Organization for Transformative Works News

OTW Fannews: Collective action

Wed, 22 May 2013 18:05:17 GMT

Fans and the general public are becoming less tolerant of corporate overreaches in copyright claims. A crackdown on Etsy vendors marketing Firefly-related hats caused sufficient outrage that one outlet selling the licensed hats decided to donate its profits to a Firefly charity. Yet as The Mary Sue pointed out, at least part of the anger was because now that "Fox has actually decided to license merchandise based on the ten year old television series" they're "taking shots at the smaller, unlicensed retailers that have been serving the market niche they’ve been ignoring."

Other overreaches garnered an even larger response, prompting the enforcement-happy Disney company to change an upcoming film title. "[T]he Internet flipped out in response to the news that Disney had filed several applications to trademark the Mexican holiday Día de los Muertos, which is the subject of an upcoming Pixar film. The freak out-age is completely justified: Trademarking Día de los Muertos would be exploitative, appropriative, and disrespectful of Mexican culture, plus it’s just downright insane (owning trademark to a holiday? C’mon, Disney). Luckily the massive amount of criticism got Disney to back off."

Collective action seems key. Research fellow Nicholas Theisen wrote about copyright in relation to manga and scanlations as well as examining issues surrounding fair use. "[M]edia companies quite often bully individuals and smaller companies into abdicating fair use rights simply by virtue of being able to spend more money on lawyers and on legal means of protecting one’s IP." This doesn't affect just fans but also scholars. "[I]t has become standard practice for publishers of comics scholarship to demand that authors get express written permission for each and every image to be reproduced, even though a work of scholarship is an obvious example of fair use." The problem is one that doesn't even reach litigation. "Scholars regularly lament this state of affairs, yet there is little pushback, because, at the end of the day, if you don’t get the permissions, your book doesn’t get published, and if your book doesn’t get published, the likelihood of your getting tenure plummets. The practice of publishers is likely never to change unless people at some point say “no,” at very real risk to themselves and their careers."

The new U.S. H.R. 1892 bill would amend the DMCA to require that circumvention be in aid of copyright infringement to be unlawful. This would fix a number of issues, including the OTW's need to get an exemption for vidders every three years. U.S. fans to whom these exemptions are important might want to contact their representatives in support of the bill.

What collective action have you seen bring about a success for fans? Write about it in Fanlore! Contributions are welcome from all fans.

We want your suggestions! If you know of an essay, video, article, podcast, or link you think we should know about, comment on the most recent OTW Fannews post. Links are welcome in all languages! Submitting a link doesn't guarantee that it will be included in a roundup post, and inclusion of a link doesn't mean that it is endorsed by the OTW. Mirrored from an original post on the OTW blog. Find related news by viewing our tag cloud.

Volunteer Recruiting: Testing Volunteers & Web Developer Staff

Mon, 20 May 2013 19:01:09 GMT

We would like to thank everyone who responded to our previous call for Support Staff. The chairs are reviewing applications and should be contacting people within the next two weeks.

Today, we're excited to announce the opening of applications for:

Testing Volunteer - Closes May 27th
Web Developer Staff - Closes May 27th

We have included more information on each role below. Open roles and applications will always be available at the volunteering page. If you don't see a role that fits with your skills and interests now, keep an eye on the listings. We plan to put up new applications every few weeks, and we will also publicize new roles as they become available.

All applications generate a confirmation page and an auto-reply to your e-mail address. We encourage you to read the confirmation page and to whitelist volunteers@transformativeworks.org in your e-mail client. If you do not receive the auto-reply within 24 hours, please check your spam filters and then contact us.

Note: We are continuing to work on a set of Volunteering Frequently Asked Questions that we hope to have posted within the next few weeks. If you have any questions about volunteering for the OTW, please let us know.

Testing Volunteer
The Accessibility, Design, & Technology committee (AD&T) is the guiding body that coordinates software design and development on behalf of the Organization for Transformative Works. AD&T is committed to developing high quality, accessible products that support the goals of the OTW while providing opportunities for professional and personal growth for its members. The main project concerning AD&T right now is the Archive of Our Own.

Quality Assurance & Testing (QA&T) is a subcommittee of AD&T responsible for testing bug fixes and new features before they go live, overseeing release and issue management tasks, and maintaining relevant documentation.

We are currently looking for motivated testers to join our team of volunteers and help us test new code before deploys. More information is available at the Testing Volunteer application. Applications are due May 27th.

