaning Lenders, showing all fundraising loans - including those temporarily hidden in baskets - and how much is left to fund at a glance as well as giving a breakdown of funding deadlines.

e) A simple Excel spreadsheet that quickly retrieves important details on all available fundraising loans from the Kiva website, which can then be sorted.  This makes it easy to see expiring loans, amount left to be funded, amount in baskets, length of loan, region, etc., so you can simply sort through to find the ideal loan for yourself.  A click can put that loan in your basket.



Category 3: CommonLenders spreadsheet

a) KivaTrivia: Which lenders do you share most loans with?  Which loan(s) do you share with your best friend?  (Requires MS Excel for PC)

b) Familiar faces - you always seem to see certain lenders on "your" loans?  Find out just how many loans you have funded together!

c) Who loans with you.

d) How big is your personal Kiva Community?  How many and which lenders have helped fund your loans?  Which lender(s) seem(s) to have the same lending criteria and are on virtually all of your loans?  This Excel-based tool helps you find out.

e) Which lenders am I working with?

f) Who else regularly lends on the same loans as you?  Find out with this tool!

[AccountAbility]

Maybe it's a little late to ask the question, but do all the entries meet whatever requirements Kiva might have for listing the description?

(After all, that was sort of the whole point of the exercise-- to get Kiva to explain what the spreadsheet does.)

Dan

[Alaska Pack]

I am not sure if this is the best place to post this but I was reading this when a thought came up.  Perhaps there is already addressed and if nothing else there are so many smart Kiva friends someone has an answer. This may also fit into a category 2 sheet.

A few days ago I missed out on a loan to one of my earliest lender groups, simply because I did not know it existed.  It had been there for a couple weeks.  I was on vacation with limited computer access and then when I was back home, I did not bother to peruse through the 1000+ loans.  I found it posted on one of my teams site but alas it was already funded.

(Any ideas? already exist? a new feature for a spreadsheet?)  It would be a great feature.  I have a confession to make Ian, I am not currently using your spread sheet, so if I can do this, I will learn to use it.

Thanks, Bernice 

[AccountAbility]

There are a couple of threads here dealing with lending again to the same borrowers.  There are some ideas there. 

The problem is that borrowers themselves have no unique identifiers.  Therefore each time they come back it is listed as a completely independent loan. 

I suppose there might be a way to upload your portfolio by name and then search new loans for the same names, but you will probably get a lot of false positives--particularly from those MFI Field Partners who only post first names for security reasons.

But then maybe Ian has some other ideas. 

Dan

[YowieFreak]

But then maybe Ian has some other ideas. 

Ian has the idea that an automated system could be created (although with a lot of difficulty) but it wouldn't be very reliable - lots of false positives and lots of false negatives too.  As Dan points out, the names of the borrowers often change from one loan to the next - maybe because the surname is included on one loan and not on the other, maybe just slight spelling differences ("translated" names often come up with slight variations), maybe it was a group loan with slightly different borrowers the second time around.

If the borrowers had a unique borrower id, and Kiva made that id available to the 3rd party apps, then it would be a simple exercise - but Kiva don't even make the unique lender id available to 3rd party apps so I can't see them creating(?), and making available, a borrower id.

I think the best bet for a manual solution would be to use the FundraisingLoans spreadsheet, sort the results into name order, then just look through the list looking for any familiar names.

Sorry I can't be any more helpful.

[YowieFreak]

Maybe it's a little late to ask the question, but do all the entries meet whatever requirements Kiva might have for listing the description?

(After all, that was sort of the whole point of the exercise-- to get Kiva to explain what the spreadsheet does.)

Dan

I think all the entered descriptions are probably better than what Kiva currently has - i.e. "    ".  (Maybe they decided to use my user name for the description! )  And I doubt if Kiva has any specific requirements regarding the description - e.g. length.

Hopefully when people vote they will vote for the description that they believe will work best on the Kiva App Gallery page and the results of the voting will yield something good.

Although I will suggest the winning entries to Kiva, if Kiva refuses to use those winning entries for some reason then I will give them the full list of entries and let them pick one.

[YowieFreak]

A couple of people who have submitted entries have commented about the ethics of voting for their own entry.  (In both cases they have chosen not to vote for their own entry, believing that they shouldn't.)

I don't believe that there is any reason why a person should not be entitled to vote for their own entry if, after seeing the other entries, they still believe theirs is the best.

Because I am the all-powerful rule-maker for this competition, I get to decide that that is now an official rule:

• Entrants to the competition are free to vote, including for their own entry if they so desire.

Regards,
  Ian

[Unilove]

I think it is fine to vote for your own entry... you are a lender first, and a suggester second   And, I am only a voter and not a suggester...

[YowieFreak]

KivaFriends' Spreadsheets Descriptions Contest

Only two (and a little bit) more days to go to get your votes in for what you believe are the best descriptions of the KivaFriends' Spreadsheets.  Your vote is important - please submit it.

If you find the KivaFriends' Spreadsheets useful, help us select the best description for the KivaFriends' Spreadsheets from those listed in this post.

Once we determine the best description for each KivaFriends' Spreadsheet, we will be able to get Kiva to attach that description to each of the KivaFriends' Spreadsheets where the KivaFriends' Spreadsheets are listed on the Kiva Apps Gallery page.

Once there are better descriptions (and anything has to be better than nothing!) shown for the KivaFriends' Spreadsheets on the apps page, more users will make use of the KivaFriends' Spreadsheets (and hopefully come and join KivaFriends too).

Regards,
  Ian

(with apologies to Judy )

[Kathy]

My vote are for e, c and d.


e) The A-to-Z of your loans.  (maybe... "The A to Z" of managing your Kiva portfolio...a combination of two ideas)


c) Who's borrowing now. (maybe "Who can I fund now?" by using your lending criteria and a quick click your loan is in a basket and ready for checkout!...a combination of several ideas)

d) How big is your personal Kiva Community?  How many and which lenders have helped fund your loans?  Which lender(s) seem(s) to have the same lending criteria and are on virtually all of your loans?  This Excel-based tool helps you find out. (maybe just a simple..."My Kiva Lending Community" and what keeps us meeting in the same place...a combination of several ideas)


Looking forward to seeing the apps on Kiva no matter what!
 

[YowieFreak]

I received votes from eight KFers over the last seven days, and now declare the winners of the competition to be:


Category 1: Summary spreadsheet

a) Allows you to easily manage and make sense of your Kiva portfolio, whatever its size.

Submitted by Diane.


Category 2: FundraisingLoans spreadsheet

b) Browse, filter and search all currently fundraising Kiva loans in an Excel spreadsheet.

Submitted by Wolfgang.


Category 3: CommonLenders spreadsheet

a) KivaTrivia: Which lenders do you share most loans with?  Which loan(s) do you share with your best friend?  (Requires MS Excel for PC)

Submitted by Wolfgang.


Congratulations to the winners - commiserations to the non-winners.

I will now notify Kiva of these winning entries and try to convince them to add them to the Apps Gallery page.  (But I might wait a day or two - until after I release v2.0 of the Summary spreadsheet.  [I want to at least include stats based on "Currency Risk" into it, even if I can't do anything else with currency risk yet.])

P.S.  GCs will be on their way once I work out what info I need to PM people - I hope it's just the GC code and the email address I used to purchase them.

[Diane R]

Gee!  I hope our offerings help get your fine work the attention it deserves, at last, Ian.


--Diane.