{"id":3404,"date":"2015-04-08T23:46:39","date_gmt":"2015-04-08T14:46:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/?p=3404"},"modified":"2023-04-26T00:53:02","modified_gmt":"2023-04-25T15:53:02","slug":"10th-anniversary-of-shiga-ken-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/2015\/04\/10th-anniversary-of-shiga-ken-com\/","title":{"rendered":"10th anniversary of shiga-ken.com"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"10annshiga\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

We are marking the 10th anniversary of shiga-ken.com in 2015. It was 10 years ago in February 2005 when I first registered the shiga-ken.com domain name. Later that year, I started this shiga-ken.com Website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two main things that spurred me were a digital camera and Wikipedia. I was already seriously traveling around and photographing Shiga from 2003 when I bought my first digital SLR camera. Two years later, I decided that I had enough material to start a Shiga-dedicated site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From fall 2004 to spring 2005, I was quite active writing Japan travel articles at Wikipedia which was really getting popular. I was happy to see English articles (even stubs) about obscure places in Shiga and was determined to flesh them out with text and photos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was prepared to contribute (donate) a substantial collection of my Shiga photos to Wikipedia. However, I soon realized that the time and effort I spent on Wikipedia were going to waste as other Wikipedia writers\/editors started to change or delete perfectly good text\/information that I had written. The images I added sometimes also got replaced by someone else’s images. But that’s how Wikipedia worked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I therefore concluded that contributing to Wikipedia was a waste of time and effort. Why work on someone else’s project when I could well make it my own project? So I suspended my activities at Wikipedia and decided to create my own site dedicated to Shiga. Something way better than Wikipedia’s Shiga articles and something which I had total control over. It was a very wise decision for me. I felt much more motivated when it was my own project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I took a good look at Shiga, I felt overwhelmed by the vastness of Shiga, not only in terms of land area, but also in the number of sights, places, festivals, crafts, history, and culture. I knew it would take a long time to see and photograph everything (if that were possible). But I was in it for the long haul and decided that it was worth it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So little by little, I visited new places whenever I could, uploaded photos, wrote articles, etc. And at the end of every year, I would have a significant amount of content added to my site compared to the beginning of the year. It was great fun to discover\/rediscover Shiga. I was just amazed at how interesting it was wherever I went. The scenery, the history, the relics, etc., etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you start any collection, you soon become addicted to expanding it. In my case, it was images and later videos. The first Shiga photos I uploaded was the Yokaichi Odako Giant Kite Festival<\/a>. Many thousands of images followed in the 10 years since.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Going hand-in-hand with all the content I was creating and uploading was the dazzling development of all the technologies that made it possible. Digital cameras were in a heated pixel race, ever increasing the picture quality, with new and improved models coming out at a wallet-breaking pace. Video cameras also came of age. Videos stored on a hard disk instead of tape made it super easy to copy them to a computer. The video format also changed from SD to HD and Full HD with household TVs switching to wide screens. Very exciting developments in video technologies this past 10 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The startup of YouTube was also revolutionary. To have a place to store and show your videos online was a real boon. I jumped on YouTube in 2006. Although the initial video length limit was 10 min., it was eventually extended to 15 min., 30 min., and now almost unlimited. I can now make a full-length movie and post it on YouTube.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wish all this happened a lot sooner, like before I was born. Oh the magic moments I could’ve and would’ve captured if I had all these tools during childhood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To mark this 10th anniversary, I’ll be rolling out a few new features starting with the completely redesigned home page<\/a>. It’s now geared for touchscreens and mobile devices. This Shiga News blog is also geared for touchscreens and mobile devices. Hope you like it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you use a desktop computer, you might prefer the old home page design which I will retain as a Site Map here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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