Web Developer Staff
Do you have experience with Drupal and website management? Join our team of Web Developers! Web Developers are responsible for improvements to and maintenance of the primary OTW web properties. You will participate in an on-call rotation with other Web Developers, design and implement new features and fixes for the websites, and help to determine priorities for future web development efforts. More information is available at the Web Developer application. Applications are due May 27th.

Mirrored from an original post on the OTW blog. Find related news by viewing our tag cloud.

OTW Fannews: Collaborative playgrounds

Sat, 18 May 2013 15:45:03 GMT

It's not only communication between entertainment creators and fans that's becoming common, but also a creative dialogue. Anna Pinkert at Spinoff Online wrote about the benefits of embracing slash and other fan creations. "At a recent event, a reporter showed The Avengers star Mark Ruffalo a series of drawings of his character snuggling with Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark. He began giggling, and then even made up captions for one of the cartoons, “Would you like a gummy worm?” Better yet, he told the reporter, “I endorse [this art] 100 percent. You know what it is? It’s open-source creativity.” She suggests that "[h]omoerotic fan art might be a new signal that you’ve arrived in Hollywood. People know your face (and your abs) well enough to do 30 sketches of you embracing another star." At least some actors are ready to invite fans to play.

Of course, direct collaborations can be a mismatch of expectations. The L.A. Times wrote about Paul Verhoeven's semi-crowdsourced film Tricked describing the problems. Fans were asked to develop chapters of a story that were then filmed. "Nearly 30,000 people...were part of the community submitting or commenting on prospective "Tricked" elements...Nor was the process cheap -- production on the film only cost about $800,000, Verhoeven said, but the expenses incurred running things such as the online-submission platform approached $4 million." Assembling disparate suggestions was also challenging. "When the suggestions poured in...they again found themselves with a mess (one writer might drop in aliens, another would dial in characters more at home in “50 Shades of Gray"), Verhoeven kept fiddling, working on the episode for several weeks, shooting it and repeating the process. Finally, after nearly a year, he had a film that was about 70 minutes long."

A better model seems to be to adopt after the fact. "[W]hen ZeniMax Online Studios and Bethesda Softworks noticed singer-songwriter Malukah's covers of songs from their hit game Skyrim had gone viral on YouTube, the companies approached her to create an original song about the upcoming massive multiplayer game "The Elder Scrolls Online" (ESO)." Suggesting that a game is by nature a collaborative creative work, writer Yannick LeJacq concludes "We can probably expect more blurring of the lines between fans and creators in the next-generation as the technology behind game development becomes ever more accessible and democratized."

What do you think are the best collaborative fandom playgrounds? Write about it in Fanlore! Contributions are welcome from all fans.

We want your suggestions! If you know of an essay, video, article, podcast, or link you think we should know about, comment on the most recent OTW Fannews post. Links are welcome in all languages! Submitting a link doesn't guarantee that it will be included in a roundup post, and inclusion of a link doesn't mean that it is endorsed by the OTW. Mirrored from an original post on the OTW blog. Find related news by viewing our tag cloud.

Strategic Planning Update #9

Thu, 16 May 2013 22:02:11 GMT

Statement of Purpose

The Strategic Planning Committee is continuing to work on helping the OTW develop a strategic plan for the next 3 - 5 years. As a quick refresher, the first stage of this plan is to survey internal stakeholders. We are in the process of interviewing all committees in turn and creating a report on each committee. The reports only include information that is gathered from the committees themselves, and all the conclusions and recommendations come from aggregating the data of those surveyed.

After a report on each committee is issued, we will create the first public Strategic Plan for the OTW. The goal of this stage is to create a basic, comprehensive report and strategic plan that addresses our internal problems and is:

* practical
* usable
* implementable
* straightforward
* as jargon-free and plainspoken as possible
* short-term

The ultimate goal is to address internal, systemic problems that are a big part of what’s preventing the org from formulating workable long-term goals or pursuing strategic projects such as, for example, teaming up more with the EFF.

Procedure for Contacting Retired Staff and Volunteers

There were some questions that arose in response to our last report about how we contact retired staff and volunteers for each team we survey. Due to OTW's confidentiality policy regarding the identities of its volunteers, we do not have the ability to directly contact former staff and volunteers. Instead, we forward our surveys and invitation to communicate with us to the Volunteers & Recruiting Committee, who then email them on our behalf.

