Helping with Kiva website itself

[Guest]

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[scottylend]

Hi all, finally joined!

I'm interested in helping Kiva out but as I don't speak any unusual languages or travel the world I want to help out in some other way.  I work in eBusiness so have exposure to IT development including a lot of CSS work and would really like to utilise this for something other than boring work stuff!  I can help to make the site:

More web standards compliant
More accessible (alt text etc)
Smaller and leaner (removing inline style statements, compacting images etc)
and loads more!

The problem is that I don't know how to apply for it as there isn't really a post for this.  The work I am really happy to do won't have a massive impact but will speed up further developments, let the site run on less resources and open it to disabled users (as currently there are a number of accessibility issues).

[wthepoo]

Welcome here, Christopher, glad you managed to gain access now!

That sounds awesome, I sure think Kiva could need some volunteer IT work as there are several parts and features of the website that need improvement; also, I agree that better access for disabled users is more than desirable. I am just not sure how comfortable Kiva's engineers are with having "outsiders" work on their home turf (also because part of the code is probably quite sensitive because of the money and private user information dealt with).

You should in any case contact Kiva's Customer Service (contactus@kiva.org), though, and ask them to refer you to the competent people. Some of them also browse this site, frequently, so they might contact you anyway.

Best wishes,
Wolfgang.

[DoubleR]

Here's another resource to check out:

http://build.kiva.org/

This is for anyone who wants to build any new tools or applications for the Kiva site.

Regards,
Ronan

[scottylend]

Thanks for the info, I'll try out that address and see what they come back with.  Any suggestions they may take up wouldn't affect the function or security of the site, it's purely simple front-end stuff.

Cheers,

Chris

[cjp1973]

Chris welcome.  Here is another possibility for you that was posted on the kiva blog.  http://www.kiva.org/about/inside/2009/08/11/looking-for-volunteer-web-developer.html

[scottylend]

Never mind, it seems they don't want any help even if they're valid and simple suggestions. 

[wthepoo]

Never mind, it seems they don't want any help even if they're valid and simple suggestions. 

I am sorry to hear that.

Why do you think that, though? Did you get a discouraging response or none at all? In the latter case, I would give it some time because it sometimes takes a week or two before someone from Kiva's CS gets back to you - in particular with inquiries that might take some internal co-ordination.

Best wishes,
Wolfgang.

[scottylend]

Unfortunately I got a response quickly however it just said they have a "team of capable engineers" and "they're super busy and can't respond to individual enquiries".  I have no doubt that they are skilled but as the changes I am proposing take no time to implement, it would be an improvement over them investigating changes and then implementing them later on.  Because these changes are small and dispersed, it's actually the investigating that takes the time!

Never mind, it seems that the devs are hard at work on revenue creating features which will have a much greater impact on the operation.

[wthepoo]

Again, I am sorry. Don't let that spoil your experience on Kiva and on KF, though, please.

And maybe you do find Charmaine's pointer to http://www.kivahighschool.org/ and them requesting help to redesign your website interesting...

Best wishes (and thanks again for offering to volunteer your knowledge and time to Kiva),
Wolfgang.

[scottylend]

No problem, Wolfgang.  I'm disheartened but not giving up in Kiva or this forum!

Unfortunately a full site redesign is probably beyond my capabilities and I don't think they're looking for people to just chip in.