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About NarimaN

I believe I'm a passenger forever... Now, at this period of my life, I'm a student again and am trying to be a good one! ...This website is a place for my studies, professional topics, assignments, tips, useful links and sometimes my life!

Financial engineering, 10 Definitions

03 Jan

What is financial engineering? Here are 10 definitions about FE.

Based on International Association of Financial Engineers (IAFE) definition, Financial Engineering is the creation of new and improved financial products through innovative design or repackaging of existing financial instruments.

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Financial engineering is an engineering discipline which deals with the creation of new and improved financial products through innovative design or repackaging of existing financial instruments. Financially, engineered products like American Depository Receipt (ADR) and Global Depository Receipt (GDR) have provided companies access to international financial markets to raise funds. However, financial engineering is considered as being responsible for triggering the global financial crisis by increasing leverage and price risks (Shah & Srinivasan, 2010).

***

Financial Engineering is a multidisciplinary field involving financial theory, the methods of engineering, the tools of mathematics and the practice of programming. It is about the securities, banking, and financial management and consulting industries, or as quantitative analysts in corporate treasury and finance departments of general manufacturing and service firms (Swishchuk & Manca, 2010).

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Mainstream financial engineering as a study of methods that stand upon the  assumptions of behavior, markets and institutions of the neoclassical vintage is critically examined (Choudhury, 2009).

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Financial engineering is a process in which financial securities are designed and packaged with innovative features. Typically, financial engineering involves creating certain type of derivative securities. House construction is to civil engineering what security packaging is to financial engineering. They both involve putting raw materials together to come up with something for a particular purpose.  Civil engineers wear hard hats and heavy boots for protection and safety while financial engineers “wrap” themselves in legal papers full of cryptic fine prints (Wei, 2005).

***

FINANCIAL ENGINEERING is a process involving the creation and combination of a variety of financial instruments in order achieve a defined financial objective within certain cost, tax and legal constraints, e.g. combining or dividing existing financial products to create new financial products (Gastineau & Kritzman, 1999).

***

Financial engineering sometimes also refers to the strategies companies use to maximize profits or other important performance metrics. Examples include creating derivatives that address unusual risks faced by a party to a transaction, structuring a purchase or sale in a way that better addresses the interests of the buyer and the seller, and using new methods to compute the fair market value of new or existing financial instruments (Zopounidis, 1999).

***

Financial engineering works in other environments as well. The financial theory of offering several existing products under one package has become very common in the telecommunications industry. Many providers today offer bundled service packages that include local phone service, unlimited national long distance, Internet service, and cable or digital satellite television. The end result of this type of arrangement means one lower price to obtain three or more services at significant cost savings to the consumer (Smithson, 1998).

***

Financial engineering is the innovation and creation of new financial instruments. The most important products of financial engineering are speculative bonds, zero coupon, securities assets, financial derivatives and repurchase agreements (Moles & Terry, 1997).

***

Computational finance, also called financial engineering, is a cross-disciplinary field which relies on computational intelligence, mathematical finance, numerical methods and computer simulations to make trading, hedging and investment decisions, as well as facilitating the risk management of those decisions. Utilizing various methods, practitioners of computational finance aim to precisely determine the financial risk that certain financial instruments create (Bradman, Rouge, Pentecostalism, Pentecostal, & Woroniecki).

 

References

Bradman, D., Rouge, B., Pentecostalism, O., Pentecostal, O., & Woroniecki, M. P. Encyclopedia> Cheminformatics.

Choudhury, M. A. (2009). Islamic Critique and Alternative to Financial Engineering Issues. Islamic Economics, 22(2).

Gastineau, G. L., & Kritzman, M. P. (1999). The dictionary of financial risk management (Vol. 52): Wiley.

Moles, P., & Terry, N. (1997). The handbook of international financial terms: Oxford University Press, USA.

Shah, V., & Srinivasan, P. (2010). Financial Engineering and Innovation as Risk Management Tools: The Case of Indian Companies During Global Financial Crisis. IUP Journal of Risk & Insurance, Vol. 7, Nos. 1 & 2, pp. 50-66, January & April 2010.

Smithson, C. W. (1998). Managing financial risk: a guide to derivative products, financial engineering, and value maximization: McGraw-Hill Professional.

