Kiva – bug testing Capitalism? by risa
Let’s think about Kiva for a second, ok? Kiva- the micro finance website you may have seen featured on the news, or on some local blogger’s site, like this one where I hit upon it. Kiva has some very cool technical abilities to literally connect people from drastically different economic brackets in different countries and to help them help each other. The widgets below show 3 businesses I chose to feature (including the one Computer business on Kiva so far … game hall yes! 
) but when these businesses have reached their loan goal, they will automatically show another small business seeking financing. That’s cool.
Here are three of the many different businesses you can support.
Over time I think Kiva will be increasingly interesting by making it possible to see and follow and learn from which types of businesses and individuals consistenly attract support, or are successful. Microfinance systems have been around for a while now, but can the internet help activate their best intentions, improving not only individual lives but “capitalism” too? Making it more fair and sustainable? If you think of capitalism as a machine, then you can think of it as software, especially once it’s happening online. If the “many eyes” can help make great software like this Linux machine that keeps my ancient hardware running, and languages like the javascript Kiva and Indyish use, then maybe they can help bug test our global economic systems a bit, hmm?
Maybe.
Check out Kiva’s “due diligence” section and tell me what you think… Are they doing a good job so far? And maybe I can get our sometime contributor Mike to let us know what he thinks from his perspective working with the internally displaced people in in Azerbaijan too… hmm… I’ll get back to you.
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