Our goal is to understand the complex nature of microfinance more completely. The US military is directly involved in microfinance (Iraq & Afghanistan), working primarily through Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs). Funded by the DoD and DoS; the operational requirements of these agencies create a need to demonstrate quick impact on economic recovery and therefore the goal is to report high numbers of loans.

1. Data Tactics & US Military Academy:
A Prime in Microfinance using KIVA
WELCOME!
Thursday, August 8, 13

2. Data Tactics & US Military Academy:
A Prime in Microfinance using KIVA
The Team:
Colin Fisk (Cadet 2014), Evan Hansen (Cadet 2015), Danny Marx
(ODU 2015), Isaac Faber (MAJ USMA Faculty), Andrew Huang (sorta)
Richard Heimann, Ted Procita, Nathan Danneman, Lee Shabe.
Rstudio: analytics.data-tactics-corp.com; PostgreSQL: analytics.data-tactics-corp.com Port: 5432
The GOAL:
Sustain a DT special project for nearly a year.
Operationalize ideas external to Data Tactics and find value.
Unique engagement with Military Academy faculty and students
(share resources and experience).
Thursday, August 8, 13

3. Data Tactics & US Military Academy:
A Prime in Microfinance using KIVA
Rstudio: analytics.data-tactics-corp.com; PostgreSQL: analytics.data-tactics-corp.com Port: 5432
ISW
USMA
Thursday, August 8, 13

4. Data Tactics & US Military Academy:
A Prime in Microfinance using KIVA
Rstudio: analytics.data-tactics-corp.com; PostgreSQL: analytics.data-tactics-corp.com Port: 5432
Week 1 Literature Review (49 Papers, 3 books)
Week 2 Learning R & SQL || Data Analysis
Week 3 Data Analysis & Presentation
Thursday, August 8, 13

5. Data Tactics & US Military Academy:
A Prime in Microfinance using KIVA
Rstudio: analytics.data-tactics-corp.com; PostgreSQL: analytics.data-tactics-corp.com Port: 5432
Understanding the complex nature of microfinance more completely:
The US military is directly involved in microfinance (Iraq & Afghanistan), working primarily
through Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs). Funded by the DoD and DoS; the
operational requirements of these agencies create a need to demonstrate quick impact on
economic recovery and therefore the goal is to report high numbers of loans.
Technical complexities separate this data from other datasets:
Heterogeneous forms: structured/unstructured/nominal,ordinal, quantitative/temporal/
geographic/multi-lingual/multiple relationships(lenders to recipients) - multiple sectors/
missing data. Data cleansing is hard!
Big Data(ish): $420M (USD), 1.1 million lenders, 580,000 loans, 250 partners, 4.1M
transactions, 3 WHOLE GBs. (https://vimeo.com/28413747)
Broad appeal:
...government to defense to finance to banking to non-profit organizations to THE POOR.
Thursday, August 8, 13

6. Data Tactics & US Military Academy:
A Prime in Microfinance using KIVA
Rstudio: analytics.data-tactics-corp.com; PostgreSQL: analytics.data-tactics-corp.com Port: 5432
75 views (8 days)
#3 in last month
Thursday, August 8, 13

7. Data Tactics & US Military Academy:
A Prime in Microfinance using KIVA
Rstudio: analytics.data-tactics-corp.com; PostgreSQL: analytics.data-tactics-corp.com Port: 5432
• 2,500 files with a total size of 3.6GB uncompressed
• 3 Folders extracted from the Kiva JSON Snapshot
◦ lenders
■ 1000 user accounts per file x 1,100 files (367 MB)
■ user id, name, country, join date, loan count, occupation, user entered “whereabouts” (city, state), personal URL, and invitee
information
■ All files were loaded directly into a database table
◦ loans
■ 500 loans per file x 1,100 files (3 GB)
■ Each loan object outlines:
■ loan ID, status
■ activity and sector, example: butcher shop, food
■ borrowers names and genders (one to many relationship)
■ date of and amount of loan
■ description of the planned use, sometimes in multiple languages (one to many relationship)
■ currency exchange information
■ lng/lat location and the accuracy level (country, city, town, etc.)
■ payment information: date, amount (local and USD), and borrower comment (one to many relationship)
■ terms: loan amount and payment history in native currency (one to many relationship)
■ Files loaded into 9 tables to accommodate the one to many relationships
■ The main loans table links to all the other tables using the loan ID
■ Location information separated and added to a PostGIS table to enable shapefile exports or imports into GIS software
◦ loan_lenders
■ 1000 entries per file x 120 files (92 MB)
■ Lists each loan ID with the user IDs that have contributed
■ All files loaded into a single table that links users to loans and borrowers
• Lines of Python code: 380
• Lines of SQL code: 186
Thursday, August 8, 13

8. Data Tactics & US Military Academy:
A Prime in Microfinance using KIVA
Rstudio: analytics.data-tactics-corp.com; PostgreSQL: analytics.data-tactics-corp.com Port: 5432
Thursday, August 8, 13

9. PostgreSQL: analytics.data-tactics-corp.com Port: 5432
Data Tactics & US Military Academy:
A Prime in Microfinance using KIVA
Shiny Sever:
http://analytics.data-tactics-corp:3838/MY-APP/
R Studio Sever:
analytics.data-tactics-corp.com
Rstudio: analytics.data-tactics-corp.com; PostgreSQL: analytics.data-tactics-corp.com Port: 5432
Mendeley: http://www.mendeley.com/groups/3523171/_/
Thursday, August 8, 13

10. On the horizon...
The CRADA begins this fall semester (2013) and continues through the spring
semester (2014) materializing in several ways:
A series of blogs hosted on the DT website tracking the progress of the program
and subsequent analyzes,
Maturing analytics infrastructure and sophistication of microfinance data
(including but not limited to Kiva),
A journal quality paper with USMA and DT authorship,
A conference proceeding - Spring/Summer 2014 (forum yet to be determined),
Data Tactics & US Military Academy:
A Prime in Microfinance using KIVA
Rstudio: analytics.data-tactics-corp.com; PostgreSQL: analytics.data-tactics-corp.com Port: 5432
Thursday, August 8, 13

11. Data Tactics & US Military Academy:
A Prime in Microfinance using KIVA
Rstudio: analytics.data-tactics-corp.com; PostgreSQL: analytics.data-tactics-corp.com Port: 5432
Don’t forget...
Data Tactics Analytics Brown Bag:
When: Thursday, August 22, 2013 11:30 AM-1:30 PM
...food will be served.
Where: DT Conference Rooms D & T.
Thursday, August 8, 13