Archive for the ‘Community building’ Category
Focus and the backrub
On August 09, 2008 in Community building, DailyJ Mission, Helping Japan Bloggers
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Interesting bit of trivia for you…
What was the original name of Google before it was Google?
I’ll give you a hint, it was one of the words in this post’s title.
If you said “focus” guess what, you’re wrong. Yay! 
Google started as Backrub.
What does that have to do with Japan/DailyJ/anything you ask?
They called it Backrub because it was the first search engine to measure links between websites. Links (relationships)Â = I rub your back.
Anyway,
Let’s talk about FOCUS.
Around the j-web different sites have different focuses. Different sites have different styles and functions. There is probably niche room for allÂ
And I also have a place. I need to focus more on creating the best search engine of Japan-related results. Nipponster.
Your J-site might have a different focus entirely.
But we can rub each others back by helping each other improve. I hope to use DailyJ (going forward) as a conduit for that; a conduit for helping others with their sites. And for receiving help with Nipponster.
So let’s share feedback going forward. Are you with me?Â
Attention J-bloggers: It’s party time!
On August 06, 2008 in Announcements, Community building, Helping Japan Bloggers, JapanBlogMatsuri
Hi All,
After a much much too long hiatus I’ve gathered the courage to show my face again and beg forgiveness for my absence.
But that’s not the important part. The important news is that some busy bees have been working away at reviving something really cool:
The Japan Blog Matsuri !!!
If you blog about Japan be sure to check this out!
Get the latest updates at the Japan Blog Matsuri Newsroom.
Why are you still here? Go already!
Back on radar
On August 05, 2008 in Announcements, Community building, DailyJ Mission
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…I’m back. But no promises. And no grandiose speech about the future. Just quiet determination.
I want to make Nipponster and DailyJ into great websites. I want to improve Japan-related web resources and help build up the community.
But this time I have to pace myself and not burn out. And most importantly, I need to focus.
I have been thinking a lot about DailyJ, Nipponster, and the bloggers/webmasters who I’ve had contact with through this blog.
I want to thank all of you again for your support in the past (and especially all those who have kept nudging me to continue).
I hope that I will still have your support in the future.
Have a great day!
DailyJ
Reformulating your Vitamin J
On March 14, 2008 in Announcements, Blog Improvements, Community building
I’m excited about some new possibilities for DailyJ.
Likely every project reaches a point, as it grows, where it needs to be re-evaluated and a decision has to be made. The options usually are quit, stagnate, work to death, or change.
I’ve never been one to quit (yes, I’m very stubborn). I understand (somewhat) that knowing when to quit can be a good thing. Unfortunately I don’t know when to quit, if I did I would probably be quitting now. But as it is I think there will be plenty time for quitting when I’m dead.
So that leaves the other three and only one of those is acceptable. It’s time for some changes (with any luck they will be good ones).
Work load and etiquette
The delays in posting interviews and replies to comments have really been bothering me. I don’t want to neglect any of you.
So I am thinking of ways to better handle the interviews. Up to this point I have been contacting more than one website at a time for interviews (and offering interviews to bloggers I happen to meet).
That worked well for awhile (especially at the launch) but now it is just too much. The result is delays and I am tired of being disrespectful to upcoming interviewees by taking too long to send them interview questions or failing to post their interviews quickly.
More brainstorming out loud -
Privately I brainstorm different ideas about DailyJ and other projects. Going forward though I want to open up that process by posting any ideas I have and getting more feedback about them.
Focus -
At first glance a website about Japan-related websites might seem a little silly but I think focus is the key to building a great site so I want to stay focused. So interviews are still the key ingredient of the vitamin J mix. But I’d like to have some multi-participant discussions with the people behind different web projects (a sort of “team interview”).
More discussion -
There is a lot happening around the Japan-related web and it seems to me all of that action demands more discussion and maybe even a little debate. Regular discussions about happenings and topics on the J-web might be a good permanent feature on DailyJ. Anyone could suggest a topic for debate and would become a post/discussion. Or maybe I should start a forum (?), a Japan-blogger’s forum.
