The Japan-related web - what it is, what it could be, and why it matters

There is a discussion going on about the future of the J-web over at Rising Sun Of Nihon throughout the rest of this month (and maybe into the next?). I'm guest blogging the series and asking for everyone interested to give their opinions.

Hopefully the discussion will lead to a greater sense of community on the Japan-related web and collaboration between bloggers (and webmasters, readers, etc).

Here is the link:
Rising Sun of Nihon – Dubai, UAE

Let me know what you think.

I looked through your "what it could be" post, and you call for a decentralized leaderless community; don't we have something like that already? Each site is pretty much its own self-contained community, aware of the others with a little flow of members and information between the sites. Many relevant threads and articles from daijob or gaijinpot have been linked in discussions here, for example. I used to belong to another Japan-related forum, but have eventually moved away from that site because the quality of discussion here is generally much better. I've taken a look at the other major fora, but haven't stuck around long enough to register.

Who is your target audience with this series, the leadership of Japan related web sites like your own and Jref? Each site has its own hierarchical structure (and that isn't likely to change), but it would be interesting to have more collaboration between sites, if that is what you are suggesting. I'm interested in hearing how you propose to do this.

nice gaijin said:

I looked through your "what it could be" post, and you call for a decentralized leaderless community; don't we have something like that already?
.... but it would be interesting to have more collaboration between sites, if that is what you are suggesting. I'm interested in hearing how you propose to do this.

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Hi Nice gaijin ,

Thanks for commenting. I do think that the Japan-related web has a pretty strong community already (and Jref is an excellent example of that, in fact I mentioned it in the comments on one of the early posts). My goal is to spread the idea that there should an even stronger sense of community amongst Japan-related sites. And more collaboration is the definitely the key ingredient.

When I say a decentralised leaderless community I mean that webmasters and bloggers should take it upon themselves to help their fellow site owners out of a spirit of comradery. Hopefully this type of collaboration will be contagious. To give a concrete example, another J-blogger recently told me about a helpful wordpress plugin, I installed it, posted about it and told some other bloggers I know about it. They then told others and so on.

Someone asked me earlier in the series about goals. You can read the full answer here, but here is a snippet:

Personally I hope people walk away from this series with a mentality where they wonder "How can I do something that benefits other foreigners in Japan? (or people interested in Japan) What can I do to help create the kind of community that serves as a support for others?" If that happens, then the series will have been a success.

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It is only my opinion, but I think as webmasters we have a responsibility to produce great content that makes things easier for foreigners living in Japan. To do that we need to work together.

Selflessly helping another webmaster will benefit everyone, including the siteowners doing the helping. They will gain links, publicity and even more importantly their fellow webmaster's goodwill.

A decentralised community (an idea I discovered in the book The Startfish and Spider) needs three elements:

1. an ideology
2. catalysts (people who find useful connections that lead to collaboration)
3. champions (people who adopt and spread the ideology)

You mentioned that you would like to know how I propose to do this (increase collaboration). Really, I cannot do that. I cannot make anyone do anything, and even the number of people I can directly convince to adopt the idea of collaboration is limited by the fact that I am just one person.
This is not about me. This is about everyone involved in the Japan-related web adopting and spreading this simple ideology: help others, and encourage them to do the same.

Encourage other siteowners, comment on their sites, give feedback, help them with their projects, promote them on your site. These are way we can help each other.

There is also a a project, open to all, focused on increasing collaboration. It is a wiki project that is hosted by wikia.com so that it is not owned by any one Japan-related site. The project is called the Japanopedia. It is still brand new but hopefully it will be a base for many collaborative projects in the future.

I would love to hear what you think about all of the things I've mentioned. Please let me know.

Also as you are a heavy contributor (moderator?) on jref I would love to hear your thoughts on how webmasters and bloggers like myself can best contribute to this forum (we probably have a lot of knowledge we could share). I think forums like this are a great way to help foriegners. If you would like to comment on that I would love to interview you on my blog DailyJ (or you could comment at the discussion on RisingSunOfNihon)

This is just my personal opinion, and does not reflect the views of Jref or its moderating staff, but I think that things are already easy for foreigners in Japan in terms of availabilty of information via the internet.

When I moved here and made the transition, I did so without any help from the internet whatsoever. I had to learn through trial and error, the hard way. I think that by making things too easy for people trying to move to Japan, you deprive them of some very valuable experiences, especially young and idealistic people, who need to experience reality firsthand and learn for their own that the world is not as they might hope, so that they can grow as a person and in understanding.

What I worry about is that people become dependant on places such as the internet and do not do any of their own legwork.

I think the internet is a great place, but I don't see the need for what you propose.

