Today marks our first feature update to the Kiva API. It is appropriate, perhaps, that part of this release is a way for you to track future updates we make to the system.  You may have noticed a new section on the front page of build.kiva.org this evening which shows the current API status and the release number and age of the current build. This way, if things seem to have changed since you last tested your app, you’ll know if it was us. The build number of the API will always change if we push new code (coincidentally, this applies to changes to the Kiva website too, for now).  As you might expect, info on the current release is also available as an API method.  Now on to things more exciting…

This big change in this release is video! You’ve heard it here first. Starting today, our partners and volunteers will start uploading video to entrepreneur profiles and journals so it is important that your application can handle this as well. Actually, we made it easy for your old application to work with this since every business with a video also has a thumbnail image which doubles as the primary image for the loan. However, users may start to see iconography in these images which clues them in to the presence of video, and they may expect to be able to click through to the new content. To help you make the transition to video with us we updated the media section of the documentation. Since our video is hosted at YouTube, it also helps to be a bit familiar with the YouTube API.

Finally, we made a small change to the Kiva website to help out application developers; lenders can now find their Lender ID (previously called UID) at http://www.kiva.org/myLenderId. Previously, there wasn’t a good way for you to point lenders to this information making it difficult for most users to take advantage of apps that required this bit of information. The suggestion for this feature actually came from Jason via the discussion group, so we’re stoked that the community is already helping guide how the API and developer tools evolve.

Let us what you think in the comments below or in the forum…

Wow.  We’re pretty excited about what’s happening with the API thus far. Within a couple of hours of the launch we saw the first use of the API on a blog and in the first week there were four API toolkits for accessing the API in a range of languages. Here’s a couple of other things that popped up that caught our eye:

• a service that lets you sign up for email alerts for your favorite loan categories
• a map that lets you browse for new loans geographically
• a Wordpress widget for lenders to showcase their loans
• this world cloud generator which shows popular terms from loan profiles

In related news, we’re opening up the wiki to editing now. All you need is a pbwiki account (or OpenID) to get started.  Most of the pages are editable.  In particular, we hope that people will add to this list of Applications, Widgets, and Analyses as they discover or create new things on top of the Kiva API.

Thanks to everyone who has helped make the first two weeks such a success!  Keep the innovations coming…

This is build.kiva.org, our brand-spankin’-new destination for developers wanting to build and extend the microlending platform we’ve created at Kiva. Over the next few months we plan to shape this into a hub for builders, mashers, and other creative types looking to make a difference in the world through loans to the working poor.  Here you’ll find news, discussion, and documentation around the Kiva API and other tools we provide to developers. You’ll also be able to connect with other Kiva Developers, share your ideas, and keep up with activity going on in the developer community.

Moreover, this is a place where you can help us shape the Kiva API.  You’ll find our API roadmap and evolving designs on our Wiki, and we expect these to change in direct response to your participation in the community. This site is yours too – let us know what needs to change and how we can make it a more powerful tool for everyone building Kiva.  (If you like what you see so far, help us give thanks to our designer-friend, Omar Lee.)

We’re excited you’re here. See you in the forums and the intertoobes.

Hello!  We’re brimming over with excitement here at Kiva Headquarters because today we get to introduce you to the Kiva API.  We’ve been working hard over the past 4 months, crafting this interface so that anyone with a bit of software savvy can help us create new applications, tools, and features for the Kiva lending community. All you need to get started is a bit of instruction – the Kiva API is completely open and no developer registration is required to use it.

The Kiva API begins as a set of RESTful web services, focused primarily on the tasks of fetching public data from Kiva.  For example, here’s are some of the things you can request through the API:

• all of the loans at Kiva currently raising funds
• all of the entrepreneurs from Uganda and Peru which have fully repaid their loans
• the latest lending activity on Kiva
• financial nitty-gritty for any of our loans
• the list of loans made by any one of Kiva’s lenders with a public lender page

All of this data is delivered with well-formed computer-friendly markup (e.g. JSON or XML) making it easy to integrate into applications.  And, this list is just a start. Keep up with us here at build.kiva.org as we post news about new API methods and tools for development. Eventually, we intend to make it possible to recreate the entire lending experience on top of the API!

So what will you build? If you’re at a loss for ideas we’ve started a running list of many of the great ideas we’ve heard about so far. Here are a few:

• an application for iPhone or Blackberry that let’s you keep up with Kiva on the go
• a service where lenders can register for alerts on new entrepreneurs they want to fund
• integration into a social network where friends can engage around each others’ activity and loan updates on Kiva
• a map that simulates the realtime transfer of funds across the globe

If you already have a cool site or service, the killer app may in fact be how you integrate Kiva with that!  Once you’ve got something started, feel free to share it with the rest of us in our Google Group. Of course, we’ll also be happy to help you there if you get stuck with something.  For those of you who aren’t developers, feel free to poke around and share your ideas with us.  We’ll promise to keep you updated in newsletters and at www.kiva.org with all the coolest creations.

We created the Kiva API because we know the idea of Kiva is bigger than any number of people we can sit in our offices or send into the field. Our website has already done so much to connect people and bring new opportunity to the developing world, but it is nothing compared to the impact we think that technology and microfinance together will have to alleviate poverty. It is going to take a lot of innovation, a lot of creativity, and a lot of passionate people bringing the opportunity of loans to places they’ve never been. Because we believe in the power of you as a part of this open and transparent community we are opening our digital doors today and asking you to help us change the world with loans.