Archive for the ‘Community building’ Category

Connections On The J-web

On January 21, 2008 in Community building, DailyJ Mission, On the J-web

The last time I did a “connections” post was December 5th, so this is much over due.

It’s time to talk a look at what some of the past DailyJ interviewees have been up to and see if we can find connections. I just mentioned on The Japan-related Web series how connections may become opportunities for webmasters to collaborate. I don’t know if these connections will lead to that, but at least I hope they are fun.

Here we go:

#1

Jamaipanese has vowed that he will “tame the beast that is the Japanese language”

RisingSunOfNihon might be of some help with his new Japanese language posts

Thomas from NihonHacks.com recommends AllJapaneseAllTheTime, and I agree.

#2

Meme-tagging between JapanNewbie and RockingInHakata

#3

KeepingPaceInJpan and Waikiki2Yanai talk dentists

KeepingPaceInJapan’s post mentions a service called Access Dental Counseling which would be a perfect tip for NihonHacks to cover!By the way, Turner from KeepingPaceInJapan is going in for surgery so why not take a moment to give him an encouraging comment?

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Japanopedia explained - post #1: background on the project

On January 20, 2008 in Announcements, Community building, Future of the J-web, Japanopedia, Suggestions Please

I have been wanting for some time to talk about this project here with you on DailyJ.

This is a project that is very dear to my heart. I consider it a gift to the Japan-related web.

It is a wikipedia-like site that is not owned by any one person or site, but owned by everyone.

When the idea of a wikipedia-like site was first suggested to me I went out and started a wiki on wikia.com called The Nipponster Japan Project and I wrote this post about it: Stone soup and the Nipponster Japan Project.

I think that post is still a great analogy for the project, but since I cannot and do not want to take credit for this project I asked the wikia staff to change the name to Japanopedia.

For ease of use, you can access it at Japanopedia.org, which redirects to the wikia.com URL jproject.wikia.com.

So,

Now it is your wiki. You can use this site for any Japan-related project. You want to work together with others to compile a list of XYZ? Go right ahead.

I will be involved in Japanopedia (and if you want my help with any project I am happy to help). But I don’t control Japanopedia, the community does.

I’ll post more explaining this project, how it works, how it is community owned, what types of projects would work well on it, etc.

As always I would love to hear your feedback, so let me know what you think!

Comments (9)

“JapanSoc It” Button on the Nipponster Japan Toolbar

On January 19, 2008 in Announcements, Community building, DailyJ Mission, Future of the J-web

After a little delay here it is!

I have created a little button so users can submit an article to JapanSoc just by clicking “JapanSoc It” on the toolbar. I am going to give more details here, but first let’s take a look at JapanSoc itself:

JapanSoc.com, in case you haven’t heard, is a social bookmarking site (think Digg.com) for Japan-related news. Why is this site so important? To explain with an analogy, it could be the “watercooler” of the Japan-related blogosphere; a hub around which J-bloggers (and others besides) can gather and share news.

After announcing that we would release a “JapanSoc It” button Nick informed me that there is already a bookmarklet available. You can read about it here.

I still wanted to give our current toolbar users a “JapanSoc It” button, so I continued with the project. Hopefully the button will attract those users to the JapanSoc project.

For anyone who is not yet a toolbar user and interested in what it has to offer:

The Nipponster Japan Toolbar is a browser toolbar with various features and resources (including Japanese language tools and internet broadcast Japanese tv). We are continually adding to the toolbar and tweaking the functions already available. You can download the Japan toolbar here.

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Post #5 of “The Japan-related Web” guest-blogging-series on Rising Sun of Nihon

On January 10, 2008 in #The Japan-related Web Debate, Announcements, Community building

If you are just joining us, this month Bill from Rising Sun Of Nihon has invited me to use his blog as a platform where we can all come together and discuss the Japan-related web! Here is today’s snippet.

Today we are talking about news on the Japan-related web. Here’s a little taste:

“Who is looking for what kind of news? Why? Why online? And how are they looking for it?”

Here is the full article. Feel free to join the conversation!

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Post #4 of “The Japan-related Web” guest-blogging-series on Rising Sun of Nihon

On January 09, 2008 in #The Japan-related Web Debate, Announcements, Community building

If you are just joining us, this month Bill from Rising Sun Of Nihon has invited me to use his blog as a platform where we can all come together and discuss the Japan-related web! Here is today’s snippet.

In today’s post there are 9 questions I ask about sites on the J-web,

“If you are a blogger or webmaster these might be good questions for you to ask yourself…”

But, uh oh. You’ll have to go over to RisingSunOfNihon to see them

Be sure to leave your thoughts.

