Will do. Maybe some of our ideas (about writing down niches, questions newbies should ask, etc.) could be brainstormed using the wiki. But I’ll need a little time to work on it first.

@ Nick (9 questions),
Your blog is definitely a great example (especially for wordpress bloggers). You have a lot of good plugins that are helpful for the readers.
(Here I go letting the cat out of the bag again)
Later on, at the end of this series, I am think about having a “Japan-site Makeover” project. I don’t want to give too many details now, but one thing I will say is that any site that wants to receive feedback I will post about them and then everyone can give their advice. I hope you will give your advice at that point too, you definitely know what you are doing.

I think this is worthy of a post in and of itself to give it more attention.

Please keep me updated on the progress and let me know if/how I can help out.

Ok. I wasn’t going to mention this until later in the series but I had better let the cat out of the bag.

Actually, I have been working on something similar (sort of similar) to what you and Nick are talking about, Japanopedia.org. I think I mentioned it to you before but it was brand new at the time. It is still a bit of a mess, but I have been working on it a little more lately and I wanted to mention it in the series.

I’m not sure if this is what you were thinking of at all, it is wiki-based so anyone can edit it. There is a way to freeze pages, so that they cannot be edit (or editted by non-registered users, etc.) but supposedly freezing pages can hurt the community. If you let people edit freely and they vandalise the site it is not problem (not that bad of a problem) because wikis archive all of the page edits, so you can revert to a perviously saved version.

Japanopedia is hosted by wikia.com which is from the creators of wikipedia. The great thing about that is they maintain all of the software and hardware. Also it means that none of the contributors really “own” the site. That is a plus for me because I wanted to create something central, that anyone could contribute to. And I figured that if others thought, “he’s just doing it to get XYZ” then they would not contribute. This way they know that I don’t get anything more from it than they do, we are all equal partners (we all own it).

My hopes for this site a sky high. I think that it can truly be a place where anyone can brainstorm anything Japan-related. It is the “whiteboard” that I hinted at in the comments section on post #2.

My main goals of the project are to:
- Create a thorough “Japan survival guide”
- create a database with short descriptions of as many Japan-related sites as possible
- create a place where people can @Bill (and also, Nick)

wow. that was a long comment…my fingers are tired

What do you guys think?

Is that only to the cool Kansai people?

“Most newcomers to Japan don’t know what to expect until they get here. Perhaps we should be passing on our experience, making Japan more transparent, so people can learn more about this great country before they arrive. I actually think bloggers are doing this, but a central Q&A site would obviously solve the problem of not knowing what to ask!”

Answers.com and eHow. If someone has the time and the expertise, a JapanAnswers or JHow site or something along those lines would be a great idea, no?

uh oh. I suspect someone is rushing out right now to buy those domain names

Answers and eHow are good. What about wikipedia?
Copying these sites should not be too difficult.

Also, (this is getting ahead of myself a little bit) I would love a 43things.com for the Japan-related web. 43things let’s you list all the things you want to do and then you can find other people who also want to do them. Plus people list the things they have done and you can ask them for advice about doing it too!

How about a list of what people should be looking for.

That’s a good point.
For people in Japan already the questions are clear: “I need to figure out XYZ, but how?”

But newbies probably have no idea what to ask. Simon at Tresu.blogspot.com (who commented on another post) comes to mind. Most people would not expect that much of Japan is not handicap-friendly, they might not even know to ask.

So how can we educate future foreigners? I guess that is the question, right?

The other idea is one somebody could make some money off of…if that is what motivates them, too.

Perhaps others are familiar with the sites Answers.com and eHow. If someone has the time and the expertise, a JapanAnswers or JHow site or something along those lines would be a great idea, no?

I wish I knew how to set up and maintain sites. I’d do it.

Is there anybody that can? Tori?