Archive for the ‘DailyJ Mission’ Category

Focus and the backrub

On August 09, 2008 in Community building, DailyJ Mission, Helping Japan Bloggers

 

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) = 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 all 

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? 

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Back on radar

On August 05, 2008 in Announcements, Community building, DailyJ Mission

 

…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

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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 ):

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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?

Comments (4)

“JapanSoc It” Button on the Nipponster Japan Toolbar

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

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.

Comments (2)

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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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.

 

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Why I am guest blogging at RisingSunOfNihon

On January 06, 2008 in Announcements, Community building, DailyJ Mission

Past DailyJ interviewee, Bill Belew, has invited me to guest blog on RisingSunOfNihon and I can blog about any topic. So, of course I am going to blog about the Japan-related web!

The guest blogging series will be a month-long discussion about “The Japan-related Web: What it is, What it could be and Why it Matters.” You are invited to join in on the discussion and share your ideas and opinions, so please do!

I am definitely grateful to Bill for this opportunity to talk about this topic with more people and at length. I think that this is a great opportunity for all of us to brainstorm how we can help make Japan-related content on the web even better. And that is why I am doing this.

Comments (1)

When Japan-bloggers put their minds together beautiful things happen - follow up to our interview with JapanBlogList

On December 21, 2007 in Announcements, Blog Improvements, Community building, DailyJ Mission, Future of the J-web, On the J-web

Three heads are better than one.

Chris had a brilliant idea, Shane expanded on it (see below), the JapanBlogList fit the bill perfectly and now…. the ball is rolling to create a “blog search tool” that will let you search all of the Japan-related blogs online!

Nipponster and DailyJ are giving full support to the JapanBlogList project and partnering up with them to create this new search tool.

So from now on you will see an extra tab at the top of DailyJ for the JapanBlogList. And soon (once we do the tech work) our blog search widget will be on their JapanBlogList page so that users can search through all of the blogs on the list.

None of this would have happened without the great feedback from DailyJ readers like Chris and Shane so a BIG thanks to both of you!

Shane S Said, As far as the blogroll goes I think that this is a great idea - why don’t you create a page behind home and about titled Japan blogs and start the list with those that are regular contributors to Daily J and those that you have interviewed. You could then take suggestions or add based on the comments that you got on your previous top Japan Blogs…you could have two columns - one for blogs and one for resources sites like japan-guide.com etc…. (link to original comment)

Have a great day

DailyJ

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