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Search results for: alternative portal
Newstoday® 12/8/03 Description: design broadcasting network – for a better tomorrow Comments: This one's long overdue. Over the last 2 years, I've reviewed 20 sites found there and it dawned on me over the weekend that I'd failed to add it to the listings. Today's pick provides a "people's voice platform, public broadcasting system." From what I can see, most of the registered members of the "Alliance Network" are designers, and it's easy to join. Besides the public broadcast, there's also a news column featuring posts by a "selected team of broadcasters" plus a public discussion area. The posts are frequent and on any day, you'll find a fresh supply of links to great design sites and other odd and amusing destinations. A truly great alternative portal, powered by people...
Pictoblog 8/13/03 Description: image weblog, updated weekly Comments: Each weekly page contains 7 crops of images from around the web, 200x200 in size. I'd call it an excellent alternative portal to the visual arts and culture. Each page I checked out led to a variety of interesting sites. It's been online since last November. Do the math and today's pick offers hours of enjoyable exploration. Though this site is relatively new, Nemo Nox, its creator, has been doing the webthing since '97 and the Brazilian press has called him everything from "weblog pioneer" to "Lord Internet" to "one of the most active people on the Brazilian cultural web." I used an online translator to read a few of the articles about him – they love this guy! Then, I checked out his images section – I love this guy too...
For The Masses 6/16/02 Description: design to survive - promoting the finest in New Zealand online culture to a global audience Comments: Something I really like about the web is the chance to learn more about places around the world, sometimes through the eyes of photographers, and other times, through alternative portals which focus on sites in specific geographical areas. Whether those portals are design-related or not, I appreciate the service they provide to web surfers interested in learning more about places they might never actually visit in their lifetimes. Today's pick is a window to a specific locale. 14 designers and developers, all Kiwis (they're from New Zealand, that is), have banded to together to promote the "online culture" of New Zealand. The site design is as good as it gets, IMHO, and the graphics are superb. I love the art in the "Panels" section and the screenshots in the "Links" section. "Profiles" (with similar tasty graphics) has some interesting interviews of Kiwi designers. Great site!
Designity.net 3/29/02 Description: publishing creations from you and others - animation, photography and design Comments: I discovered today's pick via coolstop's very own Visitors' Gallery. Had Gabriele not submitted several images (1 | 2), I might never have known about his websites unless, of course, I was lucky enough to bump into them at one of the other "alternative portals" featured here. I guess one gallery leads to another, because today's pick is also a collection of works submitted by a number of talented artists and designers. The 40 square thumbs on the main page, arranged in 10 rows of 4, in itself is quite the piece of eye candy – click away, 'cause there's great art to be found. And that's just the first of two pages of static visuals. There's also a whole page of Flash animations from a number of different contributors. You're not done yet – go to the "About Me" page and you'll find tons of stuff done by Gabriele – we're talkin' visual art to the tenth power...
alt.sense 3/23/01 Description: affiliated only to those involved in the networked culture and its interest only pertains to the aesthetics of communication Comments: You've probably noticed that I don't mention the names of the daily picks in my site reviews. "Today's Pick" above is linked to the site and I guess I like the elements of surprise and curiousity that my choice of writing style allows. As the saying goes, "there's a method to my madness" that makes sense to me – then I recall that now famous title from the Talking Heads – Stop Making Sense. So, today I will deviate from my typical approach and allow the name of the site to appear in the following quote which clearly describes the philosophy of the forces behind the site (I think). "May the struggle to write a definition for alt.sense be an everlasting and satisfying project. Hopefully, the diversity of content and contributions will forever be an irritation to portals, yet an inspiration to those who participate." I visited this site a few months back when I heard about the "happy birthday" project. If you'd like to adorn me with gifts the next time I turn the page, you can find my birthday listed there. When I submitted my information back then, I was probably in a hurry and didn't realize that the project was just a small piece of what you'll find there. It's collaboration at its best – a great section of submitted photos, plenty of tasty links, and some engaging written pieces, too. And if you like discussion boards, they have an excellent one going – I've been talking a lot lately about how so many new sites are being done in Flash and how that gets to me sometimes as I try to find meaningful content to share here at coolstop. Well – I found an interesting discussion about that very thing at today's pick, too. This totally non-commercial site is just the type of thing that motivates me to do what I do – they're not "an irritation to portals" at all... they're an alternative – and a great one at that!
Head-Space 5/28/00 Description: a cooperative non-commercial creative weird-space Comments: "A refuge from commercial restrictions, no rules, just a creative baseline, we wanted the ... project to be provocative and challenging. Then we decided to open it out, make it no longer an us thing but an everyone thing, maybe alter the way we looked at web creativity by making it all of ours." That says it all! I see this site as a great alternative portal - it's got a cool DHTML interface and spotlights over 1200 pages of non-commercial creative content. The participants list is long and spending only about 30 minutes there for now, I could probably stand a few more hours soon. To those who think the web is losing its spirit - maybe you should go see this site to regain your perspective... and please don't forget where you found it!.
Netdiver Network 3/12/00 Description: a new media resource and freelance community Comments: Today's Best of the Cool is another alternative kind of portal and the site design and graphics are wonderful. The "imagineering sparks" section says to "make this your creative divingboard" and it's full of inspiration and interesting destinations - screenshots, too! A "low noise and high quality" webzine and "toolbox" full of resources for designers are also featured, and all-in-all, this community-oriented cool-portal is a true winner...