Mikawa Ossan said:

I had to learn through trial and error, the hard way. I think that by making things too easy for people trying to move to Japan, you deprive them of some very valuable experiences, especially young and idealistic people, who need to experience reality firsthand and learn for their own that the world is not as they might hope, so that they can grow as a person and in understanding.

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That is a really good point. Of course we learn a lot through trial and error. Struggling through the difficulties of moving to and living in another country definitely is important (for learning the language, culture, and for building perseverance). I do not think that we should take that away (that would hurt, not help).

What I am talking about are things like these:

1. contributing to projects like the free Japanese language textbook on wikibooks
2. improving the tools available to everyone interested in Japan (ex: Japanese language tools)
3. etc.

But I think you make a very good point about learning through trials.

nice gaijin said:

Who is your target audience with this series, the leadership of Japan related web sites like your own and Jref?

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My target audience is anyone interested in Japan-related content online. Of course I would like to hear the thoughts of other webmasters/bloggers, since they are the main content producers.

On my blog DailyJ I interview Japan-related webmasters and many of those past interviewees have left comments on the series already.
And I would love to hear from Jref people too.

More and more non-webmasters are contributing to the content available online through their comments, forum posts, and contributions to projects. They deserve to be heard as well.

I do what I can as a member (not part of the staff) here at Jref, but I'm only a content producer in the sense that I share my knowledge and experience (however limited) with those that seek it. I weigh in on subjects that interest or concern me, and try to increase my understanding of those subjects.

It seems like there are a few different ways to stimulate collaboration: link exchanges, content sharing, guest blogging (as you are doing), etc. But an unmapped and perhaps extensive pre-existing relationship between Japanese-related sites would be the members that maintain a presence on more than one site. Obviously no one has enough time to participate in all sites about Japan, but the few people that do visit multiple sites form a sort of "6 degrees of separation" that links us all to each other. Perhaps there's a way to harness this hidden network to spark this collaboration you propose.

Mikawa Ossan, I find what you've said to be very interesting. I agree that the easy access to information has taken a lot of the effort out of research about things like Japan, and that there is a lot that should be learned from experience on one's own, but are we to restrict the sharing of information in order to teach people to work for it? I think that would be very difficult to accomplish, so we're left to ride the wave of the ever-accelerating flow of information.

nice gaijin said:

Mikawa Ossan, I find what you've said to be very interesting. I agree that the easy access to information has taken a lot of the effort out of research about things like Japan, and that there is a lot that should be learned from experience on one's own, but are we to restrict the sharing of information in order to teach people to work for it? I think that would be very difficult to accomplish, so we're left to ride the wave of the ever-accelerating flow of information.

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I don'T believe in restricting the flow of information that people wish to share. I just think that there is already plenty of information out there if one bothers to look for it.

And I have a philosophy of sorts that people need a certain degree of "inconvenience" or they get spoiled.

contributing to projects like the free Japanese/English languages improving the tools available to everyone interested in Japan/English

nice gaijin said:

I do what I can as a member (not part of the staff) here at Jref, but I'm only a content producer in the sense that I share my knowledge and experience (however limited) with those that seek it. I weigh in on subjects that interest or concern me, and try to increase my understanding of those subjects.

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That is definitely content producing. I am sure all of the people you help appreciate it too. It is commendable.

nice gaijin said:

... an unmapped and perhaps extensive pre-existing relationship between Japanese-related sites would be the members that maintain a presence on more than one site. Obviously no one has enough time to participate in all sites about Japan, but the few people that do visit multiple sites form a sort of "6 degrees of separation" that links us all to each other. Perhaps there's a way to harness this hidden network to spark this collaboration you propose.

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WOW! Thanks for this great comment! I am not sure how that could be done but it has the wheels turning in my head. Do you have any ideas?

One thing that I just mentioned in a post that may be useful is making a Japan-related clone of 43things.com. 43things.com let's people list the things they want to do and the things they have done before. So, if I have done something that you would like to do you could ask me about my experience. Also if we both have a similar goal we can encourage each other to accomplish it. That is not really the sort of thing I suppose you are talking about but it maybe a good site none the less.

Mikawa Ossan said:

I just think that there is already plenty of information out there if one bothers to look for it.

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I agree and I think that actually in some cases there is too much information. And so finding the specific information one needs becomes more and more difficult.

How can we filter all the information available to find the pieces that are important to our particular situation? That might be the real struggle. And maybe it is something that we should have to struggle with, like you are suggesting. I don't know.

kombizz said:

contributing to projects like the free Japanese/English languages improving the tools available to everyone interested in Japan/English

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http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Japanese is a free Japanese language textbook project. It is a wiki so anyone can contribute. It is part of wikibook.org, started by the wikipedia people.