Nowadays, you can buy just about anything online. That includes the coolest new gadgets--at least, for most of us. But what about high-tech goods for the developing world?



For those in need, a new market has emerged called Kopernik, an online platform that delivers progressive technologies to those who need it most. Kopernik showcases innovative products--from self-adjustable glasses to solar water filters--that can create big change in poor communities. Development groups write up short proposals explaining how they could use the products, and the proposals are then vetted and crowd-funded by the public. Kopernik is also working on developing their own products and offering DIY and open-source instructions on how to build technologies locally.

So far, several projects have been funded with technologies en-route or already sent and awaiting report back from the grantees. They range from water-purifying Lifestraws distributed to two women's groups in Timor-Leste--to grant access to clean drinking water where half the population didn't have it before--to solar lighting for two villages supporting the work on conservation and reforestation efforts in Tanjung Puting National Park in Indonesia.



After 10 years at the UN, Kopernik's founders decided to shake up to the field of international development. (The organization is named after the astronomer Copernicus, who proposed that the Earth wasn't actually the center of the universe, fundamentally changing the way people viewed the world around them.) The Kopernik team wants people to see global problem solving through a different lens. Their goal: delivering innovation to a million people by 2012. A virtual Copernicus 2, and this one is Character Approved.

[Image: Kopernik]