Welcome to GIAN...!

GIAN is
India's first technology business
incubator focused on incubating and
commercialising grassroots innovations.
Grassroots innovations are essentially
solutions generated by people at the
grassroots levels to tide over persistent
problems, the solutions to which are
either not available or not affordable by a
large section of the consumer masses in
developing countries like India.
These innovations, therefore, capture an
unmet need of a large section of the
population and building a value chain
around these innovations to take them to
market holds the potential of wealth
creation in a truly sustainable and
equitable manner. The objective of GIAN
is to build the value chain around these
innovations with the end objective of
making these available to the masses
through the market mechanism or
otherwise.
 • What is the developmental paradigm based on grassroots innovations?
• Can grassroots innovation be a source for wealth creation? Can I have some
examples?
• Can I undertake a project with NIF where research inputs are needed in
commercialization of grassroots innovations? What could be possible areas of
projects?
• What kind of educational background should we have to take up internship
projects?
• What is the framework (application, selection criteria, stipend, duration,
deliverables, etc.) of undertaking a project withNIF?

What is the developmental paradigm based on grassroots innovations?

Grassroots technological innovations by definition are need-based, simple, cost-effective and

sustainable. The possibility of these technological solutions addressing local constraints in an
effective way is reasonably high, simply because these solutions originate from someone who has
first-hand experience of the issues involved. On the other hand, given the lack of financial and
technical resources present with the grassroots innovators, many grassroots innovations are
rudimentary and limited in terms of design. The experience of NIF shows that quite often people at
the grassroots develop solutions without any or with very limited external assistance. The magnitude
of demand also varies depending on how widespread the need is, how important the element of
regional specificity is and so on. This describes the challenges and opportunities for grassroots
innovations.

In essence, these innovations address the key needs of grassroots consumers, which have not been
met or satisfied by the existing Trickle-Down products and services. Hence, there is ample scope for
wealth creation by linking grassroots need-based technologies with formal sector technical &
commercial knowledge, to make them scalable and commercially attractive. There is a lot to be
done on this front.

Therefore, there is a need to build a value chain around these innovations and to provide incubation
support, if the benefits from these innovations have to be disseminated to consumers far and wide

NIF is mandated to fill this gap by linking the informal knowledge system (grassroots genius) with
formal knowledge system and thereby have a distributed knowledge system in place. Such an
attempt would ensure the reach of economically poor-knowledge rich people to the masses and will
also prevent the erosion of indigenous knowledge base.

Can grassroots innovation be a source for wealth creation? Can I have some examples?

Grassroots Innovations have an immense potential for wealth creation as it is the result of
unsatisfied human demand. Innovation when developed into product, have the potential to convert
this demand in potential market. Further market may be explored through identification of similar
geo-political–socio-eco area. Some of innovation with success in wealth generation are available at
http://west.gian.org/success_stories

Top an I undertake a project with NIF where research inputs are needed in
commercialization of grassroots innovations? What could be possible areas of projects?

Yes, NIF regularly associates interns/volunteers the requirement for which is at

http://www.nifindia.org/volunteer_nif.htm. The Interns with their concerned assignment guide can
mutually identify assignment to works on area such as;

• Technical documentation of innovations from nearby areas

 • Technical benchmarking of technologies
• Prototype development & validation/ Product Development
• Market benchmarking of technologies (Market research)
• Exploring licensing opportunities for several of these innovations through venture mall, or
entrepreneurship clearing house,
• Building technology networks by linking experts from technical institutions around each
technology,
• Managing some specific pages or functions at site (www.indiainnovates.com),
• Scouting innovations and traditional knowledge from slums, other localities, industrial
clusters, through students or otherwise, and
• Developing business plan for technologies from all over India but which have potential in
your regions.

What kind of educational background should we have to take up internship projects?

NIF regularly offers internship projects, to students having educational background in engineering,
Management, Agri-business, Rural development, Social Work and Intellectual Property Rights.

What is the framework (application, selection criteria, stipend, duration, deliverables,

etc.) of undertaking a project withNIF?

The Applicant should have social, technical and management background. Following experience
(skill and knowledge sets) is desired;

• Good understanding of business planning

• Exposure in market research/ Concept testing /Test marketing
• Good analytical skills
• Understanding of financial feasibility tools
• Good language and communication skills (report writing, presentation)
• Prior work experience in industry will be an advantage

Stipend may be decided on case to case basis.

