In June 2011, HP launched their Hacking Autism initiative, which seeks new ideas for touch technology applications beneficial to people with autism. “Hacking Autism” is crowd-sourcing ideas for applications from all across the autism community, including families and health care practitioners, and will engage developers and designers to voluntarily create applications across touch-based platforms. The “Hacking Autism” innovative designs aim to facilitate and accelerate technology-based ideas to open up learning, communication, and social possibilities, and to help give those with autism a voice.

Autism Speaks, the world’s largest autism science and advocacy organization, and the Doug Flutie Jr. Foundation for Autism, partnered with HP on this initiative.

On October 11, 2011, there will be an HP Hackathon in Cupertino, CA. The finalists of the crowd-sourced ideas will be presented and the daylong event will be the catalyst for the development of the new apps which will later be available as a free download.

Phil McKinney presenting on the Hacking Autism Initiative at Maker Faire Bay Area 2011

Phil McKinney HP’s VP and CTO for their Personal Systems Group will be giving a talk on Hacking Autism at World Maker Faire on Saturday, 2:30pm EST, in the Auditorium, Zone A

Phil will discuss new ideas for applications that could benefit people with autism. HP is partnering with Autism Speaks, the world’s largest autism science and advocacy organization, and the Doug Flutie Jr. Foundation on the “Hacking Autism” initiative. Hacking Autism seeks new ideas for software beneficial to people with autism by crowdsourcing ideas for apps from all across the autism community, as well as the broad technology community. This is an opportunity for the DIY community to learn about how it can participate in the initiative and help create apps available across platforms. It’s an open call for collaboration that can make a real difference in people’s lives.

Bio: Phil McKinney is a highly sought after speaker on creativity and innovation and its impact on business, industries, economies, and society. The San Jose Mercury News dubbed him the “chief seer“ and CIO Insight named his Killer Innovations podcast as a “must listen.” For his “day job,” he is the vice president and chief technology officer for Hewlett-Packard’s (HP) Personal Systems Group. He is responsible for long-range strategic planning and R&D for all of the company’s PC product lines, including displays, notebooks, desktops, and workstations. Phil’s also a contributing columnist at Forbes.