Also, as some bloggers have mentioned to me, often ideas are passed back and forth in email when it might be better to discuss them with a wider group of people. Three heads are better than one. I think this goes back to that Japan-blogger’s mailing list idea.
My thoughts on a Japan-related web community are that such a community could be modelled after the open-source software communities. That is what I would love to see. How that will come about I will have to leave to smarter minds (though I offer any support I can provide), but that it could come about excites me.
The communal wiki at http://jproject.wikia.com would probably fit somewhere in that mix. And it seems from feedback that “Japan Labs” should be the name for it. I really like the idea of a laboratory for all sorts of Japan-related web experiments! (That was the atmosphere I was going for all along)
Well, there you have it. I’ve given you lots of ideas to discuss, tear apart, etc.
Back to the basics: relationships
On March 08, 2008 in Community building
Limited time and chasing after too many projects? Yes.
Solution: Go back to the basics.
DailyJ (any blog really) is all about relationships. Talking is important but listening can be even more important. I want to “listen” to (read) past interviewee blogs more diligently.
So I have decided to put a little google feed reader widget on DailyJ that shows recent posts by interviewees! (I will put it on the left sidebar later)
Check it out -
If you want to add the DailyJ crew to your site too (or iGoogle, etc) here is the script for that:
Chit-chat, Japan-related projects, and begging for feedback
On March 05, 2008 in Blog Improvements, Community building, Suggestions Please
Reminder: If you missed it I’ve been asking everyone for feedback about an upcoming discussion I hope to have here on DailyJ (and possibly elsewhere as well).
Chit ChatÂ
Okay. Now that the reminder is out of the way, I just want to update you guys about some of the things I’ve been doing on the Japanopedia wiki.
But before that, Let me say to any newbie people that are reading: I’ll be mentioning names of people that you might not know (here on DailyJ we are kind of close knit) Â but you can always jump in and join the conversation and we’ll welcome you to the group.
There have been some good comments lately from some new people like Neil and Mike so it’s good to have them drop by and leave their 2 yen and hopefully they’ll stick around as readers.
Also, I just want to say sorry to a couple of people for slow replies. I’ve been talking to a lot of different people by email. I have some interviews that are really backed up, especially one great interview with certain podcasters. I interviewed them a while back and they got all the answers to me really quickly  and I’ve been so slow. But I’m getting to it,  and I am working on better organisation.Â
Japan-related ProjectsÂ
The main thing that I want to do in this post is just talk about some of the upcoming projects on Japanopedia.
I am making a new project page for JapanSoc. It’s a page that lists video tutorials made so far for the project. There are 2 video tutorials currently: One that I’ve made which isn’t very good quality, the sound didn’t work. And another one that Nick made which is quite good.
Hopefully, with this page, somebody else might join in and make a tutorial too, to help out the project. The next project after the JapanSoc is NihonHacks. I have been talking to Thomas about a project to help brainstorm new NihonHacks and problems we want NihonHacks for.
So I’m putting both of these projects on the wiki. They are not done yet but hopefully they will be good once they are upI will let you all know when these pages are ready.Â
Begging for feedback
* Changing the name of the Japanopeda. Shall we change it to “Japan Labs?”
* Many emails between bloggers. Would some of this dailog be better in the open. This is the old mailing list idea.
 Just some ideas I had.
Have a great day!
DailyJ
Video Tutorial of the JapanSoc Social Bookmarking Button - helpful guide for Japan-bloggers
On March 01, 2008 in Community building, Helping Japan Bloggers
If you haven’t yet be sure to leave your thoughts on the discussion about the Japan-related web!
Just a few days ago I posted a video I made in an attempt to guide people in putting a JapanSoc voting button on their blog (blog posts). The video didn’t turn out that great (and the audio didn’t work), but I will be making a second attempt soon.
But, the video did inspire Nick to make his own tutorial for another JapanSoc gadget, the social bookmarking button. And I must say he did a better job! Here it is:
I think it would be great if video tutorials like these became more and more common on Japan-related sites. There are many possibilities. We could have tutorials that teach newbie readers how to navigate the site or give them a simple self-introduction. For all of the Japan-related tools available it would be great to have screen-capture videos that explain how to use their more difficult features.
