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"Mairam Omurzakova is a master artisan. She crafts shyrdaks \u2014 hand-stitched felt tapestries traditional to Kyrgyzstan \u2014 which she has been selling since the mid 1990s. Her potential market is about to greatly expand.\nPeople around the world now have access to Omurzakova's creations, as well as crafts from an expanding network currently consisting of more than 100 artisans. A new website called GlobeIn, which launched a public beta phase Wednesday, is aiming to connect these artisans with the global economy.\n\"Many [artisans] who are on our site would not normally be on the Internet; they don't even know what the Internet is,\" GlobeIn CEO Vladimir Ermakov tells Mashable. \"You can look at different parts of the world and see what people are doing right now \u2014 what kinds of traditions they're preserving, what kind of new art forms they're creating.\"\nSEE ALSO: 5 Socially Conscious Startups Innovating for Good\n\nGlobeIn uses regional managers to oversee shipping and money transfers to the artisans in each of the nine countries from which the site draws crafts to sell. Aside from providing the technology for these artisans to sell their crafts, GlobeIn also focuses on the artisans themselves.\n\"We don't just present products from around the world, but we also tell the stories of the artists behind the products,\" Ermakov says. \"Basically what we're creating is a living atlas of crafts.\"\nThe site features descriptions of the artisans complete with photos and videos. The video below tells the story of Mairam Omurzakova, the shyrdak maker, and the Altyn Kol collective she founded.\n\nErmakov says he believes this transparency regarding the identities of the artisans will be enough to convince buyers that the artisans are getting a fair deal.\n\"All the contacts are open and we encourage people to visit these artisans directly when they travel,\" Ermakov says.\nUnlike Etsy, which charges a small fee per listing, GlobeIn lists products at no cost, but adds a markup to the artisans' prices. \nInspired by sites such as Kiva.org, GlobeIn began its journey from concept to reality in Dec. 2011, when COO Anastasia Miron traveled through Mexico for two months, scouting artisans. She began posting the crafts she was finding to online marketplaces, such as eBay.\n\"She proved that this can really work,\" Ermakov says. \"People were really interested in buying these crafts, artisans were really happy, shipping worked.\"\nAt that point, they decided to move forward with the idea. Ermakov began working with a design team to create the platform, while Miron and other \"artisan helpers\" found more crafters to feature on the site. By Sept. 2012, GlobeIn raised more than $1 million in funding from investors.\nThe site will continue to expand its network of artisans both internally and through partnerships. Ermakov says the company's goal is to be more of a platform than a proprietor. GlobeIn hopes to work with other companies who are already helping artisans sell their goods.\n\"We see ourselves as an open platform that helps promote artisans and helps them reach the consumers, but the interaction with the artisans can be done by other organizations that are already doing it much better than we could,\" Ermakov says. \"As long as they respect fair trade fair trade principles, we would love to partner with them and be the technology side of the solution.\"\nGlobeIn is focused on having a \"really solid user experience\" and presenting the artisans' stories, as well as their products. The site even invites vacationers to serve as artisan helpers by scouting talented crafters, documenting their stories and setting them up to sell their goods on GlobeIn.\nWill you shop on GlobeIn? Give us your impression of the site in the comments below. \nImage via Hans Neleman/Taxi/Getty Images\nBONUS: 12 Problems Solved by Tech in 2012\n\n\n12 Problems Solved by Tech in 2012\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAndroid Phones Help Amazon Tribe Stop Deforestation\n\nThe Surui tribe of the Brazilian Amazon has struggled to maintain its traditional culture amidst rampant deforestation of its ancestral lands.\nThe Google Earth Outreach team devised a plan to help the Surui people bring in money while protecting their forests. Google equipped and trained members of the tribe with Android smartphones, which they now use to measure the carbon offsets of the trees on their lands.\nFollowing four years of collaboration between the Surui people and Google, the project received validation in May. Now companies around the world looking to compensate for their greenhouse gas emissions can buy Surui carbon stock on the international market, and simultaneously help the tribe maintain its way of life.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nBicyclean Safely Sorts Hazardous Waste\n\nIn many countries, people sort through the garbage in hopes of finding reusable e-waste. Unfortunately, the practice can be quite unsafe.\nHarvard engineer Rachel Field developed the Bicyclean, a low-cost, environmentally friendly device that separates valuable discarded electronics from hazardous waste.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCheap Solar Energy Arrives in the Developing World\n\nMore than 1.5 billion people around the world don't have electricity -- that's roughly 25% of the world's population and almost 80% of people in the developing world.\nThe Portable Light Project is working to bring cheap, affordable energy to those billions of people without power. The project uses the concept of a solar panel, but makes it cheaper and less fragile. The project provides material kits valued at $16, including a flexible reflective panel, a rechargeable battery, a USB port and a high-brightness LED. \nThese kits provide light that is bright enough for people to read, do work or cook in the dark.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\niPods Restore Hope for Alzheimer's Patients\n\nThough music has long been a valuable form of therapy for people suffering from Alzheimer's disease, song leaders and therapists are not available at all hours of the day.