You’ve built it, now how can we get people using it?
You may have seen the new App Gallery, which launched on Tuesday. This is a good way for Kiva.org users to find useful tools. And in just a few weeks, we’ll be linking to the App Gallery from the homepage. When we find a cool app, we tweet, facebook, and blog our hearts out. But what else can Kiva do to support and advertise these great apps? We’d love to hear your ideas.
Kiva + (a tool from Ahkun) lets you track individual loans, or your entire loan profile in new ways. For example, by typing in the Kiva Loan ID here, you’re able to see a graph comparing Expected vs. Actual Payments of a particular loan:
Similarly, entering your Lender ID displays loans by list or pie chart. We got a chance to talk to Sanjaya Punyaesena, developer of this tool. Sanjaya is a former Kiva Fellow, who currently works for a Kiva Field Partner.
Tell us about yourself.
I’m from Brooklyn, NY but I’m currently living in Phnom Penh, Cambodia working for AMK, a Kiva field partner, as their IT Project Coordinator. Since I’m a dork, I love to code in my free time, but I’m also into photography.
How did you start developing Kiva apps?
As a Kiva fellow I wrote a program which helped MFIs post onto Kiva and keep track of their Kiva loans. I wanted to incorporate the Kiva API into this program to expand its benefits.
What did you learn in the field that inspired you to build?
The first app I built using the Kiva API allows MFIs to keep track of which loans are delinquent on Kiva. This allows them to single out the loans that are delinquent and look into whether the delinquency is an actual delinquency or something that is wrong in the system.
Tell us more about the product you built.
The app I’m currently working on is Kiva+. Kiva+ is a useful tool for lenders. Just like my MFI tool, it lets lenders keep track of the delinquency status of their portfolio. They can track expect repayments vs. total repayments for each individual loan.
What are your plans for the future?
I’m also working on create a Kiva stats section. This section will have lots of graphs about Kiva, MFIs, countries, sectors and loans.
In the month of May, you voted for your favorite Kiva Apps. Over 400 people voted, and the results are in!
#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.
The winners will be announced and recognized in the Kiva newsletter and be featured on the website. Congratulations to these teams!
We are also building an application directory on Kiva.org, for users to browse all the apps (starting with the 10 below). A huge thank you to all of the developers who put time, imagination, and dedication into building apps.
Top 10 Apps:
| App | Votes |
| Kiva Alerts | 113 |
| KivaWorld | 71 |
| Kiva Heads | 59 |
| Kiva Data | 40 |
| Kiva Ads | 40 |
| KivaFriends Excel spreadsheets | 38 |
| Kiva Mobile | 32 |
| Kivalytics | 18 |
| Kiva Wordpress Widget | 15 |
| Teams | 1 |
If you were going to rate Kiva loans by their potential social impact, what data would you look at?
The team behind Kivuntu, came up with an interesting formula combining Kiva data (loan amount, number of borrowers, and duration) with country data (GDP per capita). Through this formula, their website produces a daily ranking of what they consider the 2o highest-impact loans. This is based on the assumption that the larger the loan with respect to GDP, the greater the business opportunity and cash flow of the business. They also assume that shorter loans provide greater social good, as the money will be re-paid and re-loaned to other entrepreneurs.
While this site and concept are just beginning, the team plans to refine the formula and add a searchable database with scores of all borrowers.
Attempting to answer the forward-looking question of which loan will have the greatest social impact is much more challenging than looking back at the $70 million that has been loaned to over 166,000 entrepreneurs on Kiva and deducing the net social impact. Each loan, on an individual level, includes a variety of both predictable and unpredictible factors that dictates success. And on top of that, each region has unique challenges from currency risk to corruption to seasonal economic fluctuations. And even if you had all this data, how do we know what success looks like?
These are interesting questions, and the creation of this app signals that borrowers are hungry for a deeper credit/risk/impact measurement– beyond the current combination of “Field Partner Rating” and entrepreneur bio that is availbale. Some questions I hear borrowers asking are: How will this loan benefit the entrepreneur and his or her community? Will there be job creation? Is this an eco-friendly venture? What interest rate is the entrepreneur paying to the MFI?
So tell me, how would you measure the social impact of your loans?
Since we’ve opened the Kiva API, developers have been tinkering away and creating great applications and widgets using Kiva data. Check out these cool apps and vote on your favorite one during the month of May!
In alphabetical order:
Winner will be announced and recognized in the June newsletter and be featured on the website! (If you’re reading via RSS, click through to see the poll.)
