Posted by Dokuro on December 15, 2010 at 3:19am
Hi Everyone,
As I have mentioned in some other posts. I think it helps to have something to build to really get things going in a positive light for the group. It also gives meaning to any kind of meeting that we have.
I would like to see if we can get some ideas going about a group project that we can build that would do a couple of things:
- Use Drupal (I know, this is a given)
- Challenges Users, but does not over challenge everyone. (Think that it is important to build something that can challenge us, but not be something that is crazy complex that it will kill the project in the long run.)
- Gives back to the community and helps people who live in Japan. (It should be something that we can build that will be a positive benefit to people living in Japan. And I think it should be something that will benefit all of us as well working on it)
- Monitization of the project should not be a high concern, only concern would be how to cover costs of the project, but there are many resources out there that can help with this for things that are truly open
I have one idea that I think might work well, but feedback and ideas from everyone is good to have. Then we can make a poll and get the project going.
Comments
Would anyone else be
Would anyone else be interested in a J/E Drupal 7 install profile for SMEs with locale, i8n, etc. and a basic content translation work-flow in place?
Or for NPOs or community Web
Or for NPOs or community Web sites. Whoever would want a J/E install profile.
If I am not mistaken, isn't
If I am not mistaken, isn't there talk of this in the Japan group? Would need to look and see.
Ah, OK. Cool. ^^ What kind of
Ah, OK. Cool. ^^ What kind of thing did you have in mind?
No, I'm not shooting down the
No, I'm not shooting down the idea, just if they have it going already, then we should not build it at the same time. We could get involved and help them. Also, I am sure not everyone will join the one project, might be good to have a couple going that people can say, cool, I like that idea I will join that one over there.
Dokumori will know about
Dokumori will know about this.....
afaik there is no such
afaik there is no such install profile :|
At least I haven't built any install profile that involves Japanese language.
The more I think about this,
The more I think about this, I kind of feel like this would be a good one to start off with, now that Drupal 7 is out, we could kind of do a tandem D6&D7 profile at the same time.
Then after we get the flow going for this, we could work into other projects. Anymore thoughts on this from anyone else?
I had a similar idea, Soren
from the "how to make Drupal more accepted in Japan" thread...generally thinking, create some "distros" that come with JA/EN pre-installed, and the basic mods for making a blog, a simple shopping cart, whatever (different profiles for each). Some bi-lingual instructions on how to get going with them, and what more you can do on your own when you start to understand Drupal.
The first thing Drupal says when you install it is, "Great, now go install all of this..", and it says it in English. I think it can be "over-minimal" for a lot of people who would like a simple blog or info site, and are comparing to Wordpress, Joomla, etc.
open source English/Japanese tech awarness site?
Looking to scratch my own itch :) I'm moving Nishio, Aichi in March and since I'm dyslexic my Japanese will forever suck. From within KDE Linux devices I'm looking for tools to help.
I'd be willing to run Windows or OS X if those Kanji scanners are any good but would prefer Linux of course.
My wife and I use Firefox and Omega-T. I've been experiemnenting with recording audio Japanese words/phrases in a mind map app called XMind but it's just Java XML files and doesn't scale past 500 nodes or so.
I can use a concept map app called Compendium that runs Derby or MySQL however the Linux revision doesn't have hypermedia drag-and-drop and the audio has to be recorded in another app.
What kind of software/hardware are you guys using to cross the language barrier?
I use beer and a dictionary
I use beer and a dictionary at times....ha. But really, learning to speak Japanese at the local pub, is always a good way, I just moved to Iruma, need to find a new one.
Great to hear what you are doing. It might hit that challenging aspect level for everyone though, but sounds cool what you are doing. JC at http://www.doublet.jp/ does a lot of work with Omega-T, he is one of the core members on that. He is often at the Open Source events in Japan as well.
I would love to hear more about what you are doing, not sure I will be able to follow you, but sounds like fun!
What kind of
What kind of software/hardware are you guys using to cross the language barrier?
Google translate. ^^
There's an Evernote clone called Nevernote that was built for Linux.
