Thanks to Jamais Cascio and his excellent World Changing weblog, I recently learned about India’s Rural Innovations Network (RIN). RIN is a non-profit organization that functions as “part business incubator, part fabrication and market research facility;” through partnerships with venture capitalists, it also matches good ideas to funding. Rather than applying developed-world technologies to BOP problems, RIN takes a “technology outward” approach. Jamais nicely summarizes for us:

[Rural] people intimately understand their environments and create thousands of innovations that have immense potential to improve the well being of the rural population. What rural innovators don't have though is access to the skills, networks and other resources needed to take their innovations to the market. [...] RIN's mission is to identify, nurture and sustain innovations by enabling the management of commercially viable enterprises, thus leading to improved economic, social and creative environments for the rural population. [...] While other organizations take technologies and products into rural areas, RIN differs in taking technologies out from rural areas. RIN champions this "technology outwards" approach because it believes innovators innovate out of local need, and in many cases the same needs exist in other rural areas.

Interestingly, this approach echoes Thomas Friedman’s postulate in today’s New York Times: “Indian companies know that if they can make money producing low-cost technology for poor Indians, it gives them an incredible platform to then take these products global. (Imagine the profit potential if they work in the West?) China is doing the exact same thing.”

The RIN is applying an emerging status-quo among BOP experts: innovate at the local level, based on local needs, then match good ideas with top-notch funding. So far, its innovations haven’t spread beyond India. If Friedman’s right (and he probably is), it’s only a matter of time.