“You build something remarkable because of the boundaries, not without them.”
– Seth Godin, Seth’s Blog (via whyentrepreneurship)
From http://kianorshahmohammadi.com/post/146721389405
Cool idea!
diy:
Introducing DIY
We started building DIY a few months ago and now we’re sharing the first thing we’ve made. This is a company that we hope to spend decades crafting, but it’s important for us to build it out in the open, bit by bit, to encourage our community of kids and parents to share feedback with us continuously. From Zach’s experience making Vimeo, we understand that this sort of culture fosters collaboration and admiration between a company and its community, and ultimately leads to something that is loved.
Our ambition is for DIY to be first app and community in every kid’s life. It’s what we wish we had when we were young, and what we’ll give to our kids. Today we’re releasing a portfolio tool to let kids collect everything they make as they grow up.
We’ve all seen how kids can be like little MacGyvers. They’re able to take anything apart, recycle what you’ve thrown away – or if they’re Caine, build their own cardboard arcade. This is play, but it’s also creativity and it’s a valuable skill. Our idea is to encourage it by giving kids a place online to show it off, so family, friends and grandparents can see it and easily respond. Recognition makes a kid feel great, and motivates them to keep going. We want them to keep making, and by doing so learn new skills, use technology constructively, begin a lifelong adventure of curiosity, and hopefully spend time offline, too.
We’re looking to you parents as partners to make it all work. It used to be that you hang your kids’ work on the fridge to let them know you’re proud. Now the Web is becoming a part of their life at home and school — and there’s a new opportunity to connect you to their creations and cheer them on.
“Creativity now is as important in education as literacy, and we should treat it with the same status.”
– Sir Ken RobinsonWhen you get your kid to join DIY early, you’re helping to recognize creativity as an essential part of every kid’s education, and possibly a requirement for their satisfaction as an adult. Sadly, most adults don’t believe they’re creative although we’re all capable of it at any age! We believe that to accept yourself as a creative adult you must start as a kid who is fearless of learning new skills and doing it yourself. Encouraging your kids to be inventive and self-reliant now will better prepare them to participate in a world that keeps changing.
Here’s how it works today:
- DIY kids sign up and get their own Portfolio, a public web page to show off what they make.
- They upload pictures of their projects using diy.org or our iOS app.
- Kids’ projects are online for everyone to see, you can add Stickers to show support.
- You also have your own dashboard to follow their activity and to make sure they’re not sharing anything that should be private.
Kids are ready for this. They’re instinctively scientists and explorers. They’re quick to build using anything at their disposal. They transform their amazement of the world into games. They’re often drawn to learning that’s indistinguishable from play (think about bug collecting!). And, most important, they embrace technology.
We’re grateful for your help to make this company, and grow the next — hopefully larger — generation of creative kids.
– Zach Klein, Isaiah Saxon, Andrew Sliwinski, Daren Rabinovitch
(and Dave, Brian, Mike, Courtney, David, Lucas, Shawn, and Sean!)PS. See our Parents page for more information. Or you can follow @DIY to see important updates.
From http://kianorshahmohammadi.com/post/146721363770
Global markets are intertwined. The tsunami of 2008 on financial markets proved one thing. A financial crisis leaves no market unscathed. And the ill effects can be felt for years to come.
The rise and prominence of broader and deeper regulation has been undoubtedly necessary but pressure for governments to ensure they serve their national interest for political longevity continues to have an ironic twist.
Tighter control means greater restriction at source. Rightly so I hear you say. Complex banking structures have become the perfect breeding ground for the manipulation of markets. Tapping into these structures to avoid further crises has resulted in the rise of SUPER regulation – regulatory frameworks applied to multiple jurisdictions in order to intercept points of failure that structures, markets and countries invariably offer up.
But markets play forward. Decisions and actions made or taken at source have a multiplier effect and in the connected world we live, the consequences have and continue to ricochet along the financial supply chain – central bank to Mr & Mrs Smith.
Liquidity simply refers to level banks can lend. Markets thrive on the flow of money. But ‘money’ takes on different definitions depending on market sentiment. The tolerance for credit expands in bull markets and the cost of money drops – as credit becomes more accessible the line between credit and ‘cash’ takes on a far more porous quality. When things turn bear, then the liquidity quotient rises and the value of cash vs credit rises.
Everything gets more costly. For the banks – safeguarding against further penalties through higher levels of collateral lodged with a central bank is just one pressure weighing down on them. This means less freedom of movement. And that ultimately stifles the rest of the market.
