what i have done
In order to explain the lack of content on this site, i thought i’d divulge a little about what i’m doing over here. Not everything though, it’s top secret, i’ll have to knee cap you kind of stuff, so secret that i’d have to knee cap myself if i knew the secret stuff i was doing.
Above is a little screen grab from the software i’ve been programming away at. “Working on Software!?”, “Doing Programming!?” you say, “I thought you were an accountant, you studied economics right!?”. Well it’s a “Yes” to the first two, and a “half yes” to the last one. For some reason people have assumed that having studied in the economics/finance faculty, my only career path could have been accounting. “Ha” to them i say, i’m much cooler than that, my hunched back and fading eyesight can attest to the fact that i am now a quasi programmer. Quasi, because well, this is my first piece of real work, i had done something for bluejuice once, which may have resulted in emailing the same person continuously for hours, until the bluejuice site got shut down, that was intentional of course.
So back to work, my initial project was to help Binhminh obtain some kind of information system to manage their operations. Easy enough, choose some software, buy some hardware, do some training, eat some noodles, drink some rice wine and i’d be outta here. Turns out that there wasn’t much microfinance software really suited to us and available in Vietnam. There is definitely a lot out there, but when you are a predominantly Vietnamese speaking organisation with little IT resources and cashola, then your choices are limited. Limited to the extent whereby you may get the likes of me suggesting it could be a good idea for the likes of me to put something together.
To my delight, things seem to have come together, it’s likely not the greatest piece of code ever written (using PHP, a little javascript and MySQL by the way), but in its initial incarnation should be able to do the job. The job being to replace the hours and hours of manual calculations and pen and paper record keeping that takes up half of the credit officer’s time, when instead they could be engaging with our clients a little more. And engaging they shall be required to do, as one of our partners is an organisation called Kiva.
Kiva allows individuals to lend money directly to a microfinance borrower (no interest returns for the lender though, just warm fuzziness), acting as a conduit/marketplace where microfinance orgs can post their clients on the Kiva website, and individuals can invest in them, instead of losing money through the current credit crisis (if only!). However, as part of our partnership with Kiva, we have to do certain things like giving updates to investors about how our client is going, taking pretty pictures, not steal all their money and be accountable which is also why my project has taken place.
You can have a peek at what i’ve done here. Username: testmanager, Password: test. It’s not our real test site, just one especially designed for the wonderful few people who come across this blog. We are just starting to pilot the software in one of our branches at the moment, so it’s a kinda exciting rubbing my palms together kinda time.
I have given away too much, i shall track you down and knee cap you, although having knee capped myself (which i’m going to have to do now) you may just get away.
Also, if anyone out there feels as if they would like to work in improving/takeover what i have done (given my impending lack of knee caps) feel free to contact me.
Great Long. Versatility in the workplace is a great strength. That’s why I am diverisfyting into knee protector manufacturing (very good price). Now I’m going to look at what you have done.
I’m impressed. Your Home screen would look better/be more easily managed for the user if it didn’t invove scrolling. i.e. Your dialogue boxes were all on the screen at once. I assume you have security protocols in place.
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Thanks for the comments Roger. The reason i thought to let each box scroll instead of just leaving them to grow down the page was to avoid having to scroll too far down the whole page. Having everything in its current form should allow a user to upon login see all the sorts of things awaiting them for that day. I should probably adjust the sizes of them individually though. Security wise, the system would be run on a LAN, not over the internet which makes it a little more secure. Users have to be authenticated and depending on their role can only perform certain actions.
LN
Hi Long,
My name’s Kim, I’m a student of your friend Daniel Ooi. I’m really interested in doing some volunteer work in Vietnam at the end of this year and Daniel suggested I contact you, though didn’t have your email address so passed on your blog site (and I’m glad he did as it has made for an interesting read!)
I’m also Vietnamese-Australian. Having grown up in Melbourne I’ve absolutely adored travelling through Vietnam, this December will be my third visit there. The country is so rich in culture, one which it’s really important to me I learn more about. I love that so much on your blog is familiar to me - my brother broke a blue plastic chair, the backrest kind (I hadn’t realised others so often experienced this embarrassment!) In Vietnam life is always buzzing, the people so optimistic and generous and the virtues of family and hard work so valued. Your photos and accounts remind me of this and why I’m so excited to return!
I’m interested in doing some sort of development work in the future. I’m hoping to complete a double major in Politics and Economics with an Environmental Studies minor. I’m extremely passionate about poverty reduction and gained experience through running a ‘Make Poverty Week’ at highschool raising $10,000, my role as Social Justice Prefect, meetings with Members of Parliament, attending many forums, taking part in two anti-poverty advocacy roadtrips, doing volunteer work with Sudanese refugees and working for World Vision. I would really like to see development, in a developing country. I would love to gain first-hand experience of the projects taking place in communities and gain a more realistic understanding of how change is able to take shape.
I would love to work with Binhminh and am very interested in microfinance as a means of poverty reduction that truly does promote self-sufficiency and self-dignity. I cannot read or write in Vietnamese, but speak and understand a fair bit and am always trying to improve. If you think there is a volunteer position I could take at the end of this year I would really appreciate the opportunity and will send through a more formal application wherever it needs to be sent! Any advice you could give would mean a lot to me.
Sorry again to contact you in this way! Hope to hear from you soon!
Kim