QUT's '60Sox' - linking young talent and industry.
This is one for the Aussie web / multimedia / digital arts students. 60sox is a (relatively) new web / social networking site that is aimed specifically at bridging the gaping void that exists when it comes to linking serious creative talent to people who want to pay big biscuits for that talent. I'd been told about the site by a workmate but hadn't had a chance to check it out until I met with 2 of the gentelmen who worked on / were behind the project - Queensland University of Technology's Justin Brow and Greg Hearn. They were both impressive sorts of gentlemen, so I thought I should take the time to check out what QUT had put together...
The premise of the site is to provide a marketplace where the 'digital creative types' can showcase their talent by uploading their portfolio of works. For want of a better explanation, it's like a social networking site for digital artists and designers looking to get work (?). Categories you can check out and upload into include Animation, Design, Film & Video, Interactive Media, Music & Audio, Photography, Visual Art, Writing.
The site also has a "2 bob mob", a panel of experts who give feedback and opinions on featured artist's works. So not only do people who are hiring get to see artist's work, they get to see what other people in industry think of it.
All up, the site is very functional, and I think the concept is great. The thing I really like about it is that it's funky, but the real 'stars of the show' are the artists - it's a great way to showacase digital works.
And oh yeh, if you think the site's impressive, it's built mostly in ASP and using Visual Studio :D.