We do follow up with everyone who contacts us, so if you are a retired staff member or volunteer and you would like to make sure that we get a chance to survey or interview you about your former team, you are more than welcome to provide your contact details to us via our direct contact form. As always, we will preserve the anonymity of your responses, according to our confidentiality policy.

If we have already released a report on your former team, we are still interested in hearing your thoughts! Our reports are living documents, and we intend to release revised versions of all previously published reports simultaneously with our final report for the whole organization.

Reports to Date

* Volunteers & Recruiting Committee

* Tag Wrangling team (committee & volunteers) (PDF)

Mirrored from an original post on the OTW blog. Find related news by viewing our tag cloud.

OTW Fannews: Separate by intention?

Tue, 14 May 2013 16:59:50 GMT

Given media representations apparently a lot of people continue to think that female fandom projects are rare, although this may have to do with how gender segregated fandom projects often are. In a feature on the "Hello Sweetie" podcast, its founder discusses why it came into being. "She and others were listening...to 'Geek Show Podcast,' the popular online show started by X96’s 'Radio From Hell' host Kerry Jackson, local movie critics Jeff Vice and Jimmy Martin, and Tribune TV critic Scott D. Pierce. "'They never have any female panelists, rarely had female guests, and a lot of people were complaining about that,'"...On one episode of 'Geek Show Podcast,' one of the hosts said, 'If you [women] want to have a podcast, you should start one.'"

One reason for the separation may have to do with how female characters in fandoms are frequently depicted. One of the latest fans to address that issue uses cosplaying girls to create artwork depicting superheroes as they might really be. "It's not only combatting the myth that girls don't read or care about comics, but it’s showing that girls, too, can play the male superheroes that so often overshadow their female counterparts. And it's also proving just how easy it is to upend the sexist conventions that keep the women of comics in scantily clad, unrealistic uniforms for the purpose of sexually objectifying them.

The site Machinima.com pitches itself as equivalent with the fanwork in the tagline "a programming movement that captures the hard-to-reach 18 to 34-year-old male demographic." They have decided to try crowdsourcing video production on its Happy Hour Tales series. “Fans are invited to submit ideas for what happens in the second part of Trial of the Songbird…I wonder if there’s some branded intentions here; after all, inviting viewers to write about a brand new video game is a good way to get them to play that game. Happy Hour Tales is the overarching name of the series, which suggests that we will get crowdsourced stories set in other video game worlds before long.” Since fans have little need for an invitation to create new fannish content, the plan seems more in line with further commercializing fannish creativity rather than encouraging its independent development.

Another fannish site that's looking for fannish contributions has a long history of female participation, though Aja Romano wonders if the creative team is taking that into account. For one thing the fandom already has major fandom wiki projects, although they don't "emphasize fan creations and fanworks the way that Roddenberry's Trek Initiative does." But "it seems odd that Roddenberry has gone the traditional route of archives, wikis, and fan forums, rather than the more web 2.0 route emphasizing social media, media sharing, and interactive media. It's possible he hasn't registered just how big Star Trek is on Tumblr, where the new reboot reigns supreme among millions of fans, mostly women."

Do the fandom sites you visit seem to target one gender over another? Write about it in Fanlore! Contributions are welcome from all fans.

We want your suggestions! If you know of an essay, video, article, podcast, or link you think we should know about, comment on the most recent OTW Fannews post. Links are welcome in all languages! Submitting a link doesn't guarantee that it will be included in a roundup post, and inclusion of a link doesn't mean that it is endorsed by the OTW. Mirrored from an original post on the OTW blog. Find related news by viewing our tag cloud.

852 Prospect - AO3 Supports our Sentinel*

Sun, 12 May 2013 20:23:18 GMT

The OTW is delighted to welcome 852 Prospect -- the Sentinel Adult Fiction Archive -- to its new home within the Archive of Our Own. The Archivists of 852 Prospect (most recently alicettlg) have worked hard in conjunction with ADT and Open Doors to make this move a reality.

There's some special history associated with this move. 852 Prospect was the first automated fiction archive on the web. Back in 1997, astolat wrote the first version of the Automated Archive software for 852 Prospect, which made it possible for authors to post their stories simultaneously to a mailing list and to an archive, and which also made it possible for archivists to maintain fic archives without hand-coding every post. The automated archive software is now old and creaky and no longer maintained; we're delighted to be able to offer 852 Prospect a new home as an integrated collection within the AO3.