\nDan Cohen, a social worker on Long Island, has found that giving iPods to nursing homes can have a profound impact on the patients. The ability to personalize iPods' playlists according to a patient's favorite tracks make the device superior, even to music time in the home.  \nCohen observed that patients become increasingly happy, social and active when listening to music from their childhoods. The social worker, who has been experimenting with iPods in nursing homes for a few years, founded non-profit Music &amp; Memory to expand the MP3 player's penetration into care facilities.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMobile App Combats Homelessness\n\nThere are more than half a million homeless people living in the U.S. To prevent that number from increasing, the 100,000 Homes Campaign rolled out a mobile app called Homeless Connector to help find permanent housing for individuals and families without homes.\nThe app was developed to empower people around the country to help end homelessness. The campaign hopes citizens will download the survey-based app and use it to ask homeless members of their communities questions about their situations. With the gathered information, the campaign's creators anticipate homelessness will decrease around the country.\nImage courtesy of Flickr, Xavez\n\n\nImage: Flickr, Xavez\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMobile App Prevents Texting While Driving\n\nOne in every four car accidents last year involved cellphones -- and that rate keeps climbing. Texting while driving is the biggest cause of collisions, especially among teens new to the roads.\nOneProtect, a new mobile app and corresponding web browser, makes it virtually impossible for a driver to text from a moving vehicle. Once installed in your phone, OneProtect will lock your phone -- with the help of your GPS -- whenever it detects motion above a certain speed (the default is 15 miles per hour).\nSetting OneProtect apart from other distracted driving apps is its patent-pending Attention Verification Test, which discerns between passengers and drivers, to ensure drivers never text while in motion.\nImage courtesy of Flickr, mrJasonWeaver\n\n\nImage: Flickr, mrJasonWeaver\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMobile Phones Hold Governments Accountable\n\nDespite officially having universal healthcare, India's poor, rural regions still struggle with doctor absenteeism. \nTo ensure all citizens have access to their rightful healthcare, one non-profit created a system to check on healthcare workers using mobile phones. The Indo-Deutch Project Management Society set up an SMS system to track staff absences. The system maps regions with rampant absenteeism and provides government officials with reports on the worst regions for receiving healthcare.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMobile Phones Speed Disease Response\n\nMalaria outbreaks can spread widely without quick response efforts. \nResidents in parts of Africa are now using mobile phones to cut disease outbreak response time from four weeks to just three minutes. Electronically automated malaria surveillance can transfer news of outbreaks to district health clinics and respective health ministries almost instantaneously, so they can work on transferring bed nets and warning citizens.\nImage courtesy of Flickr, kiwanja\n\n\nImage: Flickr, kiwanja\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nPortable Faucet Provides Clean Drinking Water\n\nAccess to clean drinking water is a well-known development issue. During a trip to Peru, Kim Chow noticed some 30,000 people were putting themselves at risk by sharing water from risky storage vessels.\nChow, along with classmates at the Art Center College of Design, developed a low-cost portable faucet called Balde a Balde (which means Bucket to Bucket), which pumps water through an adjustable nozzle. The nozzle gives kids access to the water supply, encouraging hygienic practices such as regular hand washing.\nRubbermaid is now manufacturing Chow's faucet, in the hopes of helping 780 million people around the world without regular access to clean water.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSolar Energy Connects Hurricane Sandy Victims\n\nThere's only so much aid workers can do to restore normalcy to a community stricken with disaster. Following Hurricane Sandy, a solar-powered truck brought something to the Rockaways, in Queens, N.Y., that everyone was waiting for -- Internet connection.\nGreenpeace transported a truck called Rolling Sunlight, which is covered with solar panels. It's able to store 50 kilowatt-hours of energy, and its panels directly charge batteries inside the truck.\nThough the truck was built 10 years ago, it really came in handy this November to residents of the Rockaways.\nImage courtesy of Flickr, Gary Soup\n\n\nImage: Flickr, Gary Soup\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nUltrasonic Robotic Hand Detects Breast Lumps\n\nThis robotic hand with attached ultrasonic sensors, called Med Sensation, can give complete breast exams and detect lumps and abnormal lymph nodes.\nThe product, developed by innovators from Singularity University, was created to provide thorough examinations to people without access to doctors.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCan Used Car Tires Prevent Hurricanes?\n\nFollowing Hurricane Sandy, we understand better than ever the serious threat of severe storms. An engineering professor from the University of Edinburgh has patented an idea to cluster used car tires together, supported by giant tubes that extent 100 meters into the ocean.\nThe device, called \"Salter Sink,\" would force warm surface water down its tubes to the depths of the ocean and prevent it from rising later. Warm and cold waters would mix together, so the temperature of 26.5 Celcius -- above which hurricanes form -- could never be reached.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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