Swishchuk, A., & Manca, R. (2010). Modeling and Pricing of Variance and Volatility Swaps for Local Semi-Markov Volatilities in Financial Engineering. Mathematical Problems in Engineering, 2010.

Wei, J. Z. ( 2005). A Layman’s Guide to Financial Terms. 24.

Zopounidis, C. (1999). Multicriteria decision aid in financial management. European Journal of Operational Research, 119(2), 404-415.

 
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Posted by on January 3, 2012 in FIN, MBA

 

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Happy birthday 2012!

31 Dec

Happy new year everyone! Wish you all a very good year, full of joy, happiness and peace.

 
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Posted by on December 31, 2011 in Life & Economy, Others

 

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Different types of derivatives market

30 Oct

Derivatives are financial instruments used to manage one’s exposure to today’s volatile markets. A derivative product’s value depends upon and is derived from an underlying instrument, such as commodities, interest rates, indices or stocks.

In other words, a derivative is a financial contract with a value linked to the expected future price movements of an underlying asset it is linked. It is used as a tool for hedging, speculating and arbitraging.

Forward

Forward contract forms the oldest type of derivatives market. Forward by definition is an agreement to buy and sell a specified security at a specified price to be delivered at the maturity date in the future. The agreement is privately arranged to fulfill the need of both contracting parties, a buyer and seller. If one party intends to close out the contract it must be at the consent of the other party. Therefore a forward contract is technically referred to as a privately negotiated agreement.

Futures

Futures are traded on a futures exchange and represent an obligation to buy or sell a specified underlying instrument on a specified date (the delivery date or final settlement date) in the future at a specified price (the futures price). The settlement price is the price of the underlying asset on the delivery date. Both parties to a futures contract are legally bound to fulfill the contract on the delivery date. If the holder of a futures position wishes to exit their obligation before the delivery date, they must offset it either by selling a long position or buying back a short position. Such an action effectively closes the futures position and its contractual obligations.

Future market develops as a result of insufficient trading requirement of forward transactions. Either party justifies this because forward as a private agreement does not guarantee the fulfillment of the contract. A third party is required to act as a guarantor, namely the clearing house. It serves as a buyer for every seller and vice versa.

Options

An option is a financial instrument that gives the holder the right to engage in a future transaction on an underlying security or futures contract. The holder is under no obligation to exercise this right. There are two main types of option. A call option gives the holder the right to purchase a specified quantity of a security at a fixed price (the strike price) on or before the specified expiration date. A put option gives the holder the right to sell. If the holder chooses to exercise the option, the party who sold, or wrote, the option is obliged to fulfill the terms of the contract.

Since forward and futures trading obligates both buyer and seller to fulfill their contracts, a third form of derivatives is introduced that provides a right to one party and obligation to the other party. Options trading are a contract that gives a right without obligation to the buyer, while the seller has an obligation if requested by the buyer to buy or sell at a specified security at specified price and time.

 Swap

A swap is a derivative in which two parties agree to exchange a set of cash flows (or leg) for another set. A notional principal amount is used to calculate each cash flow; these are rarely exchanged by the parties. A swap is usually used to hedge a risk, such as an interest-rate risk, or to speculate on a price change. It may also be used to access an underlying asset in order to earn a profit or loss from any change in price while avoiding posting the notional amount in cash or collateral.

Below are some of the uses of derivatives like futures and options, as listed by John C. Hull in his 1999 book titled ‘Options, Futures and Other Derivatives’.

  • Derivatives are very good risk management tools and are mainly used to hedge risks that a trader is routinely exposed to. Derivative instruments offer the trader, the option of passing on some of the risk that he’s bearing over to another party. He either takes on another risk in return or makes a cash payment in exchange for the risk transfer.
  • Derivative instruments like forwards and futures play a key role in giving directions to the market prices of the future. Forwards and futures prices are good reflectors of the price directions as well as the expected change in the future prices of the underlying asset.
  • Derivatives offer the traders an option to change the nature of their liabilities and exchange the risks associated with some of their unwanted liabilities with some more bearable ones.
  • Derivatives can be used to make arbitrage profits. Arbitrage profit opportunities are those opportunities that allow for risk-free, zero net investment profits, by capitalizing on price differentials on the same commodity in different markets. The intention is to buy low and sell high in two different markets and pocket the differential profits.
  • Derivatives allow for large portfolio position changes without incurring the buying and selling transaction costs.