Our coders have set up a redirect from the original domain to the stories' new URLs, to help preserve the validity of old links, rec lists, bookmarks, etc. Because the redirects will be set up to go to the version of each work imported with 852 Prospect, if you have a duplicate on the Archive which has comments / kudos you want to keep, we suggest you keep both versions for now (if you delete the one imported with 852 Prospect, then the redirect will break). Down the line, we’re planning to implement a way of merging two copies of the same work, so you'll be able to keep the redirects and the comments and kudos.

If you don't care to keep the comments/kudos of both works, you can ask Open Doors to reset the redirect to point toward the pre-existing copy on AO3, and then delete the imported copy. To do so, please contact Open Doors with your AO3 account name, your account name on 852 Prospect, and links to both the 852 Prospect URL, and the AO3 URL of the fanwork designated for the redirect.

Most of the newly imported works are not yet visible to people who aren't logged in with an AO3 account. If you're looking for The Sentinel fic on AO3 that was newly imported as part of 852 Prospect, please search for it while logged into AO3. You can also request an AO3 account by contacting Open Doors or using this page.

If you're the author of newly imported stories, you can use the ‘edit works’ function to set them all to 'unrestricted' at once (if you wish) after you've claimed them. For help editing your works, please contact Support. For more information about what happens with imported works, click here for Open Doors' tutorial on automated imports, or here to contact Open Doors. Please note: If you choose to orphan your works, you will want to check them over first and edit out any remaining identifying data.

And if you want to post new stories to the 852 Prospect collection, you are welcome to do so! The collection will remain open to new entries, but will be moderated according to 852 Prospect’s guidelines.

Several of the OTW founders are Sentinel fans, and many org volunteers count The Sentinel among their beloved fandoms. We're thrilled to be able to continue preserving and protecting fanworks which are otherwise at risk of disappearing from the internet, and we're doubly thrilled to be rescuing an archive to which many of us have a longstanding personal connection! Hooray for Jim and Blair, Carolyn, Simon and Rafe and Henri, Megan, Naomi, and the whole city of Cascade finding a safe new home.

*Support Our Sentinel was a 1997 effort by fans to keep the show on the air when it was facing cancellation. The effort succeeded, garnering fans an 8-episode season four which brought fan favorite Blair Sandburg back to life!

Mirrored from an original post on the Archive of Our Own.

OTW Fannews: Cultural Triggers

Sun, 12 May 2013 01:19:54 GMT

While in some places fanfic writers are getting arrested, in others the concern is instead about how fans could be ruining pop culture. "Mr. Rushfield laments that fan culture is set in its ways and does not want to be challenged. I think this is an oversimplification...Yes of course, some fans will never be happy. Some fans say and do things I find shocking and disrespectful, but I think that this is a very small minority...To think that this subset of fans is the driving force behind any artistic decisions, is not giving enough credit to writers and producers in entertainment."

Fandom activities can also lead to a new vision of culture. As a post on Amazing Stories pointed out, fannish activism may also serve wider social causes. "I often see proponents of greater diversity in the media tarred with a certain brush—it’s the brush that paints them as self-absorbed, hysterical, wannabe victims who cannot take a moment to step outside their bubble and understand the cold, hard truth of how the world works. Those who employ this brush see themselves as realists...Female protagonists can’t possibly sell in great enough numbers, they say. There isn’t enough of a market to make the character gay, they say. I understand you’re upset, they say, but you have to look beyond your (petty, juvenile) concerns and deal with the fact that the characters are going to be white."

On the flip side, fans also need to take a look at their own creations when it comes to social impact. Blogger Luz Delfondo takes fanfiction to task on its contributions to rape culture. "What’s really exciting about fandom from a feminist point of view is that it is predominantly female. The people who are talking back to fictional media with their own takes on their favorite stories are women. This is a great opportunity to transform patriarchal, sex-negative stories told using the male gaze (which is the majority of media, sadly) into stories that represent our points of view...However, all too often, the same biases that come up over and over again in fictional media are also replicated in fandom."

What cultural effects do you see fans having? Write about it in Fanlore! Contributions are welcome from all fans.

We want your suggestions! If you know of an essay, video, article, podcast, or link you think we should know about, comment on the most recent OTW Fannews post. Links are welcome in all languages! Submitting a link doesn't guarantee that it will be included in a roundup post, and inclusion of a link doesn't mean that it is endorsed by the OTW. Mirrored from an original post on the OTW blog. Find related news by viewing our tag cloud.