Deliverables may be mutually decided with the concerned project guide.

Indian grassroots innovation in Pakistan for the first time!!!

17-06-2005, Ahmedabad:

In a momentous agreement that added a landmark dimension to India-Pakistan grassroots

partnership, Mr. M. Nagarajan of Madurai, Tamilnadu successfully signed a deal with Perfect Food
Industries of Lahore, Pakistan for his grassroots innovation - Garlic Peeling Machine. The final
payment was received today and the machine has been despatched, according to Mr. Manish
Saxena, National Coordinator-Business Development, National Innovation Foundation. The deal was
closed after 6 months of pitching and negotiation.

Prof Anil K Gupta, Exec. Vice-Chairperson and Ms Riya Sinha, Acting CIO –NIF congratulated Mr.
Nagarajan- the innovator and SEVA-who scouted this innovation.

Mr. M. Nagarajan of Madurai, Tamil Nadu, one of the thousands of grassroots innovators scouted by
NIF, was awarded at the hands of The Honourable President of India, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam on 5th
January, 2005 on the occasion of the 3rd National Grassroots Technological Innovations and
Traditional Knowledge Practices Award function of the National Innovation Foundation held at IIM,
Ahmedabad for his innovative Garlic Peeling machine and lemon cutting machine.

The garlic-peeling machine developed by Mr. Nagarajan has a number of advantages over its
contemporaries. It is extremely cost effective with low initial investment, low operating cost and low
maintenance cost. It is also particularly suited for the Indian variety of garlic, which has 3-4 times
more cloves in each fruit than the one grown in Europe. Hence, peeling this garlic with smaller
cloves would need higher levels of effectiveness, which has been achieved through this innovative
technology. The cost of peeling garlic using this machine is one fifth that of peeling garlic manually
and on an average half the cost of peeling using other Chinese or Taiwanese machines available in
the market.

Genesis
Mr. Nagarajan owned a small lathe workshop for manufacturing rice hulling units, grinders, etc. In
the last few years continuous drought affected not only the farmers but also all dependent
industries. These circumstances forced him to seek some other avenues for survival. Mr. Nagarajan’s
close interaction with some of the local pickle manufacturers exposed him to the problems prevailing
in the industry and they requested him to design and develop a system to peel garlic cloves for
making pickles. He successfully designed and developed a garlic-peeling machine in 2002 after two
years of hard work. Many Indian companies such as Cavin Care, Pandiyan Pickles, Priyam Foods, Eye
Pickles, Patak Foods, Tasty Foods and others are the satisfied users of Mr. Nagarajan’s machine and
Cavin Care has even placed a repeat order giving a testimony of its performance. Pursuing his
innovative spirit, Nagarajan later developed a lemon-cutting machine as well.

Mr. Muhammad Riaz Chaudhry, Chief Executive and Mr. Asif Muhammad Ali Shah, Director Technical
of Perfect Food Industries, Lahore, Pakistan contacted NIF after seeing Nagarajan’s machine on its
website and later followed this by a visit to Madurai, Tamil Nadu to see the machine and meet the
innovator - Nagarajan and other users of this novel product. A deal was struck and the machine has
been despatched by road. Another feather in Nagarajan’s cap- an order from USA is under process
and will be delivered soon.

What are Grassroots technological innovations?

By definition these are need-based, simple, cost-effective and sustainable technologies. The
possibility of these technological solutions addressing local constraints/ unmet needs in an effective
way is reasonably high, simply because these solutions originate from someone who has first-hand
experience of the issues involved. Innovations like this garlic-peeler address the key needs of
grassroots consumers, which have not been met or satisfied by the existing Trickle-Down products
and services. Hence, there is an ample scope for wealth creation by linking grassroots need-based
technologies with the technical and commercial knowledge in the formal sector, to make them
scalable and commercially attractive. NIF is committed to this goal of wealth creation for grassroots
innovators like Nagarajan and is also helping other innovators in locating licensors/ franchisors in
India and abroad. The technologies available with NIF from the grassroots innovators are detailed at
www.nifindia.org/bd

About National Innovation Foundation (NIF):