The Basel III framework is calling for unprecedented levels of both liquidity and capital ratios. As a result liquidity costs have increased as a percentage of a bank’s total capital from 1% in 2008 to 30% in 2012 such that every $1 billion increase in the size of a bank’s liquidity buffers increases its costs by $10 million per year.
And it doesn’t stop there. All banks have inherent legacy costs. Structures, data and disconnected processes simply do not allow for compliance requirements that force unity. A 2011 study revealed that internal fragmentation of global collateral management costs banks over $4 billion a year. What this means is that many banks could be laying too much of their asset book at the central bank’s doors each day – just to ensure they are not exposed on intra-day liquidity requirements.
The result – even more throttle placed on flow of funding into the market – painful for a bank trying to remain competitive and for all market players big and small.
For the most part regulators have highlighted – what must not happen again as the enforcer. How to enable the journey is far tougher.
The Basel Committee recognizes this and by design & necessity – have evolved their thinking for Basel III implementation such that there is a willingness to engage with market recipients to explore the pragmatic so that that financial institutions can work alongside regulators to explore ways in which the ‘rules’ can be adhered in ways that are benefit the onward health of the market.
What is emerging is that regulators are needing to be an enabling force 1st and enforcer 2nd so that ways can be sought to bridge the gap between entrenched models and agile operations. There is way more to be gained by figuring out the implementation in unison. The cynical may say ‘better the devil you know’. I would argue such labeling solves very little. We all need our banks to be healthy. Amen!
From http://kianorshahmohammadi.com/post/146721329460
Global markets are intertwined. The tsunami of 2008 on financial markets proved one thing. A financial crisis leaves no market unscathed. And the ill effects can be felt for years to come.
The rise and prominence of broader and deeper regulation has been undoubtedly necessary but pressure for governments to ensure they serve their national interest for political longevity continues to have an ironic twist.
Tighter control means greater restriction at source. Rightly so I hear you say. Complex banking structures have become the perfect breeding ground for the manipulation of markets. Tapping into these structures to avoid further crises has resulted in the rise of SUPER regulation – regulatory frameworks applied to multiple jurisdictions in order to intercept points of failure that structures, markets and countries invariably offer up.
But markets play forward. Decisions and actions made or taken at source have a multiplier effect and in the connected world we live, the consequences have and continue to ricochet along the financial supply chain – central bank to Mr & Mrs Smith.
Liquidity simply refers to level banks can lend. Markets thrive on the flow of money. But ‘money’ takes on different definitions depending on market sentiment. The tolerance for credit expands in bull markets and the cost of money drops – as credit becomes more accessible the line between credit and ‘cash’ takes on a far more porous quality. When things turn bear, then the liquidity quotient rises and the value of cash vs credit rises.
Everything gets more costly. For the banks – safeguarding against further penalties through higher levels of collateral lodged with a central bank is just one pressure weighing down on them. This means less freedom of movement. And that ultimately stifles the rest of the market.
The Basel III framework is calling for unprecedented levels of both liquidity and capital ratios. As a result liquidity costs have increased as a percentage of a bank’s total capital from 1% in 2008 to 30% in 2012 such that every $1 billion increase in the size of a bank’s liquidity buffers increases its costs by $10 million per year.
And it doesn’t stop there. All banks have inherent legacy costs. Structures, data and disconnected processes simply do not allow for compliance requirements that force unity. A 2011 study revealed that internal fragmentation of global collateral management costs banks over $4 billion a year. What this means is that many banks could be laying too much of their asset book at the central bank’s doors each day – just to ensure they are not exposed on intra-day liquidity requirements.
The result – even more throttle placed on flow of funding into the market – painful for a bank trying to remain competitive and for all market players big and small.
For the most part regulators have highlighted – what must not happen again as the enforcer. How to enable the journey is far tougher.
The Basel Committee recognizes this and by design & necessity – have evolved their thinking for Basel III implementation such that there is a willingness to engage with market recipients to explore the pragmatic so that that financial institutions can work alongside regulators to explore ways in which the ‘rules’ can be adhered in ways that are benefit the onward health of the market.
What is emerging is that regulators are needing to be an enabling force 1st and enforcer 2nd so that ways can be sought to bridge the gap between entrenched models and agile operations. There is way more to be gained by figuring out the implementation in unison. The cynical may say ‘better the devil you know’. I would argue such labeling solves very little. We all need our banks to be healthy. Amen!