As you probably know, Evernote lets you attach images and audio files to words (notes).
How are you using Omega-T with Firefox?
Saving Web pages as HTML and then translating for study?
My Idea
My Idea.
I have talked with Rick @ 1rick.com, he has a good idea, that I have thought about too.
He had a project he was starting, and I think we could expand on it as a group. http://1rick.com/blog/a-video-demo-of-tokyosocial-so-far
Also including resources for people who live in Japan. Sections like Japanese Social Hacks (Something that addresses how to get through red-tap issues in Japan, nothing illegal here, I'm sure we all know that hacking does not mean illegal by nature), another one that I would like to see is a list of doctors and reviews on doctors. I don't know about anyone else in this group. But my extra critically activities end me up in the hospital at time (BMX/MTB DJ anyone?). Finding a good doctor in Japan can be a challenge.
Other things could easily be added to this, Geo-tracking, tags, just a general resource guide for foreigner in Japan. Also making a Karma gaming aspect to the whole thing too to open up new permissions to users based on Karma rules.
Build up a free resource for daily issues that we all deal with while living in Japan, that is not controlled by a company like gaijinpot or anything. No need to worry about censorship or stupid things that that brings along.
I think Rick said he is going to Join the group, so Rick if you do, please touch base on my comments here.
Sounds cool. ^^ No doubt
Sounds cool. ^^ No doubt there is a lot of room for quality English "*-in-Japan" resources.
Soren or Nick, one of you
Soren or Nick, one of you should make a post about Open Hippel here, that way if other want to get involved and don't know about it yet, they can.
Nick will be able to give a
Nick will be able to give a better explanation, but in brief:
Open Hippel is a Drupal 6 install profile for decision-making, especially in open innovation communities.
Innovation by the people, for the people ^^
Open Hippel
Right... so I started this project called Open Hippel earlier this year - http://groups.drupal.org/node/59918 - originally, it was to be an open sourced, updated version of Cuusoo.com's "User Innovated Product Design" system.
We've gone through many sessions of brainstorming and UX design, meeting weekly since April, right now Soren is the sole developer developing Open Hippel. It has evolved to become a Drupal distro for easy community based users collaboration and decisions making, with a concentration in the User Innovation fields.
We're almost ready to launch the beta version at openhippel.org so people can sign up and try it and help iterate the product from there on. I think when that site is up, we should have a good description on its front page, so that people can see what the Open Hippel project is about, and by using it, have a clear idea of what it is. With that, I hope more people will be interested in joining and helping out!
Of course, if you're interested to jump in right now, we can talk more in-depth about the project anytime! :)
Yes!! I'm all for the
Yes!! I'm all for the doctors listings / reviews! We had been talking about this for a while now, it'll be cool to really kick it off as an open project!
I really like the idea that
I really like the idea that Rick has to sort by station, thats a must.
Just posted at the bottom
Like a dummy, I just posted a reply at the bottom without reading this whole page very thoroughly. Apologies.
I should explain that much of what I'd like to see in a Japan information/news website is based on my experience working with @alexbowman on DalianDalian.com (now temporarily offline). We had a few different content types, most notably, 'listing' and 'blog'.
Listings worked great for bars, restaurants, bakeries, bookstores, universities, English schools, and yes, hospitals, dentists, and clinics. A single map view with exposed filters worked beautifully in allowing people to sort through to find what they were looking for. I think for Tokyo, train lines and stations (node relationship?) would be key. People here tend to identify with their nearest station.
Structure of listings
Evanston Now (also on Drupal) has a pretty thorough sidebar full of listings categories: http://evanstonnow.com/directory/all
Perhaps a good reference.
Another possible comparable
http://www.goby.com/ might be worth looking at as you think about this.
Anyone else?
Anyone else have an idea on this? I think I will put a deadline on this to the 1st, and after that I will put up a poll if need be and then organize it.
It will be really nice to build something with Drupal to give back to the community of Japan. I will also try and see if we can get the Japan group members to join us as well.