Making India an innovative and creative society and a global leader in sustainable technologies is a
very big challenge. To meet this challenge, the National Innovation Foundation (NIF), Ahmedabad, an
autonomous body was set up in March 2000, by the Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of
India to provide a nurturing platform for augmenting unaided green grassroots innovations and
traditional knowledge practices developed by local communities and individuals to solve their
problems (www.nifindia.org). NIF is committed to making India innovative by documenting, adding
value and protecting intellectual property rights of the contemporary unaided technological
innovators as well as outstanding traditional knowledge holders on a commercial as well as non-
commercial basis. Dr. R. A. Mashelkar, an eminent scientist and Secretary, DSIR and Director
General, Council of Science & Industrial Research, India, is the Chairperson of NIF.

Under the guiding vision of Executive Vice Chairperson, Prof. Anil K. Gupta of IIM-A and the efforts of
a dedicated team, in a short span of four years, NIF has been able to scout more than 51,000
innovations and traditional knowledge practices from over 360 districts of India. Out of which, 14
technologies have been successfully commercialized.

Contact for additional information:

Mr. L.Chinzah,

National Coordinator-Business Development

National Innovation Foundation (NIF)

Little space for grassroots innovations

http://www.indiatogether.org/2005/may/soc-innovate.htm
From biogas to solar cookers and improved cookstoves, from agricultural tools to drudgery reducing
technologies, most research and development in appropriate technologies has not been backed-up by
appropriate market incentives. In contrast, hi-tech is totally market driven, says Sudhirendar Sharma.

3 May 2005 - Be it endogenous or exogenous, technology has in many ways shaped lives and livelihoods in
the rural areas. From the humble sickle to the mighty combine harvester, technology has come to symbolise
the level of progress of a society. Yet, the access and acceptability of the technology per se has remained
influenced by diverse socio-economic and cultural conditions.

Limited reach

Statistics clearly indicate that despite the best of political will, investment environment and the media thrust,
the benefits of modern technology have reached only about 200 million in the country. An estimated 800
million living in over 100 million households have neither the purchasing power nor the physical access to
products of modern science and technology.

The role of technology in improving the lives of the poor has Though a host of
rather gone unnoticed. Neither has the research and state-sponsored
development infrastructure in India invested in backstopping research
such concerns nor has the mainstream media considered institutions,
providing consistent space for voices from the margins. In the universities and
process, both the technology and the poor have stood to IIT's are engaged
suffer. Unlike modern technology that has invaded cultures in appropriate
with impunity, appropriate technology has remained rooted to
technology
a context. Consequently, its penetration in terms of reach and
development and
impact has been countered by a variety of factors, varying
dissemination,
from one set of social conditions to another.
these haven't been
Mahatma Gandhi had long opined that the poor couldn't be held accountable
helped by mass production but by production by the masses. to the society. Is
But to reconstruct the nation liberated from the colonial rule, it because it
the successive governments have sought to toe the industrial concerns the poor
path. Extensive industrialization has polarised the society and the
leaving the poor at the mercy of welfare schemes and a underprivileged?
subsidised living. Not only has the welfare budget of the • Brains and
government reached its limits but also it might not be bullocks
possible to sustain such expenditure for long. But there is no • Technology for
let down in the number of people who are sought to be rural women
benefited through such measures. Technology promises to
lift people out of poverty by generating gainful employment
but only if it is viewed in the production by the masses
concept.

In his answer to the problem E F Schumacher, who was adviser to the Indian Government in the 1960s, had
advocated simple technologies to reduce drudgery, improve production and enhance income of the poor.
Although he did not say it in as many words, the author of Small is Beautiful apparently cautioned the poor
governments against making substantive investments in hi-tech when the benefits of appropriate technology
stood to benefit them the most.

In his report to the Planning Commission Schumacher had argued: "It requires no lengthy argument to agree
that India is 'long' in labour and 'short' on capital. This means that she requires a level of technology that is
likely to be very different from that currently in the west, which are 'long' on capital and 'short' in labour.

