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Kiva speaks at NTC

April 29, 2009

skylaratntcThe 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, beautiful, and compelling web site for your cause; how do you organize other developers to help you build on that and reach even more audiences? Good software development is hard and volunteered code can often be a nightmare for your organization to handle. What if you could have people build on your work without you even knowing about it?! In January 2009, Kiva launched a developer program to accomplish just this, building on successes with non-tech volunteer programs in content translation, acquisition, and overseas partner relations. We’ll explore crowdsourcing development though a look at Kiva’s program and we’ll be sharing what we’ve learned so far though mistakes and surprises.

Takeaways:

1. How to use a well-formed public API to coordinate outside development. 2. The importance and approach to cultivating your community. 3. Incentivizing developers when financial profit isn’t an option.