Using services like Foursquare and Gowalla I cannot do anything without my social network hearing about it through updates to Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. I’d like to see the same integration with Kiva. It goes someway towards doing this but not enough.

Foursquare and Gowalla award badges and mayorships for completing certain tasks as a reward for both learning the system and using it.

It would be great to be rewarded the ‘First Loan’ badge or the ‘Peruvian Loan’ medal, the ‘Repeat Loan’ award, the ‘$100 Milestone Mark’ or the ‘Entrepreneur x 10′ medallion.

Adding a game element is a proven way to keep users returning to a service. The rise of social gaming also makes this a more acceptable process too. It is no longer just in the realm of World of Warcraft where you have experience points but also Farmville. If we could have as many people ‘playing’ Kiva as there are ploughing on Farmville, then the game would be on.

Updated - 13 Jul 2010
There’s a great article on exactly this topic on Inc.com, How To Incorporate Badges Into Your Website. Using terms like virtual merit badges and trophies it describes how services are encouraging contributions to the site. Foursquare has awarded one million badges to 500,000 users.

We were given a room from the 70′s. Then got the room we had paid for as seen on the web site. The shower overflowed. The food in the restaurant was great. The service in the restaurant was great. Our shower was overflowing into the kitchen. Getting back to our overheated room was not so great. It’s summer in England and it’s hot – don’t complain. The music from the pub up the road is deafening. Close the window. Sweat. Sleep. Wake. Sleep. Sweat. Wake. Sleep.

Explain our situation to today’s receptionist. Trek to a room at the opposite end of the hotel to use the shower. Great breakfast. Great service. Great discussion about how we can’t stay there for another night and decide to cut the weekend short. Discussion with receptionist results in early checkout without charge.

The web site makes no reference to refurbishment. We lucked out on the room we had. Check the Trip Advisor reports for the Spread Eagle at Thame and you’ll see similar unhappy customers. Hopefully you’ll see them before you become one.

• 62% of travellers do not recommend

• “The sink is the size of a lunch box and far too small to be practical in any way.”

• “The website is very misleading, our room was not refurbished like some and felt more like a 3 star hotel which would have been fine but for £100 we were expecting something a lot better.”

• “Stayed at this hotel a year ago when they must have recently started the refurb, and a year on, they don’t seem to have made much progress. I gather about a third of the rooms are complete and there is a new reception desk, but otherwise the public areas/corridors are in a poor state of decor.”

Read more bad reviews of the Spread Eagle, Thame, then book to go somewhere else.

Not even a rubbish performance from our football team could dampen the heated spirits of 180,000 revellers in a field. And my god was it hot!

With Glastonbury, but not other festivals, the best bits are not the bands, but the sights and sounds you see on your travels. And travel you do with it taking about 45 minutes to cross the site. The Healing Fields and Green Fields have the true spirit of Glastonbury and are a must see visit. The Park is a recently added area which give great views over the whole site and this year apparently saw Radiohead playing! Arcadia, Shangri-La and assorted other ‘weird’ areas must be seen to be believed.

Relive the experience with videos and photos. Listen to the bands on Spotify.

• Live Music at Jam Cafe on Good Friday
• Short films at Nottingham Contemporary on Good Friday and Saturday nights. Music from Ed Lamps on Saturday. Rest of the weekend look around Star City before it finishes. Local real ale on sale in cafe.
• Afternoon Tea at The Walk
• Another ride on the Wheel of Nottingham
• Go on the Ghost Walk on Saturday night
• Watch A Single Man at The Screen Room
• See the new Robin Hood Exhibition at Nottingham Castle
• Peter Andre at the Royal Centre on Sunday
• Get some comedy at the Just The Tonic – Easter Sunday Bank Holiday Special
• Watch Notts Forest play Cardiff City on Monday at the ground or in The Approach

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Being involved with Twestival by arranging the Nottingham Twestival in February was the trigger for much of the rest of the year. The event was a modest success and introduced me to people who would become friends over the coming months. Meeting a great crowd of creative and techies at Nottingham Twestival led me to setting up a regular event, Web 2.0 Surgery. The event was  a great excuse for a meetup and this also coincided with a other events starting up and gaining popularity in Nottingham in 2009.

Our 3 week trip to Peru was an amazing experience which took us to Machu Picchu and everywhere in between. This was also a key reason for using Kiva to issue loans in Peru.

September brought Twestival Local which raised money for The National Autistic Society and there is another event planned for March 2010.

There was a great turn out for the last Web 2.0 Surgery of 2009 and with co-operation with the eBusinessChampions initiative it looks to be even better in 2010.

Happy 2010 to all!