Each catalog is managed by filling out a Google spreadsheet with three sheets containing information on the company, products, and additional pages (see products sheet below).
The images are stored on Picasa Web Albums and sellers use Google Checkout (as well as PayPal and 2Checkout) to accept credit card payments. Google Sites helps users generate attractive HTML that can be added to some of the spreadsheet fields to improve aesthetics. Google App Engine reads the spreadsheet, then generates the catalog hosted on Google servers. These tools also made it surprisingly easy to enable OpenEntry catalogs to be managed with a smart phone.
Google
recently added a feature enabling the ownership of their spreadsheets to be transferred to a third party, which makes it easy to transfer spreadsheets to the final SME vendor. This is very good news because it enables the OpenEntry User Support team in Nepal to set up catalogs and transfer ownership to the SME vendor who can then operate it securely. This also means we can now transfer blocks of catalog accounts to young, ambitious entrepreneurs anywhere in the developing world, enabling them to start their own legitimate enterprises. Even though the OpenEntry catalogs are free, the entrepreneurs can charge for setup, digital images, custom templates, training, maintenance, etc. And they can even do it from an Internet cafe until they can afford their own computer. This reinforces the conclusion of the United Nations Development Program
evaluation of our platform (under its previous name, CatGen) that generated 4000 jobs for artisan women and "a relatively inexperienced group of young IT professionals" in Nepal.
Because this is a non-profit initiative, OpenEntry is
seeking volunteers to help with a variety of technical tasks starting with template design.
Posted by: Dan Salcedo, Founder and CEO of www.OpenEntry.com, dsalcedo@OpenEntry.com 