I like the doctors directory idea
I don't know how much I can contribute as I'm really new to Drupal and pretty new to programming at that, but I've been a translator for many years now and really want to learn the ins and outs of Drupal while picking up some programming knowledge by joining some open source project.
Hey LEkONe, Learning is what
Hey LEkONe, Learning is what it is about. So please don't let that worry you. The point is to give people a goal to learn, if you don't have a project to build, then its hard to learn. So this will be great for you!
Excited
Pretty stoked about getting on board with a project!
What exactly does "the community of Japan" mean?
I would be helped by knowing who it is you want to give back to, I guess.
The community of Japan, we
The community of Japan, we have two different levels of what that means I think. One would be our community in Japan, the next would be the general population of Japan. If it was the idea that Rick came up with expanded to have doctor listings, voting and user feedback, then I think the community of Japan would mean anyone looking for a doctor that they can trust in Japan. We are most definitely going to do a I18n build here, so Japanese would be able to use the site just as would any foreigner, and everyone is invited to bring their language to the project. The project will be managed in English, but I hope we can expand it to every language of the users who are involved in building it.
What I think this will lead to is a great case study that we can showcase at any open source conference inside and outside Japan, to not only showcase what Drupal can do, but how we can use it to better the lives of people in Japan. And in doing so, maybe build a good model of learning and growth for Open Source projects in general in Japan. At lease that is my goal for the project.
Does that answer your question?
One more note on this
One more note on this project, it would not just be Doctors, it could be expanded to anything really. A resource for finding information in Japan that is not censored by anyone organization.
Re: What exactly does "the community of Japan" mean?
For me, I'd like to help build the kind of site that I wanted (but didn't have) when I arrived.
Somebody in here mentioned 'scratching your own itch'. And that describes my urge to contribute pretty well.
Build a Japan information site?
I have limited Drupal skills, but I did work towards making a simple community news/information website. When I came to Japan, I was a little disappointed to find that English websites about Japan are poorly structured, and just don't serve the public in a way that I think they should.
I'm a big fan of 'hyperlocal' sites, and I think the GMap and Location modules can make it pretty easy to whip up something useful. Here's what I've put together so far, and there's a video screencast where I explain all this in a little more detail.
Again, I think the current local media is pretty behind the times, and it wouldn't take much to create a website that the public deserves to have.
You don't mind starting over
You don't mind starting over from scratch do you? We can even explore the idea of D7, I just wonder if all will be good to go for it. That can be apart of the planing stage.
Re: You don't mind starting over
Most of this is all a learning exercise for me, with the process being just about as important as the end goal. D7 sounds good to me, though to date I've only been using D6.
Starting over works. Would love to hear everyone's thoughts.
This post goes with this post
This post goes with this post also http://groups.drupal.org/node/112854#comment-362799
FYI: Social Innovation
FYI: Social Innovation Camp
http://www.sicamp.org/
http://www.sicamp.org/si-camp-uk/previous-camps/
You'll find loads of good ideas there.
I helped them as a Drupal developer and secured some funding for one of the projects :D
Japan Social Networking
How about building a site that promotes one of the aims of getting Drupal adopted by businesses in Japan?
There are already a number of Business Networking groups in Tokyo, with mixed foreign and Japanese members who all cross-link into organising meet ups, tweet-ups, trigger events, presentations and workshops.
A lot of the organisers are social media types and not designers or developers, and so they use 3rd services and various channels to promote the events etc.
In general none of them have a solid base for the promotion and nurture of these communities.
We could build a site that brings together the business networking crowd using Drupal, and in doing so immediately have content and a user base for the product.
As the social media guys are generally running the business networking events, they would be promoting the site for us. This then expands to the business people and all various types who attend the events, meet ups, presentations etc who would then learn about Drupal because it would be the technology the site they are using is built on. Then they would stop recommending Wordpress to business owners ;)
Even if the community project is another project I think it would be worth tying it into another community, who would be able to promote or provide the content for the site once it is running.
Also in that way, the technical people can manage the system and the content people can manage the content.
Lastly if a business networking portal/community site is built by us, we instantly are networked into all the businesses which can only be good for us.... and for those businesses (^_-)b