 

Advantages

The use of derivatives means that some financial risks can be transferred to other parties who are more willing or better suited to take or manage those risks and can thus be a useful tool for risk management.

Purchasing derivatives can be a safer choice if there is a possibility of a looming bear market as they are hedged, unlike equities.

Buying now at a future price can be cheaper than buying at market price in the future, bearing in mind that the spot price could be less expensive. A long call option requires no obligation when it is due.

Disadvantages

If the market changes dramatically, it is possible to lose financially if the derivatives are being used as a speculative instrument.

If you hold the put option on a derivative, you are obliged to adhere to it if the holder of the call chooses to exercise their right to sell or buy.

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If you are interested to the famous companies name etymologies maybe you would like to take a look at this list of company names with their name origins explained. Some origins are disputed.

List of company name etymologies

 
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Posted by on October 30, 2011 in FIN, MBA

 

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Financial engineering

22 Sep

What Does Financial Engineering Mean?

It means the creation of new and improved financial products through innovative design or repackaging of existing financial instruments.

Financial Engineering is a multidisciplinary field involving financial theory, the methods of engineering, the tools of mathematics and the practice of programming. It is about the securities, banking, and financial management and consulting industries, or as quantitative analysts in corporate treasury and finance departments of general manufacturing and service firms.

Financial engineering works in other environments as well. The financial theory of offering several existing products under one package has become very common in the telecommunications industry. Many providers today offer bundled service packages that include local phone service, unlimited national long distance, Internet service, and cable or digital satellite television. The end result of this type of arrangement means one lower price to obtain three or more services at significant cost savings to the consumer.

AIMS

Sometimes known as computational finance, financial engineering relies heavily on mathematically calculating the outcome if various combinations of financial instruments are offered under one umbrella as a package deal. Usually, the calculations indicate that the providers stand to do very well with the new hybrid financial product, as the product holds the potential to attract new consumers who would have foregone use of one or more of the instruments if the only option was to purchase them individually.

Areas of application:

  • Investment banking
  • Forecasting
  • Corporate strategic planning
  • Securities trading and financial risk management
  • Derivatives trading and risk management
  • Investment management
  • Pension scheme
  • Insurance policy
  • • Credit default swap
  • • Market mechanism design

INSTROUMENTS

The convention in financial markets is to divide these instruments according to the following sectors:

1. Fixed income instruments. These are interbank certificates of deposit (CDs), or deposits (depos), commercial paper (CP), banker’s acceptances, and Treasury bill (T-Bills). These are considered to be money market instruments. Bonds, notes, and Floating Rate Notes (FRNs) are bond market instruments.

2. Equities. These are various types of stock issued by public companies.

3. Currencies and commodities.

4. Derivatives, the major classes of which are interest rate, equity, currency, and commodity derivatives.

5. Credit instruments, which are mainly high-yield bonds, corporate bonds, credit derivatives, CDSs, and various guarantees that are early versions of the former.

Financial engineering is a process that utilizes existing financial instruments to create a new and enhanced product of some type. Just about any combination of financial instruments and products can be used in financial engineering. The process may involve a simple union between two products, or make use of several different products to create a new product that provides benefits that none of the other instruments could manage on their own.

A financial engineer works with a variety of different tools to determine the risks and potential of financial investment. These specialists work extensively with mathematical formulas and computer programs in order to create sophisticated models of market trends and risks. Though companies may employ a person with an advanced degree in financial engineering as such an engineer, it is more common for these specialists to work as traders, bankers, or investment managers, and to utilize their financial engineering background in these careers in order to improve the quality of services they can provide to their clients.

One of the main responsibilities of a financial engineer is to know a great deal about financial theory and the behavior of various financial markets. These engineers use this knowledge when creating tools or simulations that will help them to make predictions about the future behavior of a market. Though unexpected events can arise in any financial market, knowledge of past market behavior and the theory that explains that behavior will help the financial engineer extrapolate from the past to make predictions about the future.

In addition to having a strong foundation in this knowledge base, the financial engineer needs to be adept at computer programming. The engineer uses programs to design simulations of market behavior. Though these programs cannot always predict the way the market will shift, a financial engineer is expected to be able to come up with reasonably accurate results based on the simulations the engineer has designed.