But there were few takers for his ideas, then and even today. The Rural Industries Section of the Planning
Commission was enthusiastic and tried to get some action, but they were very much in minority. But for the
launch of Schumacher's inspired world's largest cattle-dung based biogas programme, progress on
appropriate technology has remained cosmetic in nature. No wonder, rising unemployment and social unrest
is the order of the day. A market-driven economy riding on hi-tech has literally failed to offer any solutions to
the problem of economic stagnation.
 Likes of Tej Singh fade into oblivion
For the media, these are one-time human-interest stories. Used as a dressing to
make the horrendous news palatable, such stories relieve newsroom overdose of
politics and violence. However, such stories are never turned into an end in
themselves as they must be. Neither is there any conviction to take such ingenious
efforts to their logical destination.

Tej Singh Goyal, 55, has been a victim of media apathy. Though a high school
dropout, the innovator in him bagged the National Innovation Foundation award in
2001. He has developed a device that can lift water to a height without any external
source of power. A few kilograms of waste paper is needed to lift water to the second
floor height of a house.

"Gas laws had intrigued me a lot," says Tej Singh. Way back in 1972, he came up
with his first notable invention. Taking two drums of equal volume, he filled one with
water and kept the other empty. Both were attached through a pipe. He lit fire
beneath the one that was empty. The gas inside the empty drum expanded and
moved to the water-filled drum. Finding no space to escape, it lifted water instead.
Tej Singh knew that the principle of gas expansion was at work.

In no time, he enlarged the scope of his experiment by scaling the size of drums to
500 litres capacity. Most of his savings were spent on the experiment. But for the
capital investment for procuring drums, the running cost for lifting water was bare
minimal. He found the technology ideal for farmers who were looking for diesel
pumps for lifting water or those who were aiming to reduce their electricity bills for
water-lifting in urban areas.

But it took several months of sustained efforts before Tej Singh could get some
recognition for his work. Dr M S Swaminathan, then Director of General of the Indian
Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) awarded him a short-term fellowship to work
on his invention in 1977. But his experiments there failed to scale-up the innovation.

However, he did not give up. He continued his crusade against the system that did
not recognize the talent of a common man. He found a peaceful technique of drawing
attention by camping at Delhi’s historic Jantar Mantar. Expectedly, he made it into the
column-inch of few newspapers. However, that was the last the media took note of
him.

His is a simple innovation. All that is needed are the two metal drums of 500 litres
capacity each that are linked to each other by a pipe. There has to be a water outlet
point too. There is a valve contraption in the water outlet so that the lifted water does
not return to the tank. The entire investment including, pipefitting rarely exceeds Rs.
15,000.

The Ministry of Non-conventional Energy Sources (MNES) has shown some interest in
promoting the system. On its request, a working model was installed at the
Government Polytechnic in Sundernagar, Himachal Pradesh. Clearly, Tej Singh needs
more support than such one-time favours. It has been 30 years since Tej Singh came
up with his invention and there are few takers to the idea that has potential of
making substantive energy savings under diverse conditions.

Dangerous trend

Though a host of state-sponsored research institutions, universities and IIT's are engaged in appropriate
technology development and dissemination, these haven't been held accountable to the society. Even the
impact of investment hasn't been questioned to any appreciable degree. Is it because it concerns the poor
and the underprivileged?

The appropriate technology programmes, be these on renewable energy or on related small-scale

technology development, haven't stood any enquiry. Apparently, a majority of these programmes in the
public-sector domain have reached a dead-end. If nothing else, these decades-old programmes are a drain
on the development exchequer of the country.
From biogas to solar cooker dissemination; from improved cookstove to solar lantern development; and from
agricultural tools to drudgery reducing technologies, most research and development investment in the
sector hasn't been backed-up by appropriate market incentives to bring about desired impact. In contrast, hi-
tech is totally market driven.

Although the
National
Innovations
Foundation has
already registered
over 11,000
innovations and
awarded quite a
few, there is no
Inversely, emerging markets for individual innovations plan to
exploit the informal knowledge pool of the poor too. Thanks mechanism yet in
to the patent regime that threatens to lay control over the rich place linking
heritage of peoples' knowledge and under-acknowledged 'informal' to the
contemporary innovations, the development of appropriate 'formal', i.e.,
technology has assumed a new dimension. where grassroots
innovations are
A host of government institutions have set-up mechanism to value added by
tap peoples' knowledge, notable being the ill famous National research at the
Research Development Corporation, the National Innovation formal
Foundation, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research institutions.
(ICAR), and Technology Information Forecasting and
Assessment Council (TIFAC).