Comments (0)

And they’re off! - the conversation is warming up over at The Japan-related Web “debate”

On January 09, 2008 in #The Japan-related Web Debate, Announcements, Community building

(It’s not really a debate, but I just thought that made for a flashier title)

There are some great comments already over at The Japan-related Web series. I thought I would highlight a few here.

#1 Neil said:

An interesting discussion, i’m keen to participate and see where it goes but i’m not sure what exactly is expected of me?

I wasn’t sure exactly what he meant but I said this.

#2 Nick from JapanSoc said:

Let me twist that into “What is expected of Japan bloggers?”
What should we be blogging about? What do people want to read? It’s always a good rule of thumb to put yourself in the reader’s position…

How about expectations within the Japan bloggers’ community? Perhaps we should be expected to introduce our readers to other bloggers around us…

(This is an excerpt, to read the full click here)

Thanks Nick for the great comment. I have added my thoughts too.

#3 Chris from Waikiki2Yanai said on the first post:

As an owner of a small English School in Japan, I have been very surprised to see how few in the same position have a blog?

I think that’s an interesting point. There are bloggers who talk about their experiences with Eikaiwa companies but I don’t see many bloggers talking about their classes, students and all of the fun things they are doing like Chris does on Waikiki2Yanai.

Be sure to join the fun and leave your thoughts too! This is your discussion and it will be going on all month long. And hopefully it will foster a greater sense of community on the J-web. All it needs is you!

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Post #3 of “The Japan-related Web” guest-blogging-series on Rising Sun of Nihon

On January 08, 2008 in #The Japan-related Web Debate, Announcements, Community building, DailyJ Mission, Future of the J-web

Post #3 is up. I wanted to divide (dissect) the Japan-related content available into parts so that we can study it closely. I ended up with seven categories. And that is what is post is all about.

First of all, we need to know, what kinds of sites are there? I propose that, whether big or small, most sites offer one or a combination of the following:

(Click here to read the post on RisingSunOfNihon)

Be sure to give your comments on the article!

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Catching up

On January 08, 2008 in #The Japan-related Web Debate, Announcements, Community building

Sorry for the late posting today.

I have been running around trying to keep up with the comments on DailyJ, the Japan-related Web series we are doing on RisingSunOfNihon, and related comments elsewhere.

One really interesting development is Ken YN’s latest post over at What Japan Thinks. Ken has kindly made a gadget to help the fledgling JapanSoc project. This type of collaboration is exactly what I am trying to promote through the series we are doing on RisingSunOfNihon.

I’ll talk more about the gadget he created later (it deserves its own post or posts), but I couldn’t wait to saying something today about his example.

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Post #2 of “The Japan-related Web” guest-blogging-series on Rising Sun of Nihon

On January 07, 2008 in #The Japan-related Web Debate, Announcements, Community building, DailyJ Mission, Future of the J-web

Here is a snippet from the next post in the guest blogging series. We will be chatting about this all month long and want to hear your opinions, so be sure to visit RisingSunOfNihon and join in the discussion!

The purpose of this series is to inspire everyone (from reader to webmaster) to greater collaboration, communication and mutual encouragement.

But, I am not foolish enough to think that I have all the answers.

In this series the real inspiration is you…

Click here to read the full post (all posts are under 200 words, just the right size!)

Join the fun

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Post #1 of “The Japan-related Web” guest blogging series on Rising Sun of Nihon

On January 06, 2008 in #The Japan-related Web Debate, Community building, DailyJ Mission, Future of the J-web

And so it begins…

As I mentioned earlier, Bill from Rising Sun Of Nihon has invited me to use his blog as a platform where we can all come together and discuss the Japan-related web! This will be a month long guest blog series.

I am going to be putting snippets of the posts here but most of the action will be over on Rising Sun Of Nihon. Be sure to”weigh in” on the topics by commenting and sharing your ideas.

Here is a snippet from my introduction:

I started building websites related to Japan while studying at Sophia University in Tokyo. I started because I was a bit overwhelmed (like many are) by the difficulties of trying to live/succeed as a foreigner in Japan and I wanted to make things a little easier for others…

I believe that communication and collaboration between webmasters (and between webmasters and their readers) is the key to better Japan-related content on the web.

So, I am very grateful and excited that Bill has given me the chance to guest blog here on RisingSunOfNihon and chat with all of you!

You can read the full at RisingSun.

Be sure to introduce yourself as well in the comment section! This is your discussion.

 

Comments (16)