Many financial engineers work in the field of financial risk management. Using a knowledge of the market and computer simulations, a financial engineer can form an investment plan that includes as much of a risk factor as a person or company desires. While it may seem counter-intuitive to desire a greater amount of risk, riskier investments tend to pay off at higher yields than investments that are considered to be more stable. A person or company may turn to a financial engineer to design an investment portfolio that places some, all, or none of the investment capital at risk.

A financial engineer may also work as a financial analyst. These engineers use their knowledge and computer simulations to make predictions about the future behavior of the market. Many people with these skills may work for banks or other financial institutions, though there are also government jobs available for specialists in this field. These specialists may be employed to make recommendations to local, state, or federal government with regard the economy.

EXAMPLE

One excellent example of financial engineering is financial reinsurance. Companies that offer reinsurance options essentially provide a way for the ceding insurer to minimize a drain on available resources when a major shift in premium growth or reduction is taking place. In this scenario, the process of financial engineering helps to create a stable environment that will allow the insurer to remain solvent and stable even when extreme conditions exist.

Financial Reinsurance (or fin re), is a form of reinsurance which is focused more on capital management than on risk transfer. In the non-life segment of the insurance industry this class of transactions is often referred to as finite reinsurance.

One of the particular difficulties of running an insurance company is that its financial results – and hence its profitability – tend to be uneven from one year to the next. Since insurance companies generally want to produce consistent results, they may be attracted to ways of hoarding this year’s profit to pay for next year’s possible losses (within the constraints of the applicable standards for financial reporting). Financial reinsurance is one means by which insurance companies can “smooth” their results.

A pure ‘fin re’ contract for a non-life insurer tends to cover a multi-year period, during which the premium is held and invested by the reinsurer. It is returned to the ceding company – minus a pre-determined profit-margin for the reinsurer – either when the period has elapsed, or when the ceding company suffers a loss. ‘Fin re’ therefore differs from conventional reinsurance because most of the premium is returned whether there is a loss or not: little or no risk-transfer has taken place.

In the life insurance segment, fin re is more usually used as a way for the reinsurer to provide financing to a life insurance company, much like a loan except that the reinsurer accepts some risk on the portfolio of business reinsured under the fin re contract. Repayment of the fin re is usually linked to the profit profile of the business reinsured and therefore typically takes a number of years. Fin re is used in preference to a plain loan because repayment is conditional on the future profitable performance of the business reinsured such that, in some regimes, it does not need to be recognised as a liability for published solvency reporting.

For the consumer, the work of a financial engineer to create new finance product offerings can be a great advantage. In some instances, the new and improved product is simply a repackage of several independent but complimentary products made available at a lower price. For example, the consumer may find that purchasing insurance coverage that provides dental, hospital, and prescription coverage may be significantly less expensive than purchasing individual plans.

 
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Posted by on September 22, 2011 in FIN, MBA

 

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How microblogs can be used in education and teaching?

20 Jun

How micro-blogs can be used in education and teaching?

During last ten years, Web 2.0 has turned into an amazing success story. These days World Wide Web is driven by user generated content, the use of weblogs, wikis, micro blogs and podcasts has increased dramatically. Social media, social networks and social communities all represent a new form of collaboration and communication. In a short space of time, the World Wide Web has been transformed from a static information medium into a worldwide communication platform.(Brown, 2008)

Web 2.0 technologies are also of great interest, given that the use of the internet for educational purposes, known as e-learning or Technology Enhanced Learning, is a very important future stakeholder for education. Stephen Downes (2005) introduced a new term, ‘‘e-Learning 2.0”, and thus coined a name for the use of wikis, weblogs and podcasts in educational settings. Since then, much research work has been done and many publications (Augar, Raitman, & Zhou, 2005; Caddick, 2006; Evans, 2007; Towned, 2005; Raitman, Augar, & Zhou, 2005; Ebner, 2007) and scientific reports have pointed out how these new technological possibilities can be used in the context of our social environments. Collaboration and communication by means of weblogs and wikis enhance traditional education in a new and exciting way.

In recent years there have been mainly two reasons for the increasing attention given to process-oriented approaches in didactics. The first can be traced back to the development of a constructivist approach to learning. In this context the process of knowledge construction, the person’s own learning process, leads to the application of process-oriented learning. As a result, more attention is given to the matter of the learner’s own attitude as well as the opinions of others.