As an autonomous institution NRDC is mandated to support innovations in science & technology. In the
process, the NRDC acknowledges innovation through its annual innovation awards. Earlier these awards
were given out on Republic and Independence days but now the Technology Day (May 11) has been chosen
for the annual awards. Though anyone can apply for these awards, majority of the awards are bagged by
research institutions and private companies. Rarely, if ever grassroots innovators bag such awards. Part of
the reason is that no mechanism is in place that the like of Tej Goyal from the 'informal' set-up can compete
(in language & presentation) with the counterparts from the 'formal' institutional set-ups.

However, over the past decade or so the presence of 'grassroots' innovators has been acknowledged by the
setting up of a National Innovation Foundation (NIF), an autonomous national innovation register that has
been set-up under the auspices of the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and Council of
Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). Although NIF has already registered over 11,000 innovations and
awarded quite a few, there is no mechanism yet in place such that the 'informal' gets linked to 'formal',
meaning that the grassroots innovations are value added by research at the formal institutions. Critics fear
that this register will, in the long run, usurp the intellectual property rights of grassroots innovators.

Whether or not these programmes serve the individual inventors and benefit the poor at large has yet to be
seen. And ultimately, the market determines what is made of these innovations that are developed out of
sheer necessity by citizens are the grassroots. If developments thus far are any indication, the poor have yet
to benefit any degree from such innovations.

Media apathy

The media has been driven by market interests, nurturing products that offer higher levels of incentives to
the consumers. As products of appropriate technology are driven by public money and are short on
incentives, these meet limited patronage from the media. Similar has been the fate of grassroots innovators
who haven't been able to dent the market either.

Media's apathy towards the state of appropriate technology and the plight of grassroots innovators is
evident. For the largely market-driven media, these are one-off stories that do not warrant serious attention.
The contention being that neither do such stories elicit advertisement revenue nor enlarge the subscriber
base.
By giving right exposure at the right time, the media can help the cause of such innovators in the national
interest. In a rapidly globalised world, intellectual property is being targeted by corporations and vested
interests. Media can rise to the occasion to safeguard the interests of the poor innovators. Not only will it
help in getting patents on the innovations, press coverage will also help protect piracy of this valuable
knowledge.

The beauty of smallness had spawned the appropriate technology movement. But in spite of its grassroots
orientation, this movement has been largely dominated by tinkerers instead of entrepreneurs and mass
marketers. The unfortunate result has been that hundreds of creative technologies that have simply not
been marketed properly are now gathering dust.

There are several appropriate technologies that have proven their worth and yet such technologies do not
win the hearts of the media and the minds of the politicians, because `planners and politicians prefer big
buildings and large dams - things you can put a plaque on and hold an inauguration ceremony - that media
can then cover as events. ⊕

Sudhirendar Sharma
3 May 2005

Dr Sudhirendar Sharma is a development analyst attached to the Delhi-based the Ecological Foundation.
 8/4/2008

Delivering Grassroots
Innovation from
Microsoft’s Weekend
Coders
You’ve seen a few of the team’s projects on the site and now we’re excited to bring you more
great ideas from a new group, Microsoft’s weekend coders.

Microsoft is full of creative people in love with the promise of technology. Their passion extends
beyond their day jobs. At Microsoft you’ll find many people who spend their free time building
new and interesting projects. One of our goals here at Office Labs is to give these grassroots
innovation efforts an easy way to get out and into the hands of people like you!

We call these projects “community projects” and they are all about grassroots project from inside
of Microsoft getting traction and having impact. Many innovators will tell you it’s easy to have a
great idea, but to know if you have a successful idea, you have to build it and try it out.
Unfortunately building your ideas can be a bit lonely and hard if you’re working on it by yourself,
but if you work at Microsoft it doesn’t have to be that way. In every department of Microsoft,
employees are creative and the ones taking a Do-It-Yourself approach are finding help from
Office Labs.