What do you think? Once I gain a little more skill with the software I might go on a tutorial making rampage.
Life Hacks for Japan-bloggers?
On February 26, 2008 in Community building
As some of the regulars (and upcoming interviewees) might have noticed I have not been as quick with responses and as daily with DailyJ lately.
Between the guest blogging last month about the Japan-related web and the increased workload at my day job, I am feeling the burn. I’m sure it is good for me though, so I’m not giving up.
If you haven’t received a reply to your comment or email yet I apologise and I’ll make every effort to reply very soon.
I received some comments that made my day though and I just have to highlight them now. SouthOfReality just got a promotion (dinner is on him 
) and Chris might be franchising his English school! If that is not exciting news I don’t what is!
Now back to the handling comments and emails and posts and the-rest-of-life…
That is a lot to deal with, in other words, a problem. So like any good techno-geek I turned to the internet for help and found a solution on lifehacker.com. I love lifehacker!
They have an excellent article on organising your email. It talks about separating your To-Dos from email by taking emails-you-need-to-take-action-on and putting reminders about them in your to-do list (or calendar).
Probably most of you know (or should know) about NihonHacks but I wonder how many knew about sites like lifehacker.com (or lifehack.org)?
Screen capture tutorials for JapanSoc
On February 22, 2008 in Community building, DailyJ Mission, Helping Japan Bloggers
Hi All,
I am creating some tutorials to help Japan-bloggers install some of the tools that make submitting your posts to JapanSoc easy. If you are new and don’t know about JapanSoc (been under a rock? ) here is a link where you can learn all about JapanSoc
For the acquainted, let me begin by warning you that these tutorial videos were made as examples of what could be done (i.e. they are not polished works of art).
Hopefully people with more artistic talent than myself (that’s probably anyone) will make better ones from scratch or add to these.
If you want to give it a go, here is a website that let’s you download youtube videos. So you can download these tutorials and edit them if you like. Unlike with all of that music you’ve been pirating, this time you have permission.
I made them using this screen capture tool I found on tucows.com (a great site by the way)
I am planning to make a tutorial for each of the items on Nick’s JapanSoc Toolbox page. So far I have done one for the “voting button” and tried to do one for the “bookmarklet.” They are not as easy to make as I had hoped. It took me three attempts and about four hours to get a half decent one but I like JapanSoc and I want to learn how to make these so I don’t mind spending the time.
Sometimes it is hard to follow only written instructions and if you don’t know how long it is going to take (or how hard it is) it can be frustrating to do something. And then you get lazy. That’s why I am making these. Hopefully they will help combat that. Let me know if think this will be useful.
Here is the one I struggled to make today (couldn’t get the audio to work 
):
Thank yous and lots of Japan-related web activity!
On February 17, 2008 in #The Japan-related Web Debate, Community building, Japanese Toolbar, On the J-web
It’s time for me to thank some generous fellow Japan-bloggers who’ve made some nice things for me. I’m really grateful for the great crowd here at DailyJ. You’re alway so supportive. You guys are the best!
There has been a lot of love going around on the Japan-related web lately. Starting with KenYN’s contribution to the JapanSoc project, other bloggers have come along and contributed to several projects. Deas from RockingInHakata created some great OSX widgets for the Mac lovers out there (one day I hope to be cool enough for a Mac ). He made one for JapanSoc and another for Nipponster.com. Thanks for the widget, Deas!
The JapanSoc project has been getting better and better, which is really exciting. Nick recently posted a “JapanSoc Toolbox” on his blog LongCountDown. The toolbox is a list of all the great gadgets for JapanSoc, like gadgets to help you submit your posts to JapanSoc and boost traffic to your blog.
But as busy as he has been with JapanSoc he made time to contribute some great new logos to the community-owned wiki, Japanopedia. Thanks Nick! They look good to me (you can see them below). Now the wiki won’t look so ugly
These are just a few of the thank yous that deserve a mention. And which so much activity I’m sure there will be many more thank yous to come.