From this perspective, learning processes cannot be tightly structured and the results of learning are almost unpredictable. In addition, the relevance of process knowledge is increasing as the time factor plays a less important role. Process orientation does not refer to a tight structuring of the learning process, but rather to the possibility of trying out a range of learning strategies and reflecting on these.(Ebner et al., 2010)

Against this background the role of the teacher changes from that of a knowledge distributor to a facilitator of self-directed learning.

Therefore the instructional design (and the use of media) should concentrate on facilitating the learning process. This can be ensured primarily by creating favourable learning conditions (Kyndt, Dochy, & Nijs, 2009). With regard to communication, a basic openness is needed and the possibility to contribute one’s opinions and discuss different views.

Microblogging

Micro blogging can foster process-oriented learning. The advantage of micro blogging consists mainly in the possibility of giving immediate feedback, as well as in the documentation of processes. The latter feature is relevant in two different ways: firstly, learning contributions can be consulted to obtain a summative account of learning activities and learning progress, and secondly, micro blogging offers the possibility to monitor learning processes and to respond to peer activity during the process (information awareness). However, certain disadvantages are evident. The same aspects that can be evaluated positively can be evaluated negatively(Ebner et al., 2010). For example, the limitation of 140 characters forces the learner to focus on the topic, but does not allow him or her to express complex thoughts. In addition, the possibility for private conversation may serve to bridge the gap between formal and informal learning or it may invite the learner to focus only on private exchange and/or to miss the separation between educational/ vocational and private use. In its favor, micro blogging can foster media literacy.(Cook, 2008)

This video would help you with some useful information. Check it out!

References

  • BROWN, G. 2008. Social Media 100 Success Secrets: Social Media, Web 2.0 User-Generated Content and Virtual Communities-100 Most Asked Mass Collaboration Questions, Lulu. com.
  • COOK, N. 2008. Enterprise 2.0: how social software will change the future of work, Ashgate Pub Co.
  • EBNER, M., LIENHARDT, C., ROHS, M. & MEYER, I. 2010. Microblogs in Higher Education-A chance to facilitate informal and process-oriented learning? Computers & Education, 55, 92-100.
 
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Posted by on June 20, 2011 in Digital Millennium

 

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Copyright

16 Jun

 What is protected by copyright?

At this post I’m going through the United States’ copyright law. The U.S. Congress first implemented its power to enact copyright legislation at 1790. The Act secured an author the exclusive right to publish and vend “maps, charts and books” for a term of 14 years, with the right of renewal for one additional 14 year term if the author was still alive. The act did not regulate other kinds of writings and specifically noted that it did not prohibit copying the works of foreign authors. The vast majority of writings were never registered.

Copyright law has been changed so many times since to cover new technologies such as music recording, to enlarge the period of protection and so on.

U.S. courts have interpreted this clause of the Constitution to say that the ultimate purpose of copyrights is to encourage the production of creative works for the public benefit, and that therefore the interests of the public are primary over the interests of the author when the two conflict. These rulings have since been formalized into fair use laws and decisions. Certain attempts by copyright owners to restrict uses beyond the rights provided for by copyright law may also subject them to the copyright misuse doctrine, preventing enforcement against infringers. [1]

Copyright Act of 1790 in Colombian Centinel

The Copyright Act of 1790 in the Columbian Centinel

Copyright protects works such as movies, poetry, video games, CD-ROMs, videos, plays, paintings, sheet music, recorded music performances, novels,software code, sculptures, photographs, choreography and architectural designs. Key laws regulating U.S. copyrights and their key effects arranged in chronological order are as below:

  • “Copyright Act of 1790 - established U.S. copyright with term of 14 years with 14-year renewal
  • Copyright Act of 1831 - extended the term to 28 years with 14-year renewal
  • Copyright Act of 1909 - extended term to 28 years with 28-year renewal
  • Universal Copyright Convention - ratified by the U.S. in 1954, and again in 1971, this treaty was developed by UNESCO as an alternative to the Berne Convention
  • Copyright Act of 1976 - extended term to either 75 years or life of author plus 50 years; extended federal copyright to unpublished works; preempted state copyright laws; codified much copyright doctrine that had originated in case law
  • Berne Convention Implementation Act of 1988 - established copyrights of U.S. works in Berne Convention countries
  • Copyright Renewal Act of 1992 - removed the requirement for renewal
  • Uruguay Round Agreements Act (URAA) of 1994 - restored U.S. copyright for certain foreign works
  • Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998 – extended terms to 95/120 years or life plus 70 years
  • Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 - criminalized some cases of copyright infringement”[2]

To qualify for copyright protection, a work must be

1.    Fixed in a tangible medium of expression

2.    The work must be original

3.    The work must be the result of at least some creative effort on the part of its author.

Being fixed in a tangible medium of expression means that the work must exist in some physical form for at least some period of time, no matter how brief. Virtually any form of expression will qualify as a tangible medium, including a computer’s random access memory (RAM), the recording media that capture all radio and television broadcasts, and the untidy notes on an envelope that contain the basis for an unprepared speech.