Office Labs is working to offer these weekend coders greater support for their Do-It-Yourself
projects. It starts with a series of events such as our Community Science Fair and our
Community Project Selection where these grassroots innovators can share their work, give
feedback, get support, and make connections. Office Labs works with the community to build
tools and services that make these weekend projects easier to build, deploy, and test. In
addition, at our Community Project Selection the community gets to vote on which projects have
the greatest potential to enhance your productivity. The top two projects get hands on support
from Office Labs for the next few months in an effort to accelerate the project’s deployment.
During these months we use our expertise in rapid prototyping to iterate on the project and
ultimately release it in a short amount of time. While working with our team, grassroots innovators
have the opportunity to learn some tricks from us and they always teach us some of their own.
Now, with officelabs.com these weekend coders have an easy way to get these projects out to
you!Watch for community projects coming soon to officelabs.com. Just like the concept tests
currently on the site, these are ideas people wanted folks outside of Microsoft to try out. They are
not alpha or betas of a product. We hope you will take these prototypes for a spin and would love
to hear if these projects help make technology work harder for you.

Why Is the Recession a Great Time to Kindle

Grassroots Innovation?
February 13, 2009
If you think that innovation projects should be
shelved to cut costs in these challenging
economic times, you'd be very wrong. Quite the
opposite is true. Now is the best time to grow
innovation in your employees—and you might be
surprised at the outcomes.
 By Arupa Tesolin

Innovation is the way out of recession and into a

more sustainable economy. With the right attitude,
these challenging times provide all organizations
an opportunity to rally employees together and
encourage them to invest more of their creative
energy. But organizations don’t innovate…People
do. In fact, some of the best kinds of innovation
come from the "Grassroots," the people within
your organization—your employees, clients and
often your extended network of suppliers and
associates. And the good news id that innovation
does not need to be complex or costly. (Remember,
even Microsoft was started in a garage.)

Seeding Innovation

Any company can find ways to make innovation

pay off. Both small and large companies can look
to their employees, clients and beyond for ways to
be more innovative that add value to what they do.
Investments in innovation, training and
productivity now will recoup their investment and
increase profits later.

Executive leaders and employees need to have a

way to challenge the "idea orthodoxy" prevalent at
many large companies. Those who are successful
at doing this today will become the economic and
brand leaders of tomorrow. Commanding an
innovation destiny requires industry leaders and
their employees to take both business innovation
and personal creative power to the next level.

This is the right time to turn employees into

innovators and help them learn to master new
creative thinking skills, like how to create from
scratch, think creatively, see things differently, be
more intuitive, communicate ideas better and to
appreciate the benefits of both thought and
cultural diversity. When people think differently,
learn and try out new things, they have more
energy and are more alert, engaged and responsive
to clients and colleagues. Usually they're also
having more fun.
Innovation Is a Team Player

Innovation rarely happens alone. Innovative

companies often have a cadre of innovative minds
outside their own organization. I spoke recently on
innovation at the World Automotive News Congress
along with Dr. Andrew Brown Jr., Executive
Director of Innovation at Delphi Corporation,
which developed the innovative On-Star
communication system for General Motors
Corporation. He identified that for every internal
employee there were about 200 external sources.
Innovative brand leader Proctor & Gamble, he
explained, has about 500 external sources per
employee.

There are a million ways to innovate and every

organization can find ways to make innovation
profitable and generate an ROI—return on
imagination. The important thing is not to innovate
for innovation's sake, but to plan innovation in a
way that offers the greatest value to your product,
services or brand.

So where to start? Look at your business cycle

from start to finish. Look at the lifecycle of your
interaction with clients or customers. Every point
along that process provides an opportunity to
innovate.

1. Identify high return opportunities to innovate in

key growth areas. Conduct an innovation survey
that reviews all aspects of your business from
recruiting, customer satisfaction, sales processes,
new product and service development or other
areas.

2. Create an innovation culture. Support trying

something new. Empower your employees, involve
them and give them a way to challenge old ways of
doing things in favor of better ways.

3. Develop creative skills in employees, and apply

them to your business in key areas.

4. Increase employee productivity and proficiency ,

starting with the highest impact functions.
Implement learning paths or fast-track training
processes that increase proficiency and
performance.

5. Measure results of innovation. Develop reliable

metrics that are useful for planning future
innovation.

6. Hire creative minds outside your organization to

find people who think differently and can add
value to innovation.

Be an Innovation Master

How do you know when something is innovative,

rather than just good business? Innovation
attracts attention. It shows up differently. It
creates energy because it’s interesting, unusual,
or brings an element of surprise, evokes positive
emotion, joy or reveals an unexpected connection
with something else.

