Kiva is a great site! Perhaps it has become too great and lost sight of some of its basic values. I am especially thinking of the idea that Kiva is for the people by the people. Maybe Kiva needs to downgrade to reach out to the masses. By downgrade I really mean upgrade, but it could be seen both ways. These two suggestions below are separate, but will work best if linked.
1. Kiva book
Rip of the great idea of face book. Expand the possibilities on your page. Make this a more social place to hang out. This could lead to spreading of Kiva`s message, making Kiva a meeting place for new and old friends/contacts and work inspirational to others. It could also enhance the feeling of belonging to something larger than yourself, and at the same time, show that you are a vital piece in that larger something.
2. Recognition
Many do not give to be recognized. It is, however, a feature that could easily be implemented. It is also, I argue, a feature that has many positive aspects about it. However, some possible downsides are stated in this discussion:
http://www.kivafriends.org/index.php/topic,3397.0.html. The main arguments are that competition is tiresome and therefore could result in fewer loans in the long term, that Kiva lenders do not lend for recognition or to win something/get recognition and that Kiva needs more borrowers, not (only) lenders. In other words that more recognition to lenders are either unnecessary and/or damaging to Kiva`s main goal. Another thread (
http://www.kivafriends.org/index.php/topic,3286.0.html) voices the concern that money spent on such a system could be better spent elsewhere. So, if this were to be implemented, it had to be cost-effective (meaning virtually no costs), not overwhelmingly competitive and optional.
The way people are recognized today is showing the number of loans they have made, and the faces of the people that have received support. This is a good start. I would like to see this expanded in a more fancy way. I want to move from just “stats” to “achievements. Like a unique map for everyone with flags to put on areas already loaned to, or list of each category contributed to and the number of times. A lot of other ideas also spring to mind, like different “goals” to earn points towards or displaying total number of something, like countries, and your contributions in relation to that (like 11 out of 42). My role here is not to find the perfect system, but to state that this will underpin the value of our contributions. This could be inspirational, fun, give goals and generally be a good tool.
The way people are ranked today is through a team. The team idea is good, but I can only rank towards one. Do I want to show support to a country specific team? Religious? Humanitarian organization? Friends? I would like to see rankings on everything. Let people “join” what groups they want and rank everyone inside and outside a group to each other. In other words: On my display page, which is now more like a face book page, you can see all my stats and rankings towards my groups, friends, country and lots more, even my workplace. And these will be ranked towards other countries, friend groups and workplaces. Any sort of price could be made by every group that wished it. Also you could rank loans to specific countries, to categories like farmers and transportation, value in each loan, number of loans, activity on Kiva`s forum and other pages, time on Kiva and everything else you could think of. This feature is designed for fun and can certainly be optional. You could also have a privacy setting like face book, so you could easily decide who sees what on your page. Both this and the Kiva book should not require insane amounts of time and effort to implement? I mean since Kiva already have the basics
What, if any, is something good and doable in this?