In addition, the work must be original. That means it should be independently created by the author. It doesn’t matter if an author’s creation is similar to existing works, or even if it is arguably lacking in worth, ingenuity or artistic merit. So long as the author toils without copying from someone else, the results are protected by copyright.

Finally, a work must be the result of at least some creative effort on the part of its author. There is no without doubt rule as to how much creativity is enough.

Copyright does not cover the ideas or facts upon which the expression is based. For example, copyright may protect a specific song, narrative, or computer game about a romance in space, but it cannot protect the underlying idea of having a love affair among the stars. Allowing authors to monopolize their ideas would thwart the underlying purpose of copyright law, which is to encourage people to create new work.

Differences between economic and moral copyright

Moral rights are rights of creators of copyrighted works generally recognized in civil law jurisdictions and, to a lesser extent, in some common law jurisdictions.

They include the right of attribution, the right to have a work published anonymously or pseudonymously, and the right to the integrity of the work. The preserving of the integrity of the work bars the work from alteration, distortion, or mutilation. Anything else that may detract from the artist’s relationship with the work even after it leaves the artist’s possession or ownership may bring these moral rights into play.

Moral rights are distinct from any economic rights tied to copyrights. Even if an artist has assigned his or her copyright rights to a work to a third party, he or she still maintains the moral rights to the work. (Wikipedia)

Moral rights were first recognized in some European countries, before they were included in the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works in 1928. Then Canada recognizes moral rights in its Copyright Act. While the United States became a participant to the convention in 1988, it still does not completely recognize moral rights as part of copyright law, but the United States finally in the Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990 (VARA) recognizes moral rights, although applies only to works of visual art.

One exception from copyright

There are some limitations on exclusive rights such as fair use, Reproduction by libraries and archives, Effect of transfer of particular copy or phonorecord, Secondary transmissions, and Ephemeral recordings and etc.

The fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. The fact that a work is unpublished shall not itself bar a finding of fair use if such finding is made upon consideration of all the above factors. [2]

 

 REFERENCES

1.    U.S. Copyright Law analysis, Fact-index.com  http://www.fact-index.com/u/un/united_states_copyright_law.html

2.    U.S. Copyright Law, U.S. Copyright Office http://www.copyright.gov/laws/

3.    Peter K, Yu (2007). Intellectual Property and Information Wealth: Copyright and related rights. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 142.ISBN 9780275988838.

4.    Irving, Shae and Kathleen Michon.  “Copyrights.”  Nolo’s Encyclopedia of Everyday, Law 3rd Edition (June 2001)

5.    Copyright and Fair Use, Stanford University,http://fairuse.stanford.edu/Copyright_and_Fair_Use_Overview/chapter9/index.html

6.    Monty Python, v. American Broadcasting Companies, Inc., 538 F.2d 14 (2d Cir 1976)

 
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Posted by on June 16, 2011 in MBA, Others

 

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Happy Persian New Year 1390!

18 Mar

Hey Guys! This post is quite old!
If you are seeking about Nowruz 1391, please see this Post of mine!

This coming Monday (21st March 2011) will be the first day of Iranian New Year. We call it Norouz or Norooz. In the Persian language, Norouz means “new day”. It marks the first day of spring. It is celebrated on the day of the astronomical vernal equinox (the start of spring in the northern hemisphere). Many different countries celebrate Norouz, all of which were once part of the ancient Persian Empire or its neighbors.

Watch the video if you are interested to know more about Norouz and the ways we celebrate it. It’s great! Don’t miss it!

***

You can read my recent study about Social Networks which is one of my assignments on Social software and Web 2.00 course HERE. Check it out!

 
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Posted by on March 18, 2011 in Life & Economy

 

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Me and Gantt chart!

