I manage the Zillow API program as part of my day job, so the release of the Kiva API (myKRO coverage) a few weeks ago certainly caught my attention given my microfinance interest to go along with my background with APIs. For those of you who don’t know, “API” stands for Application Programming Interface (yes, it’s a geek term). The new Kiva APIs have all sorts of potential to help Kiva over the long haul. I see it serving two main functions:

  1. Enabling others to spread the Kiva brand, which will likely increase the number of lenders & the amount of funding on the site
  2. Ability to automate tasks that are currently manual. I believe all the current APIs are designed to send Kiva data out to other sites, but it would not surprise me one bit if there were soon Kiva APIs to accept incoming data to populate Kiva. MFIs (field partners) could automate their loan repayment updates, posting of journal entries, etc.

Here are some of the cool apps that have already been built:

  1. A wordpress plugin showcasing your loans
  2. An app that allows you to get e-mail alerts for loans you’re interested in
  3. Map based browse feature
  4. A facebook app

Some things I’d like to see built (note the API likely doesn’t support the needed functionality to build all of this) with Kiva data:

  1. Wordpress plugin that shows off the impact of a “Lending Team” (such as the myKRO one)
  2. An app to search and browse Kiva Field partners by performance indicators (such as repayment rate, average loan size, interest rate, etc)
  3. Heatmap showing volume of loan activity as well as overall $ volume by country
  4. Scrolling photo widget displaying photos of all the different borrowers in a particular country or region. The ability to show all borrowers for a specific field partner would also be cool.
  5. Heatmap showing average interest rates paid to field partners per location
  6. An app that recommends other lenders to connect with based on my lending choices

I look forward to seeing the next wave of applications built with the APIs, as well as the release of some new APIs which I have to guess Kiva is working on. I’ll try to do another post soon with some more thoughts and suggestions of how the Kiva APIs can be utilized to bring the maximum value to Kiva over the long haul.

And speaking of APIs, I have a strong hunch this is going to start a trend in the non profit world of NGO’s opening up their data as a means to spread their message to more people in more places.