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More sites we’d like to interview and an endless sea of Japan-related sites
On December 01, 2007 in DailyJ Mission, Interviews we'd like to do
Here are two sites that are very close to my heart:
#1 Stippy.com
Stippy is a website written by graduates of the Monbusho Scholarship (foreign students in Japan) for foreigners in Japan. As a former foreign student (and monbusho stipend “stippy” receiver) I would love to interview the people behind this site.
#2 Piqniq.jp (A social networking website for foreign families.)
“Piqniq is a social network for English-speaking families living in Japan. Our goal is to create a Japan-specific online community and information resource to help you and your family get things done in a country where simple tasks can easily become complicated.”
“A Japan-specific online community”? How could I pass up interviewing them?!
An Endless Sea of Japan-related sites…
In 2003 I decided to build a website were foreigners in Japan, especially students, could share their stories about Japan with the world and possibly help and inspire future foreign students. I started it with the help of a friend and without any tech skills. It didn’t go anywhere but it forced me to learn the ins and outs of creating websites.
From that time up to now I have been building websites (with help from my friends) that chase that dream of helping foreigners in Japan. That dream is what led us to the idea of Nipponster, Japan-related search, and the quest “to better organise and enhance all of the Japan-related content online.”
Since we were determined (crazy enough) to try to organise and enhance everything, we had to do a lot of research and chronicling of websites. I have seen sites about Japan that I would probably never have seen if I were not working on this project and each has something slightly unique to offer. I’m sure that you have seen plenty of sites too that I might not know about and vice versa.
So the question came to my mind “How can we all make sense of all of this information?” I would always like to hear your opinion on that. So let me know.
Some bloggers and webmasters have proposed to me the idea of creating an open and transparent wiki-based encyclopedia (like wikipedia) of everything Japanese, that all could contribute to but no one person would control or own. Inside of that wiki we could create the largest directory (list) of Japan-related sites on the whole web. With everyone contributing a little of their effort, time and info on sites that they like, the directory would have the potential to grow larger than anything a webmaster could do individually.
I think their idea has merit, and I have been thinking about the details of the idea for awhile, but I want to hear what you guys think. So let me know.
There is a “japan blogroll” thing I was on before but it was littered with old abandoned blogs.
A newer version of that which ranked on post freq or something like that would be maybe good? There is a extreme lack of cohesion obviously, since I have to hunt for others in Japan.
A hi Quality icon based link would blend better than text links.
Thats what I want. Can you get on that and have it ready by tomorrow?
Great!!
This is a great idea. I originally started my site to share experiences, help people that have questions, and link to related things about banking, visas, etc. Unfortunately I haven’t really done anything to help anybody. I think a wiki is a good idea but you have to consider the amount of time this would take. If you or others are busy then the wiki might be at a stand still for a while.
@ Chris B
huhuhu! You crack me up. I suppose you want an ice cream sundae with that too 
“A newer version of that which ranked on post freq or something like that would be maybe good”
-That is genius! Ranked by post frequency. I like it! I’m not sure how to create it (off hand), but I like it! What do you think about something like Digg.com? Where users could digg -vote for- the sites they like. It would be easier to make but I like the post frequency idea better personally because let’s face it sometimes people digg stupid things.
@smoother
“Unfortunately I haven’t really done anything to help anybody” Don’t sell yourself short, sometimes you never know how people are impacted by you, but they are. I believe that every J-blogger has a story and every J-blog is helping someone. So don’t give up on it. The things you mention (help with visas, banking) would definitely help foreigners out. There are other sites looking to do similar things, there may be opportunities to work together (NihonHacks.com is a good example). Two heads are better than one.
I totally agree with you about the wiki. It is time intensive. The thing I like about it though is that it would create something completely free and owned by all. So whereas people may not want to help out a particular site (essentially working for them for free), with a wiki we would all be helping ourselves.
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