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The Field Guide to Human-Centered Design: A new book from IDEO.org is a ‘crib sheet’ for better social innovation
IDEO.org has published The Field Guide to Human-Centered Design, which showcases its 50-plus methods. IDEO.org’s Aaron Britt suggests we think of it as kind of a human-centered design crib sheet for bringing the voices and desires of the people you’re designing for into your work and as a map for iterating your way toward a successful social enterprise.
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- product design
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Financial Inclusion in Africa: “Things Are Further Behind Than People Think”
Plenty of progress has been made on increasing the size of Africa’s banked population. The trouble is, from the amount of noise that is made about the topic, you would be forgiven for thinking we had fixed the problem when we really haven’t.
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- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Bitcoin – The Next Big Thing in Finance (Or Is It?)
Asked to name an event that has reshaped finance in recent years, bankers will point to the collapse of Lehman Brothers on September 15th 2008, the nadir of the financial crisis. Fintech types are more likely to mention something that happened six weeks later. On October 31st 2008 Satoshi Nakamoto, a pseudonymous cryptography buff whose real identity remains a mystery, unveiled a project he dubbed bitcoin, “a new electronic cash system that’s fully peer-to-peer, with no trusted third party”. It described what appeared to be a robust framework for a currency that could run without the backing of any government. Enthusiasts proclaimed that finance was about to enter the era of crypto-currencies. Since the need for a trusted third party has traditionally been a large part of the banks’ raison d’être, this could mean that in future they will no longer be required—potentially a much more radical change than the other inroads fintech has made on their business.
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Xiaomi’s Money Market Fund Rolls Out of Beta, to Take on Alibaba and Tencent
Like Baidu and Alibaba, Xiaomi is eyeing China’s finance industry and seeing dollar signs. Today the company is officially launching a money-market fund called Huoqibao inside a new standalone app called “Xiaomi Finance.”
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- South Asia
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Viewpoint: India’s Financial Inclusion Schemes Are Fine, but Why Is the Government Not Addressing Banks’ Quality, Cost Concerns?
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his team at the NDA government deserve their due share of credit for initiating efforts to bring a large segment of India’s population to insurance, pension cover at cheaper cost, even as the Congress is crying foul of repacking old UPA ideas.
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- South Asia
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Six Nigerian Banks Unveils New m-Payment System
Mobile payment system just got more convenient in Nigeria as a consortium of six banks have inaugurated the Unified Payments’ electronic money transaction scheme known as PayAttitude.
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- Sub-Saharan Africa
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- digital payments
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What a Western Union, MoneyGram Merger Would Mean to Africa
Shares in MoneyGram International, one of the largest money transfer firm s in the world, rallied as much as 41 percent after Bloomberg, citing sources close to the deal, reported that the industry leader Western Union was in “early stage” talks to acquire MoneyGram.
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- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Another Use for Mobile in Microfinance: Getting Honest Feedback On Sensitive Topics
When our team first started doing this work four years ago, I used to get asked all the time, "So are you giving out mobile phones?" We use mobile technology to reach invisible populations like factory workers, farmers and, most recently, microfinance borrowers. In the last four years, mobile penetration has continued to skyrocket. India has three times as many mobile phones as the United States, and 78 percent mobile penetration. So the answer is no, we do not need to give out mobile phones.
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