We are only at dawn of the "Innovation Age." The

road to tomorrow will be paved with the results of
the ideas that we dream and apply today. It's an
exciting time. I can't wait to see what we’re able to
do.

Grandfather builds Web browser for

autistic boy
By BRIAN BERGSTEIN, AP Technology Writer
Tuesday, June 3, 2008

LeSieur tried to find online tools that could guide autistic children around the Web, but he couldn't find anything
satisfactory. So he had one built, named it the Zac Browser For Autistic Children in honor of his grandson, and is
making it available to anyone for free.

LeSieur's quest is a reminder that while the Web has created important communication and educational
opportunities for some people with cognitive impairments, computers can also introduce new headaches for
families trying to navigate the contours of disability.

The Zac Browser greatly simplifies the experience of using a computer. It seals off most Web sites from view, to
block violent, sexual or otherwise adult-themed material. Instead it presents a hand-picked slate of choices from
free, public Web sites, with an emphasis on educational games, music, videos and visually entertaining images,
like a virtual aquarium.
Other programs for children already offer that "walled garden" approach to the Web. But LeSieur's browser aims
to go further: It essentially takes over the computer and reduces the controls available for children like Zackary,
who finds too many choices overwhelming.

For example, the Zac Browser disables extraneous keyboard buttons like "Print Screen" and turns off the right
button on the mouse. That eliminates commands most children don't need anyway, and it reduces the chance an
autistic child will lose confidence after making a counterproductive click.

Children using the Zac Browser select activities by clicking on bigger-than-normal icons, like a soccer ball for
games and a stack of books for "stories." The Zac Browser also configures the view so no advertisements or
other flashing distractions appear.

"We're trying to avoid aggressive or very dark or complicated Web sites, because it's all about self-esteem,"
LeSieur said from Las Vegas, where he lives. "If they're not under control, they will get easily frustrated."

Autism generally affects a person's ability to communicate, and Zackary doesn't speak much. But his mother,
Emmanuelle Villeneuve, reports that the boy can start the Zac Browser himself. He enjoys listening to music
through the program and trying puzzles — things he always liked before but hadn't been able to explore online,
she said from her family's home in suburban Montreal.

Perhaps most tellingly, while he still acts out aggressively against the TV, she said, he doesn't try to harm the
computer.

LeSieur didn't create the browser by consulting with people who are considered experts in disorders on the
autism spectrum. The small software company he runs, People CD Inc., essentially designed the Zac Browser to
meet Zackary's needs, and figured that the approach would likely help other autistic children. Early reviews have
been positive, though LeSieur plans to tweak the program so parents can suggest new content to add.

Several autism experts were pleased to hear of LeSieur's work, and not surprised that he had not previously
found anything suitable for Zackary.

After all, the autism spectrum is so wide that a particular pattern of abilities or impairments experienced by one
autistic person might be reversed in another. In other words, creating software that would work for huge swaths
of autistic children is a tall order.

Indeed, the Zac Browser might do nothing for another autistic child.

That said, however, LeSieur's approach of limiting distractions and using the software as a confidence-boosting
tool "is a very good idea," said Dianne Zager, director of the Center for Teaching and Research in Autism at Pace
University. She said many autistic students tend to do best with educational materials that make unnecessary
stimuli fade from view.

"Some parts of the Web have so much extraneous material that it can be distracting, and for the nonverbal child,
there might not be an ability to negotiate that information," added Stephen Sheinkopf, an autism researcher at
Brown University.

This is not to say the Web is necessarily barren for autistic children. James Ball, an autism-education consultant
in New Jersey, said many children he works with enjoy Webkinz, where kids care for virtual pets. Others find
chat rooms and instant-messaging a lower-anxiety way of socializing than talking to someone in person, he said.

But the Zac Browser might turn out to be the rare tool that can be configured to strike a chord with a wide range
of autistic students, said Chris Vacek, chief innovation officer at Heartspring, a special-education center in
Wichita, Kan. Vacek is considering using the Zac Browser at Heartspring.

One huge advantage is that the browser is free, while many assistive technologies cost upward of $5,000 and
work only on specialized devices. But Vacek, himself a parent of an autistic child, said the Zac Browser's best
credential is that it appears to pass what he calls Heartspring's "acid test": It has a high chance of increasing a
child's ability to do things independently.
"Let's hear it for grassroots innovation," Vacek said.