The past several weeks we have been busy adding a lot of new features to the Kiva API. Let's take a look at what's new... Lending Teams - This has probably been the most requested new feature, and of course by those with their own lending team sites. You can now fetch detailed information about a team (or a set of teams), and fetch all lenders or loans associated with a team. Baskets on Kiva.org - We see this as perhaps the most powerful new feature available to API-based applications –the ability to pre-compose baskets and send the user directly to...
Continue Reading >>Blog posts tagged with Engineering
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...
Continue Reading >>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:
The Nonprofit Technology Conference in San Francisco hosted 1,400 do-gooders interested in technology. There were over 100 sessions in 3 days, including "Web 2.0 Philanthropy: Crowdsourcing through the Kiva Developer Program" by Kiva's Skylar Woodward. In case you missed it, here's a description of his session: So now you have a hip,...
Continue Reading >>Mark your calendars! The Kiva Developer Garage will be Saturday, June 6th at 1pm in San Francisco. We'll have snacks all day, and pizza for those who stay through dinner. Collaborate with other developers and designers, including members of the Kiva engineering team. UPDATE: RSVP via Facebook or Upcoming! For more information, see the wiki. (Special thanks to ncbeets for use of her awesome garage photo on the front page.)
Continue Reading >>
Our Happy Hour last week was a success! If you weren't able to make it, you can still join the conversation on our Google Group. A quick run down: We had a great turn-out, from independent designers to non-profit leaders to google engineers. Some people have already created apps, while others were looking for partners and inspiration (over beer and cake). Skylar shared plans for the Kiva API; and Kiva's CEO & President spoke about the Kiva vision, and how developers can take part in shaping its future. Throughout the party, a big screen higlighted...
Continue Reading >>In 10 days we're holding the first open event for Kiva Developers! Nothing too formal, we're just opening up the Kiva offices for friends and developers to meet-up, chat, and hang out. We'll have drinks and snacks on hand, all starting at 6:30pm on Thursday, April 9:
http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/2295671/It would be great to have people showing off and taking about the applications they've been building, so if you're in the area, please drop by! It's a great chance to collaborate with others and hear from folks in person who've been using your apps....
Continue Reading >>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...
Continue Reading >>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...
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...
Continue Reading >>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...
Continue Reading >>Pages
Blog posts tagged with Engineering
The past several weeks we have been busy adding a lot of new features to the Kiva API. Let's take a look at what's new... Lending Teams - This has probably been the most requested new feature, and of course by those with their own lending team sites. You can now fetch detailed information about a team (or a set of teams), and fetch all lenders or loans associated with a team. Baskets on Kiva.org - We see this as perhaps the most powerful new feature available to API-based applications –the ability to pre-compose baskets and send the user directly to...
Continue Reading >>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...
Continue Reading >>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:
The Nonprofit Technology Conference in San Francisco hosted 1,400 do-gooders interested in technology. There were over 100 sessions in 3 days, including "Web 2.0 Philanthropy: Crowdsourcing through the Kiva Developer Program" by Kiva's Skylar Woodward. In case you missed it, here's a description of his session: So now you have a hip,...
Continue Reading >>Mark your calendars! The Kiva Developer Garage will be Saturday, June 6th at 1pm in San Francisco. We'll have snacks all day, and pizza for those who stay through dinner. Collaborate with other developers and designers, including members of the Kiva engineering team. UPDATE: RSVP via Facebook or Upcoming! For more information, see the wiki. (Special thanks to ncbeets for use of her awesome garage photo on the front page.)
Continue Reading >>
Our Happy Hour last week was a success! If you weren't able to make it, you can still join the conversation on our Google Group. A quick run down: We had a great turn-out, from independent designers to non-profit leaders to google engineers. Some people have already created apps, while others were looking for partners and inspiration (over beer and cake). Skylar shared plans for the Kiva API; and Kiva's CEO & President spoke about the Kiva vision, and how developers can take part in shaping its future. Throughout the party, a big screen higlighted...
Continue Reading >>In 10 days we're holding the first open event for Kiva Developers! Nothing too formal, we're just opening up the Kiva offices for friends and developers to meet-up, chat, and hang out. We'll have drinks and snacks on hand, all starting at 6:30pm on Thursday, April 9:
http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/2295671/It would be great to have people showing off and taking about the applications they've been building, so if you're in the area, please drop by! It's a great chance to collaborate with others and hear from folks in person who've been using your apps....
Continue Reading >>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...
Continue Reading >>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...
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...
Continue Reading >>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...
Continue Reading >>