31 Jan

For one of my university’s projects I needed to plan a schedule. A lecturer of mine suggested the Gantt chart as a good instrument. To be frank I already had no idea about what exactly is and how does a Gantt chart work! So I surfed the internet and found lots of practical information about the Gantt chart and how to take it into account for project planning. Now I’m going to share them with you, maybe you either find it a useful and practical tool.

A Gantt chart is a type of bar chart that illustrates a project schedule. Gantt charts illustrate the start and finish dates of the terminal elements and summary elements of a project [*]. This graphical representation shows duration of tasks against the progression of time.

Example

In the following example there are seven tasks, labeled A through G. Some tasks can be done concurrently (A and B) while others cannot be done until their predecessor task is complete (C cannot begin until A is complete). Additionally, each task has three time estimates: the optimistic time estimate (O), the most likely or normal time estimate (M), and the pessimistic time estimate (P). The expected time (TE) is computed using the formula (O + 4M + P) ÷ 6.

Once this step is complete, one can draw a Gantt chart or a network diagram.

 

***

It is a common instrument for project planning and keeping track of the condition of individual tasks within a project. This type of chart was invented in 1910 by a mechanical engineer named Henry Gantt, and there are now a great many software tools that use Gantt charts in project planning. Excel is a popular tool for creating Gantt charts, but for more advanced project management activities, you may need a tool such as Microsoft Project or a project management add-in for Excel (download link / tutorial video).

There are lots of helpful videos on youtube.com; you just need to do a quick search.

Making a Gantt chart in Excel 2007

 
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Posted by on January 31, 2011 in MBA, OPM, Others

 

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Budget Puzzle

20 Nov

Just for a while imagine that you are about fixing the US annual budget! Imagine that you’re in charge of the nation’s finances. Some of your options have more short-term savings and some have more long-term savings. When you have closed the budget gaps for both 2015 and 2030, you are done. You can make your own plan, and then share it online.

Actually I solved the deficit in this way! It was not as easy as I thought!

Related articles: 16 Ways to cut the deficit

***

P. S. : At the University of Central Florida, more than 200 students have come forward to admit to cheating after their professor gave a lecture on ethics that has become a YouTube hit. I recommend don’t miss this lecture!

 
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Posted by on November 20, 2010 in FIN

 

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Combining cinema and TV advertising to boost ROI

10 Nov

The Cinema Advertising Council, the trade association of cinema advertising companies that represent 82% of U.S. movie screens, unveiled the results of a research study conducted on behalf of its members by Integrated Media Measurement Inc., provider of consumer behavior and audience exposure data to media companies and advertisers. According to the study, the results of a combined television and cinema ad campaign more than doubled the conversion rate as compared to television alone. The combined cinema-television buy also provided double the lift; extended incremental reach; and the ability to target key demographics including ‘ad-avoiders.’

Some advertisers and marketing specialists believe that the period of the silver screen is finishing and most people lose interest in going to the cinema. I believe there are various opinions about this issue. Some pessimistic views say nowadays, the era of many things like silver screen, tape recorder, walkman, ordinary TV sets, analog satellite …etc. are coming to an end and we will have to replace them with completely different hi-tech instruments. They usually say that we have to renew our life with new technological achievements and ignore before. In contrast, there is an optimistic view and I personally prefer it! This view believes in improvement process not elimination or extinction. It is a progress process: “all things are going to change to be more useful and more effective for individuals”. I consider this as a rule that there is no exception in the case of the silver screen. It means the silver screen will change to reach a better situation and advanced one. Take a look at the history of cinema from its first days up to now. You can see the cinema passed through a long and very hard way. It has been started as silent black-white motion pictures in the early 19th century up to today’s hi-tech 3D movies with special instruments for watching movies. So it is a non-stop and actively growing process.

Cinema is one of the most common entertainments for people even at the cyber space time and home theatre period. Millions of people go to the cinema and enjoy movies every day. In fact it is a great industry with an enormous annual turnover at most of the countries. Furthermore, going to the cinema has its own fun and grace. It is a very popular habit, sitting on a comfortable seat in a dark, big and cozy hall in front of a huge silver screen could be a great experience. Besides new technologies like Dolby Surround, 3D televisions and hi-tech special effects make this experience more exciting.

All of those above can insure us for using cinema advertising in long term and invest on its potential ability for boosting our advertising campaigns.

 
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Posted by on November 10, 2010 in Life & Economy, MKT

 

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