From sketches of Brian Cowan to the digital obituaries of web-based businesses, we check out the best the blogosphere has to offer this week.
Dilbert.com (pictured)
Beloved two-dimensional everyman Dilbert has raised more laughs of recognition among cubicle dwellers than millions of David Brent-style management stooges worldwide. Recently, he relocated from his old web space to this new one, where he gets a colour makeover but retains the assailed-on-all-sides demeanour so typical of the modern office grunt.
The site also includes features such as animation and mashups where you can create your own Dilbert-world quips to accompany the images.
Any relatively large, office-based business looking to understand employee attitudes to the modern organisation of work need only read this strip to gain an initial insight.
Scamp
www.scamp.ie
Scamp.ie is the blog of Illustrators Ireland. As such, it contains interesting news and views for the ink-wielding arties among us. However, the laymen can just enjoy the high quality of artwork on display. It showcases published works by Irish illustrators and has tips for those working in the industry.
Recently, illustrators contributed a series of sketches of Brian Cowen to mark his coronation as head chieftain of Ireland and the results are eclectic and consummate, though Mr Cowen may not admire all of them.
Businesspeople may reassess the limited value they place on illustrations in company and marketing literature after a good gander at the goodies on this blog.
By Niall Byrne
TechCrunch’s Deadpool
www.techcrunch.com/tag/deadpool/
The success of YouTube, Flickr, Facebook and other social networking sites based on sharing and posting multimedia content and building a huge user base means there are hundreds of thousands of Web 2.0 firms out there trying to launch their product and get funding.
However, for every Facebook there are more failed dot.coms than you have had hot dinners. Whether you are a budding entrepreneur or anxious investor, you need to keep track of the winners, but more importantly the losers, in this game.
The Deadpool is a section of popular business technology blog TechCrunch which serves up the digital obituaries of web-based businesses.
Post Secret
http://postsecret.blogspot.com
If you have ever accidentally read an email or a text message meant for someone else, then you will understand the reasons for visiting Post Secret: catching a secret glimpse of another’s life, captured in a few – often moving – words.
This is an art project that encourages people to anonymously send in postcards containing secrets, big or small, from mundane or life-changing moments of their lives which, for some reason, they have kept secret.
I’m not sure if these secrets are genuine or just an expression of art but they range from bizarre to funny to just plain touching. An example: “I used to daydream that I was given up for adoption by Harrison Ford.”
By Marie Boran
