Archive for the ‘Future of the J-web’ Category

Is your J-blog on the twitter group?

On August 29, 2008 in Future of the J-web, Helping Japan Bloggers, On the J-web

Neil Duckett over at NeilDuckett.com is twittering and invites you to join in if you have a Japan-related blog.

He has created a Japan-blogger twitter group and you are welcome.

J-tweets…

What will we think up next?!

Comments (2)

Let the Mad Science Experiments Begin, Muhahahaha!

On August 22, 2008 in Community building, Future of the J-web, JapanLabs, On the J-web

Announcing….

“The Mad Science Laboratory of the Japan-related Web!”

I promise you nothing. But I am VERY excited.

JapanLabs is a place where people interested in the “J-web 2.0″ can brainstorm new Japan-related projects and experiment.

It is built on an excellent Social Networking Platform that makes collaboration simple.

Benefits To You:

• Get feedback about your website from people who know J-websites
• Find people to help with that new project
• Interact with like-minded people and stimulate your creative juices!

How those benefits are delivered:

• Groups - start a group for your project or interest. Then you and other interested people can discuss it in the group forum.
• MyPages - see what your lab-mates are up to, their latest comments/contributions.
• Events - share and stay aware of important dates on the J-web (like the JapanBlogMatsuri deadline)
• MainPage - keep up with the latest activity of the JapanLab community.
• Forums - forums focused just on J-web development and brainstorming! A first as far as I know.

Well I’ve hyped it up too much already,

Go Check It Out!

Comments (3)

J-web 2.0 - Elevator Up?

On August 21, 2008 in #The Japan-related Web Debate, Community building, Future of the J-web, On the J-web

When I look at the flurry (is that a word?) of activity on the Japan-related web I can’t help but wonder…

From the time I first started scouring the web for Japan-related gems (back in 2006 for Nipponster) up to now, it seems like there has been a transition.

It seems like there has been a change in the way we build Japan-related websites and the kinds of sites we build.

Also, to me at least, it seems like there is a greater sense that there is in fact a “Japan-related web,” a community, and we are a part of it.

If those observations are in anyway accurate, I propose that we have now reached 2.0. The next level; a new playing field.

I can’t put it any better than BillyWest of JapanBlogger.net -

“it’s like an elevator that has left the ground floor, but too many people are still doing ground-floor stuff. There’s a whole world of opportunity to do original Japan-related sites and it’s nice to see some are taking it to the next level.”

Are you going up?

Update (Aug. 22) :

Here is an interesting chart from Google Trends related to the J-web -

Search trends for “Japan Blog” (an upward trend)

Also, there are 156 million website online. I wonder how we could come up with a figure (even a decent guess) of the number of Japan-related ones. Any ideas?

Comments (5)

The Japan-related Web: The Future

On February 06, 2008 in #The Japan-related Web Debate, Future of the J-web, Helping Japan Bloggers

If you are just joining us, 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!

For the last few posts of the Japan-related web series I mention three web projects that I think are leveraging innovative web technology to build community and help webmasters/bloggers.

#1 Japanopedia

#2 Japan-Hopper

#3 JapanSoc

Number 1 and number 3 have been mentioned before on DailyJ (and I will be talking about them more later). Right now I want to talk a little bit about number 2 and then an idea about how all three can work together.

Japan-Hopper.com:

I contacted Kiyotaka, the owner of Japan-Hopper, and asked him a little bit about the project (there will also be a full interview with him later here on DailyJ). You can read what he said in the original article. Basically Japan-Hopper is a site where anyone can add a “placemark” (some info about a location) on a map of Japan.

The great thing about it is that it is perfect for you if you are a Japan-blogger and you have posts about specific places in Japan. You can take a snippet or a summary of your post, add it to Japan-Hopper as a placemark, and add a link back to the full post on your site! Extra traffic.

Now my idea, and it is just an idea (i.e. don’t kill me if you don’t like it)

JapanSoc, Japan-Hopper and Japanopedia if used together could amplify the community building work and send even more traffic to blogs. Here is my thinking:

Japanopedia is like a blank open slate. Anyone can start a project there. Currently there is a project on it to help JapanSoc. A similar project could be made for Japan-Hopper. Maybe a project for bloggers to talk about their favourite places in Japan. Or maybe a project to add screenshots of Japanese monuments on SecondLife to the right places for them on JapanHopper. What do you think about that?

Whatever the case, once it is on Japan-Hopper maybe then it could be highlighted on JapanSoc! You could take your Japan-Hopper placemark’s address and submit it to JapanSoc. If it is interesting and gets “soc’ed” you get exposure for your post on two sites! And you support both projects at the same time.

Of course I am not advocating spamming either site with worthless junk, so I hope you make your contributions meaningful. And have fun too!

Last words?

Tomorrow the last post of the Japan-related web series on RisingSunOfNihon will be posted. But it’s my hope that this series is just the beginning.

As always, I am eager to hear what you think. So let me know!

And have a great day

Comments (14)

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.

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

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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)

Japan-bloggers United Mailing List?

On January 01, 2008 in Community building, Future of the J-web, On the J-web, Suggestions Please

世論

Ken YN over at WhatJapanThinks has been holding a little Japan Blog of the Year Contest and he brought up some really interesting ideas in the comments section of the post.

Ken YN: I’m not very good at this community thing, but I feel that there should be some sort of J-bloggers United mailing list/SNS where we can get to know everyone a bit better, but without getting too incestuous; the blogging about blogging world is really bad for that!I see Japan Probe has a new AdRoll icon; the Japan BlogAds doesn’t sell anything as a unit; could “we” work out a deal with Piqniq, TokyoApartments, etc so they could advertise direct rather than through the AdSense, TLA middlemen? I don’t, but someone like Robert at jp.blognation may have answers.

Having a Japan-bloggers United emailing list or a J-blogger social networking site (SNS) sounds like a great idea to me. What do you guys think? How should we do it?

Comments (3)