From http://kianorshahmohammadi.com/post/146721329460
In the latest step at simplifying consumer payments, Bank of America announced today that it will pre-select customers’ eligible Visa cards for … http://bit.ly/1VbzKzq by @Finextra
From http://kianorshahmohammadi.com/post/146721283525
No matter what label you give it. Success will always be the outcome👍🏻 #business #businessman #success #startup #entrepreneur #quote #quotes #motivation #inspire #marketing #brand #fit #fitfam #fitness #gym #personaltrainer #optimizeenterprize #thebest #motivational #inspiration #inspirational #hustle #selfie #me #workout #video #believe #determination #art #artist
From http://kianorshahmohammadi.com/post/146721202200
The FINTECH Book is the 1st globally crowd-sourced book on the booming financial technology industry. More than 150+ authors participated in submitted their abstracts until May 2015.
Follow us on Twitter: @TheFINTECHBook
Readh the fantastic abstracts of our Authors online – cutting edge FINTECH knowledge & insights from around the world:
From http://kianorshahmohammadi.com/post/146672017620
I have been asked many times “Why Fintech now?” probably due to the fact that I came from banking industry and Fintech startup as well. My high level answer to this is very clear in two points though many say due to regulation change or just obsolete industry in terms of innovation;
1. Power Shift in Supply Chain
It has a lot to do with the higher penetration of smartphones, which almost work as mobile-pc in the pocket drastically lowering the asymmetry of information for end users. Because of this shift, especially consumers now get “choices” for whatever they are about to do. To me it is the next shape of “show-rooming” emerged due to the cost effective e-commerce site, (this is basically for PC users) and now it is literally happening similar things on the road. This brings the situation where users have incredibly lower switching cost as a result.
Thus, the power shift in supply chain has been changing from manufacturer and giant retailer to consumer. Fintech players are, often cases, keen on meeting demands of certain target segment with specifically designed UI/UX, what is called in the industry “unbundling of banking”. It now all comes back to the previously written post, industry needed this structure that the role as a retailer in financial market to attract end users.2. High Familiarity with Technology
Bank, its history goes back as old as thousand years, is the industry with high compatibility with data and technology. It always had to deal with massive calculation and prediction, which led the industry adopting latest technologies. The concept of currency wire transfer and future trading spread to other industry as a matter of fact. Just because technology existed in each sector of industry, once the move for integrating them take place due to demands from end users, the scale and speed can be phenomenal.
From http://kianorshahmohammadi.com/post/146671984225
You can visit me at http://kianorshahmohammadi.co/ #KianorShahmohammadi #Kianor #Shahmohammadi
#motivational #inspirational #instaquote #instagood
From http://kianorshahmohammadi.com/post/146671873010
Follow your dreams .
Kianorshah.co
#motivational
From http://kianorshahmohammadi.com/post/146506413695
I am not a believer in luck. My life experience has shown me that fortune, material or otherwise is not linked to some surprising intervention of destiny, but always to a heightened connection, an innate drive, a desire to achieve and learn no matter what background, culture or creed you originate from.
I grew up in South Africa. A world of contrasts where on the face of it, the gulf between those that are fortunate (however you define that) and those that are not can be put down to social, political and economic influences. But this is an over simplification, and I have learnt to truly appreciate that despite huge barriers to overcome, lives can be changed dramatically by those who see things differently, who acknowledge challenge but creatively and very often collaboratively come together to break ‘barriers’. After all, I transitioned with the Madiba generation – a youth in my 20’s when my country flipped from one world to another with the freedom of the world icon, Nelson Mandela.
London has been my home for the last 15 years and yet it has only been in the last few that I can truly say I recognize how the piecing together of my heritage, career, location, and network have made for an obvious magnetism to the World where finance meets technology.
I found my way into this industry just a short 3 years ago, managing the launch of an integrated payments engine for a global FTSE 100 software company. The momentum of the market combined with the relative shortage of cross industry skills – technology vs finance – provided me with an early window to recognize the value of those who could work across the industries but also blend and broker the sources of innovation – in the form of new entrants with large institutional incumbents.
The potential force that Fintech can and should be, has afforded me a rare opportunity – to toss aside the confines of old working models, leverage my intertwined desire to be an entrepreneur, advisor, broker and industry change agent – with the potential to make an impact I never imagined. Timing, market momentum, location and my own personal drivers have conspired to draw me into this World, and it fits me perfectly.
This is a vastly complex multi industry stream of technologies which are driving change across the financial supply chain from the incarnation of the money flow and liquidity at wholesale bank level through to the retail convenience of the person in the street. The value created by innovation in Fintech can and will affect almost every aspect of society. More than half of the global non cash payments growth comes from developing countries and in 2015 the number of mobile payments are projected to grow at 60.8% (RBS and Capgemini World Payments Report, 2014).
