Kiva Volunteer System
Client: Kiva.org
Dates: August 2007 - May 2008
Scope: 45 developer days
Description: The Kiva.org website has been a breakthrough invention in the world of micro-finance. It allows anyone to browse a directory of entrepreneurs and directly invest in their businesses through loans. The majority of the business profiles listed are submitted in non English languages and are then translated by a team of over two-hundred volunteers. Chapter Three worked with Kiva to design and develop a streamlined application that allows volunteers and their coordinators to easily translate, edit, and manage the source content. It functions as a rich volunteer intranet and content work-flow system that manages all stages of the volunteer and content life-cycle.
Features:
- Volunteer Directory: Volunteers maintain rich profiles that contain over thirty fields of information including scheduled availability, working preferences, and geographic location. Coordinators are able to search on all fields in combination, manage volunteer status and permissions, and email blast participants.
- Automated Content Import: Untranslated content is sent to the application over a RESTFUL interface and full translated content is sent back following editor approval.
- Translation and Editing Assignments: Business profiles to be translated or edited are grouped together in assignments that are managed by volunteers. Assignments have due dates and pass through a sophisticated work-flow that can enforce editor over-sight when needed.
- Volunteer Availability Matching: When creating assignments, available volunteers are suggested to coordinators based on a weighted search that incorporates six different criteria.
- Translation Management: A streamlined interface allows volunteers to easily translate and revise business profiles in their assignments.
- Editing Workflow: After translation, business profiles can then be assigned to editing teams for final fixes before being published live to the website.
