This week’s Behind the Apps is a guest post from Vaibhav Domkundwar, Founder of Better Labs. His team created the popular Kiva Alerts app, which is being featured on the Kiva.org homepage.

Hi there! My name is Vaibhav Domkundwar and I am an entrepreneur and founder of , a small product incubation firm where we like to experiment with development very early stage concepts and products. We work with founders in the concept stages of their startups (most times the company is not even incorporated) as co-founders to prototype concepts, test, iterate and build customer-validated alpha versions. We are fully self-funded so we have full freedom to do whatever we like (which I know may be good and bad – we love it, though, and KivaAlerts.com is a product of that freedom!).

An inspiration behind this was a nagging feeling I have had for years that I don’t give back enough. One of the reasons I usually don’t donate as often to charities is because I don’t feel like I am “really” reaching out and helping someone in need – just cutting a check or paying online to a large charity is just not tangible enough. I also have always longed for a way to give back in whatever small way everyday, and not just once a year. In our busy lives its extremely difficult to achieve that and I wished there was a way we could all give-back in a small way but more often. Unfortunately, I did not act on this nagging feeling for a long time. Kiva is perfect in a number of ways – its helps you help someone directly, it gives you that tangible feeling of helping someone in need, and it allows you to give back in a small way as often as you like. So when the Kiva API was launched, I just shot an email to one of our developers, Nilesh Navale, to check it out. Then we started to think what to do with it.
I really admire the folks who build Kiva everyday as they are, in a way, getting brownie points and that “feeling” of helping someone every time any lender loans to a borrowers on Kiva. My product geek mind started to roll and we zeroed in on an idea – how about we use Kiva API to

• Make it easier and faster for current lenders to lend, so the loans are fulfilled more often and we don’t let busy schedules come in the way of a lender loaning to a borrower.
• Make it easier for existing lenders to introduce Kiva to their online and offline community and increase the number of lenders on Kiva.

I was very happy to learn that our team at BetterLabs was also excited about this and we called it the do-good initiative at BetterLabs.  The rest kinda fell in place. We allocated our team’s time to KivaAlerts, got a good a server in place and launched the service, I believe, within a week of the API launch. We also decided that we will not treat this as a side project and allocate the necessary resources to making sure that it works, its up all the time and it really fulfills the purpose for the users. While everyone at BetterLabs is a contributor, I want highlight the core team members who include Nilesh Navale, Yuvraj Shelke, Tejas Shah, Gampesh Sahu, Ameya Shetti, Chetan Muneshwar and Shrikant Lokhande.

We absolutely love all the users who are using KivaAlerts as they have helped us identify and fix bugs, and have contributed a lot in terms of feature requests which we could not have been able to understand all by ourselves. We get an email almost everyday with a suggestion or a request and I want to thank all of our users for their participation and help. I believe every one of our users is also part of the KivaAlerts team and help us everyday in our goal of achieving larger distribution for Kiva loans.

We have a lot in the works for the product. We expect to add several enhancements to KivaAlerts email alert application as well as our iPhone, Twitter and Facebook applications in the coming weeks. We haven’t done as much of proactive outreach so far but will be doing a lot more once these enhancements are in place in the next few weeks. Our users will know as the enhancements go live right away, as we use the top header part of the alert emails to communicate with our users.

Lastly, a huge thanks to the Kiva team for releasing the API. I believe it will help spread the cause of Kiva further and empower it to reach a greater milestones.

The much-anticipated Kiva iPhone App is almost ready to be launched.  According to the developers, they are 80% of the way there.  And the home-stretch depends on the amount of help they can get for final modifications.  If you’re interested in helping, or just want to stay updated, follow the updates on Twitter @kiva4iphone.

I met Jon & Laura, the app developers, at the Kiva Dev Happy Hour and then again at the Kiva Dev Garage.  Their mission is to help Kiva spread the word, and to ultimately increase the amount of loans that change lives.  They saw an opportunity to do this through the iPhone: “Say you’re at a bar and want to explain Kiva to a friend. Our app lets you simply whip out your iPhone to easily show off the power of Kiva. Your friend will instantly get it.”

While Jon and Laura refined the bare-bones code base and product design that was in place, it is now and open source project. Developers, get moving and help launch the Kiva iPhone App!

Now, more about the developers:
Jon (Co-creator/Lead Engineer) is an iPhone app obsessed programmer who hails from Florida but now is happy living on Treasure Island. He loves coding, his dog Dixie, watching Lost, and social gaming.
Laura (Co-creator/Product Manager) is a Bay Area local who is interested in new technology, microfinance, and surfing. She’s an internet marketing buff and is the community manager for the SF Surfrider Foundation.

After Jon heard about build.kiva, the idea to create a Kiva iPhone app became a no-brainer. It’s the perfect union of two of his interests: building iPhone apps, and the microfinance opportunities Kiva enables. He then shared this idea with Laura and they began to nail down the specifics and think about features, product design, and how to spread the word.

They find their inspiration to build.kiva from the amazing amount of potential to effect other people’s lives for the better.  “This open API lets us tap into the power of Kiva in innovative and interesting ways that will enable many other people to give loans that change lives through our app,” said Laura.