Institutions and regulators alike are embracing the need to get in on the act through links to accelerators such as Barclays, Lloyds and Rabobank. Others are launching venture funds (Santander £100million) or directly making investments in companies such as Goldman Sachs’s £15mill funding round in Kensho alongside some other big name investors.
The consequence is profound – the models for the way in which money is made, moves and protected is transforming – so that country, institution and individual can and will be impacted.
Dare I say it, Fintech could be considered a movement for Global change. The launch of Innovate Finance last August 2014 by George Osborne drove home the collective strength of government work with industry for greater inclusion in financial services is indicative of the power we are building here.
It is rare to be surrounded by an amazingly open and collaborative global peer group of industry influencers, market and policy driven momentum. Added to this, the insatiable appetite to drive and consume innovation. Company founders, investors, financial services companies, foundations, trade bodies and thought leaders are converging to explore collaboration in multiple forms. The consequence just for the UK and Ireland has been a tripling of the volume of deals since 2011 (Accenture – The Boom in Global Fintech Investment, 2014).
I feel this is my little window into history in the making. My character piece, fuelled by my own personal opportunity to write a page. A passion for my country of birth and my city I now call home and all the chapters in between are a force which has helped me find my Fintech fortune…and ironically that’s not just about money….
From http://kianorshahmohammadi.com/post/146456822325
Join our Global FINTECH Community, share your knowledge & insights and connect with amazing FINTECH entrepreneurs, investors, innovators at leading financial organization and fintech thought-leaders across retail, corporate, investment banking, transaction banking, asset and wealth management and cryptocurrencies. Joint the FINTECH revolution!
From http://kianorshahmohammadi.com/post/146456788435
I have been asked many times “Why Fintech now?” probably due to the fact that I came from banking industry and Fintech startup as well. My high level answer to this is very clear in two points though many say due to regulation change or just obsolete industry in terms of innovation;
1. Power Shift in Supply Chain
It has a lot to do with the higher penetration of smartphones, which almost work as mobile-pc in the pocket drastically lowering the asymmetry of information for end users. Because of this shift, especially consumers now get “choices” for whatever they are about to do. To me it is the next shape of “show-rooming” emerged due to the cost effective e-commerce site, (this is basically for PC users) and now it is literally happening similar things on the road. This brings the situation where users have incredibly lower switching cost as a result.
Thus, the power shift in supply chain has been changing from manufacturer and giant retailer to consumer. Fintech players are, often cases, keen on meeting demands of certain target segment with specifically designed UI/UX, what is called in the industry “unbundling of banking”. It now all comes back to the previously written post, industry needed this structure that the role as a retailer in financial market to attract end users.2. High Familiarity with Technology
Bank, its history goes back as old as thousand years, is the industry with high compatibility with data and technology. It always had to deal with massive calculation and prediction, which led the industry adopting latest technologies. The concept of currency wire transfer and future trading spread to other industry as a matter of fact. Just because technology existed in each sector of industry, once the move for integrating them take place due to demands from end users, the scale and speed can be phenomenal.
From http://kianorshahmohammadi.com/post/146456770280
A few simple kind words can make a massive lasting impact!
From http://kianorshahmohammadi.com/post/146376727290
Site crowdsources online deals in exchange for Bitcoin
We have already seen the flexible digital currency Bitcoin used to teach children about charity, and fund adblocking and provide an income for online publishers. Now, Bitfortip is a new online community, which enables anyone to offer micropayments in exchange for money-saving suggestions. READ MORE…
From http://kianorshahmohammadi.com/post/146277226380
Walmart Canada to stop accepting Visa cards due to ‘unacceptably high’ fees https://t.co/Vf63jXvLdr#FinTech
— Financial Technology (@_FinTech_) June 21, 2016
//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
via Twitter https://twitter.com/_FinTech_June 21, 2016 at 06:19AM
From http://kianorshahmohammadi.com/post/146277193950
Number26 raises another $40 million for its vision for the future of banking https://t.co/FSgSohuW2z#FinTech
— Financial Technology (@_FinTech_) June 21, 2016
//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
via Twitter https://twitter.com/_FinTech_June 21, 2016 at 07:33AM
From http://kianorshahmohammadi.com/post/146277164015
Life is short. Enjoy it.
#motivation #inspiration #success #successful #
From http://kianorshahmohammadi.com/post/146277042070
