Archive for the ‘DailyJ Mission’ 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?

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

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!

Comments (0)

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

Comments (0)

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)

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

Comments (6)

Friends don’t let friends blog without comment notification ;)

On December 19, 2007 in Blog Improvements, Community building, DailyJ Mission, Helping Japan Bloggers

In my last “Helping Japan Bloggers” post I asked Nick from LongCountdown.com to “share the love,” and share it he did!

Nick gave all of us the plugin that notifies your commentors when someone replies to their comment.

Quicknote - This is a wordpress plugin. If you use Blogger you are lucky and already have this function. If you are on another blog platform leave a comment and hopefully we can find the solution for you too (or switch *cough**cough*).

Nick Ramsay Said,…To notify people of new comments on my blog, I use the Subscribe to Comments plugin for Wordpress.

He also mentioned somethings about RSS that some might not know (more on that next time).

Now this is my commission to you:

If you have a wordpress blog or if you know a Japan-blogger with a wordpress blog, why not tell them today to install this plugin for better blog communication?

And why not spread the word on your own blog too? You don’t have to mention this post, just take this information and use it on your blog help your fellow Japan-bloggers make their blogs better!

Share the love!

Daily J

Comments (9)

Helping Japan bloggers with their wordpress blogs

On December 16, 2007 in Announcements, Community building, DailyJ Mission, Helping Japan Bloggers

One thing that I would like to do here on Daily J is discuss, as Japan bloggers, how we can improve our blogs.

So I am going to post “Helping Japan Bloggers” posts from time to time.

*You can help by offering suggestions. And if you have solved a problem others are having SHARE your solution! *

I mentioned this to JapanItUp.com on his post about displaying Japanese on wordpress (my comment is at the bottom) and it is time to talk about it here.

I want it to be an interchange of help.
The idea is that we talk about what could be better and then we blog about how to do it technically.

Here is an example:

JapanItUp had a problem with displaying Japanese, so he figured it out and then he posted about it so that every one else could learn from it.

That is what I want this series to be about!

So here are two things I see on J blogs that I think could be better:

(btw, I am guilty of just about all of them still, so don’t feel bad)

#1

Wordpress bloggers need to install a mod that notifies commenters when there is a reply!

(If you have done this please teach the rest of us how to do it easily. I could search for the mod. But I am too busy already)

longcountdown.com has it! Not fair. Share the love Nick

Work around (?) - (In case you want to know if someone replied to your comment but the blog doesn’t have auto-notification)

Take the URL of the post that you commented on and add RSS to the end:

http://www.longcountdown.com/2007/02/10/technical-problems-with-lc/

becomes http://www.longcountdown.com/2007/02/10/technical-problems-with-lc/rss

I think this should work. not sure.

#2

Prominently displaying RSS feeds.

I’ve been bugging a few bloggers about this one (you know who you are) I am a hypocrite though because my rss feed is still way at the bottom of this blog I need to stop being lazy…

What other things have you guys seen that we all could work on? And what do you think of this idea for helping each other out? Let me know!

Have a great day

Daily J

Comments (3)

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.

Comments (7)