Monday, April 23, 2007

Stone Soup and the Nipponster Japan Project


Have you ever heard the story "Stone Soup"?


The old folktale seems to have different versions but basically it goes like this:

Their was a man with nothing but a pot and a hunger for soup. He puts a stone into the pot of water and tells everyone passing by that it is the most delicious soup but all that it is missing is their ingredient. One puts in a carrot, another a potato, etc. until it becomes a great soup. None of them could have made that soup with only their own item. All benefited from a much tastier soup when it was finished.

In the same way we have nothing but a hunger to make a great soup, a great soup of resources. But like the man in the story we have nothing, all we have is a stone (our feeble abilities) and a pot of water (a new wikipedia-like wiki). But we are convinced that by bringing all of the bloggers, webmasters, and general internet users who are passionate about Japan together around a common goal we can make better resources for all.

That is the concept behind the Nipponster Japan Project. We will be announcing the start of this project in the upcoming weeks. We look forward to working on this project with all who are interested. And we would love to chat with you. So, if you just cannot wait to know more, contact us.

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Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Mission: Enhance and Improve Japan-related content on the web!

If you have read some of our other posts or communicated with us via email you may know that we are dedicated to improving the Japan-related content available online amd making it more accessible.

We want to be the Google (and wikipedia) of Japan-related content, with a similar focus on transparency and "Don't Be Evil" (Google's motto).

We want to make the web a better place for Japan-enthusiasts

So we are anxious to spearhead various projects to accomplish that.

For example we want to form a group of contributors and improve the Japanese language textbooks on wikibooks.

We plan to organise these projects through a Wikia wiki. We just requested one to day, waiting for apporoval...

-Tori

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