Below are some ideas for applications possible with the current Kiva API. These come from our friends, the Kiva staff, our users, and many other creative Kiva-lovers.

Kiva Lending Pyramids

I would like to see an increase in Kiva membership through a “pay it forward” type system.  Essentially, instead of using $25 to fund an entrepreneur, I would use it to sponsor one of my cool, socially-minded friends to join Kiva.  They would receive an email that says “You just received $25 in sponsor cash for free from one of your close friends!  Go invest it in the entrepreneur of your choice by creating an account and redeeming at Kiva.org. After you lend it, you can withdraw it – and use it for anything you’d like!  We kindly ask that you “pay-it-forward” and buy a $25 sponsor card for one of your friends – just as you received this gift from your friend.  You’ll break even on the deal (receiving $25 then sponsoring a friend for $25) plus you’ll introduce one of your friends to the world of Kiva.”

A web portal would be created to allow me to view my total sponsorship impact.  It would tell me how many friends I’ve sponsored, how many friends they’ve sponsored, and the total lending impact of this “lending pyramid.”  There could also be a recognition page for the top Kiva “lending pyramid” creators (similar to the recognition page for top Kiva teams.)

Kiva Bank

Kiva is already a bit like a bank in the sense that it takes and uses your money - but the money still belongs to you. I would be interested in extending this idea so that larger amounts of money could potentially be "deposited" with Kiva. With the existing standard Kiva website, it is not practical to deposit large amounts because the number of outstanding loans becomes unmanagable.

A "Kiva Bank" application would allow a large "deposit" to be made. The money would automatically be distributed across as many loans as necessary. The application would also process alerts when the loans were paid off and automatically reinvest the money.

The application would support the concept of "withdrawals" by allowing the depositor to request a withdrawal amount. The money would not be immediately available, but would become available as loans were paid off. The code that automatically reinvests money would take account of any outstanding withdrawal requests and alert the depositor when the funds were available. It should be possible to estimate when the money will be available at the time of the withdrawal request.

The money invested would be "safe" since the money is spread about among a very large number of borrowers. A predictable borrower default rate is expected - however beyond that the balance of the money would be as safe as in any normal bank - maybe safer because of the extreme diversification - ie your funds are spread over a very large number of borrowers.

It is unlike a bank in the sense that you have a guaranteed monetary loss (the rate of defaulting borrowers) rather than a guaranteed monetary return (a normal bank's interest rate). However, the real return on a depositor's money is the value that provides to the global community. For me that return on my deposit would justify my use of Kiva Bank.

Mobile Applications

Perhaps highest on the wish-list is the desire to see Kiva easily accessible from all sorts of mobile devices – iPhones, BlackBerry's, Razors, and colorful cheap candybars.  Though the current API can't facilitate loan transactions, there's a lot that can be done to help people find loans, consume Kiva stories and other content, and monitor status of loans in a public portfolio.

Localized Sites

Currently we don't have the capacity at Kiva to localize the site in many languages.  There's a lot of value in people creating their own versions of the core parts of the site (education, loan browsing, community) in different languages – French, Japanese, Spanish.  For now, lenders will have to register and make loans through Kiva.org, but we expect the major hurdles of understanding Kiva and finding businesses to be overcome through the current API features.

Loan Alerts

Many lenders have their favorite types of loans which aren't always available for funding on Kiva. We've seen lots of requests for a system where one can register for notifications when a particular type of loan is available. Notifications might be sent over email, SMS, or IM.

Loan Browsers

The "Lend" tab at www.kiva.org offers some simple ways to browse, filter, and search for loans. We think there tons of ways to improve the process. Imagine having a quick way to drill down through countries and other criteria to get to loans you're looking for. A specialized wizard might help first-time lenders find criteria that matters to them in choosing a first loan. Creative visual approaches to browsing might include plotting loans on a map or focusing on a dense matrix of entrepreneurs' photos.

Social Activity App

Kiva facilitates some bit of community interaction between lenders on its website, but social networks offer very deep experiences between friends with existing connections. We would love to see people get more involved with each others' activity on Kiva. Imagine an app on Facebook where you are notified when your friend makes a loan or if a friend's business receives a cool journal update. The application might help you promote a loan to others in your network or comment on journal updates to others in your Lending Team.

Data Visualizations

Several ideas could actually fit under this heading. You may have seen the Kivavision map we launched last year. Imagine a similarly animated visual that showed realtime lending activity at Kiva across the globe. You might create info graphics or animations that demonstrate how various factors affect the time it takes a loan to be funded at Kiva, or word clouds that reveal the activities of the most popular businesses at Kiva. We think Digg Labs has some especially cool examples of what you can do with a data API and a little Flash.

Widgets, Badges, and Gadgets

Some of the most popular requests are the simplest applications.  How about a badge for a blog that always shows loans in my favorite country?  What about a widget for my desktop that shows only motorcycle repair businesses?  A Google Gadget that shows me or my friends the current stats of loans on my Lender Profile would be handy too.

LoanBuzz

Usually we focus on the specific activity of loaning to an entrepreneur, but it would be awesome to focus on ways of getting lenders involved that don't always require money. Imagine an application or a system that let you "buzz up" a loan at Kiva that thought was really interesting or worthy of funding, much like articles get "dug" on Digg. Businesses with a high buzz count would be promoted to other lenders for funding, and you could track the correlation of a buzz count to the time it takes the loan to be funded.

Data Mining & Analysis

Sift through Kiva's data via the API to generate new statistics, graphs, and observations.  Part of our goal in creating the API is to make Kiva and its partners more transparent.  Help us discover cool trends or suspicious irregularities in our data.