“We also chose to embark on this project because while we may not be able to loan thousands of dollars through Kiva ourselves, we can give resources in the form of our talent, in a way that will enable even more people to access, discover, and ultimately lend with Kiva”.

Kiva World, one of the earliest and most coveted Kiva Apps, was created by a team of developers in Northern Italy. The company is called Wonsys S.r.l. and was founded by Simone Dall’Angelo, Michele Finotto and Matteo Nodari. And although I tried to convince Kiva to send me there for this interview, I settled on a few email exchanges.

Kiva World is a user-friendly google maps mashup of real time loans on Kiva. The Wonsys team describes it best:  “It’s nice to have a glance at world map and see what’s happening, who need money, who’s working to repay their loan, etc. It really helps to give a sense of what’s going on at Kiva, because it’s ok to look at a list of entrepreneurs on the Kiva website, but seeing them spread out on the map makes it a tad more impressive, because you know you’re helping a lot of people around the globe.”

The Wonsys Team having fun in Roma

The team has been using Kiva to make loans for years.  And as soon as the API was introduced, they jumped on the opportunity to build something to help spread the word about Kiva.

We think everyone should use Kiva, because you don’t need much money to start making a difference.  So we would like to help spread the word about Kiva and help you reach as many people as possible.

When I asked them about plans for the future,  they hinted at a new product idea they’d like to work on in the future.  In the meantime, we can all look forward to a Kiva World companion site that will be launching soon.

About Wonsys S.r.l.:

Wonysys was founded in 2006, by a small team of developers and computer consultants with offices in Milano and Bergamo.  Wonsys believes in building efficient and usable products custom tailored to clients’ needs.  Wonsys deems a constant two-way dialog with clients of utmost importance in order to create a successful product day after day.

The Wonsys team is always on top of new technology, which allows them to offer clients a wide range of alternatives to build the finest product in the shortest time possible.

If you need Ruby on rails engineers, you can contact Wonsys directly.

Kiva Ads is a nifty tool that allows you to customize ads to embed into your website.  For example, a woman’s organization promoting health in Africa can now make ads to promote borrowers that align with their mission.  You can sort by gender, loan status, sector, and region:

Then you are given the code to a dynamic, rotating ad that sorts through entrepreneurs according to your criteria:

According to the developer, Rajat Mittal, the main audience of this app “are people who are gung-ho to get someone funded. It is also particularly useful for Kiva field partners who want to showcase and promote their own loans on their website,blog etc.”

We got a chance to to interview Rajat and learn more about his work on the Kiva API.

Tell us about yourself.

I am a master’s student at the Department of Computer Science, ASU with a background in Information and Communication Technology. I am interested in using technology for a social cause and in creating ideas centered around utilising the universal nature of the web. My hobbies are brainstorming new ideas, travel and photography.

How did you get involved with developing apps for Kiva?

I have been a big fan of Kiva as a concept and I admire the idea of using technology to help entrepreneurs. After I saw the Kiva API and the fact that it recently launched, I thought I could contribute to the idea. My first app was a simple google maps mashup showcasing recent loans on Kiva on a map.

What do you think about Kiva extending loans to entrepreneurs in the US? Would you loan to someone in the US?

Extending loans to entrepreneurs in the US is great. My google maps mashup helped me understand that loans usually dont come from US. We can now think of applications which are more region specific and can easily test their utility using the data related to US. More coverage of MFI’s is required to truly understand and harness the potential of the concept.

What are your plans for the future?

I am brainstorming on a few more ideas on top of Kiva Platform these days. Ideas that change the model of searching loans on Kiva. At the same time, I hope to maintain the PHP wrapper I wrote to acess the Kiva API called PhpKiva by keeping it updated with the API.

Kiva Data is a handy set of charts taking a macro look at Kiva’s micro loans.   A look at the heat map of loans by country reveal that Peru and Cambodia have the highest amount of loans, with 11,814 and 10,569 respectively.

Kiva Data also looks at top uses for loans, analyzing free-text of borrower profiles. Among top phrases, TO BUY A COW appears 136 times.  And 109 borrowers will “USE THE MONEY TO DIVERSIFY AND EXPAND MY BUSINESS”.

Other interesting charts are Borrower Gender, Minutes Between Posted Date & Funded Date, Loan Size, and more.

I got a chance to speak with Jon Heller, hacker of Kiva Data:

Tell us about yourself.
I’m a 30 year old database developer and I live in Durham, NC, with my wife Lisa. My main hobby now is trying to do something cool with the Kiva API.

How did you get involved with developing apps for Kiva?
I’ve been a lender and a big fan of Kiva for a while, and as soon as my wife told me about the API I started planning ways to use it.

Tell us about the product you built- who should use it? How is it useful?
Kiva Data explores and visualizes the data from Kiva. It’s a collection of trends and statistics that I think are cool, but I’m not sure if it will be useful to anyone.

What are your plans for the future? Do you have any other products you’d like to launch on Kiva?
First I plan to continue exploring all the available data, such as lenders, teams, etc. There are a few areas where I may try to get more in-depth, such as finding out what makes some loans more successful than others. Eventually I want to make my site more interactive, and provide direct access to a database of all the information. Also, I’d like to collaborate with other people on their projects, so if anyone has some specific data requirements send me an email [jonearles (at) yahoo (dot) com] and I might be able to help you out.