OTW Fannews: The places fanfiction goes

Thu, 09 May 2013 22:04:27 GMT

NYU's student newspaper decided to feature fanfiction with a particularly local angle -- fanfiction set on its campus. "Remember when you were waiting for your acceptance letter? Whether NYU was your dream school or just your safety, you’d catch yourself longing for the city, dreaming of the day when you’d leave your home for the magic of New York...You weren’t the only one dreaming. In fact, some would-be students have dedicated hundreds of pages to their NYU-centric fantasies. So focused are these writers’ efforts that NYU Fanfiction has swelled into its own thriving—if slightly inaccurate—genre."

Australia's The Monthly article on erotic fan fiction nights is somewhat inaccurate as well. Author Linda Jaivin says, "My three co-readers had chosen to write about real people, a subgenre of fanfic that got its start along with the first boy bands." She also speculates that her concern regarding derivative works might be age related. "I raised the question of copyright and fanfic with Eddie Sharp, host of the erotic fan-fiction nights. He dismissed my concerns: “I can’t think of anyone my age” – he’s 30 – “who would be upset.” He characterised the “attitude shift” towards copyright as “a generational thing”.

People have apparently been reading about fanfiction at 50,000 feet. Following a feature in American Airlines, Choose Your Own Adventure, KLM's inflight magazine, Holland Herald also featured a story on it and both had an OTW connection. In the former, board member emeritus Francesca Coppa attempted to clarify the ethos of fanfiction writing, something which was expressed much better in the latter piece. "For [writing workshop founder Lisa Friedman], fan fiction is a ‘marginalised’ genre in its infancy, comparable to the graphic novel before it found widespread acceptance via the publication of Art Spiegelman’s 1991 Holocaust memoir Maus. “In any case,” she observes, “it’s kind of amazing how much skill it takes to work within someone else’s parameters, to attune oneself so acutely in matters of style and character.” Joanne Harris agrees with the latter point, and draws a comparison to the traditions of fine art: “All young artists used to copy the Old Masters before they were allowed to develop their own style, and fan fiction is the modern equivalent,” she says."

What unexpected places have you found fanfiction in? Write about it in Fanlore! Contributions are welcome from all fans.

We want your suggestions! If you know of an essay, video, article, podcast, or link you think we should know about, comment on the most recent OTW Fannews post. Links are welcome in all languages! Submitting a link doesn't guarantee that it will be included in a roundup post, and inclusion of a link doesn't mean that it is endorsed by the OTW. Mirrored from an original post on the OTW blog. Find related news by viewing our tag cloud.

Archive of Our Own among TIME's '50 Best Websites 2013'

Wed, 08 May 2013 02:02:31 GMT

The Organization for Transformative Works was pleased to learn that one of our projects, the Archive of Our Own, has been named among the '50 Best Websites 2013' by TIME magazine staff. We are excited to be included in this list and in the company of a number of other great websites.

We would like to extend a thank you to OTW members whose generosity has helped to support the continued development of the AO3 and to AO3 users who provide the content that helps make it one of the 'Best Websites'. We look forward to continuing to build the AO3 to make it even better in the years to come.

Mirrored from an original post on the OTW blog. Find related news by viewing our tag cloud.

Volunteer Recruiting: AO3 Support & Tag Wrangling

Sun, 05 May 2013 22:27:13 GMT

We would like to thank everyone who responded to our initial call for Tag Wranglers, AO3 Documentation Volunteers, and Communications Staff. The AO3 Documentation Lead and Communications Chairs are reviewing applications and should be contacting people within the next two weeks.

Today, we're excited to announce the opening of applications for:

Support Staff - Applications due May 12
Tag Wrangler Volunteer (reopening) - Applications accepted on an ongoing basis (role may be temporarily closed based on level of interest)

We have included more information on each role below. Open roles and applications will always be available at the volunteering page. If you don't see a role that fits with your skills and interests now, keep an eye on the listings. We plan to put up new applications every few weeks, and we will also publicize new roles as they become available.

All applications generate a confirmation page and an auto-reply to your e-mail address. We encourage you to read the confirmation page and to whitelist volunteers@transformativeworks.org in your e-mail client. If you do not receive the auto-reply within 24 hours, please check your spam filters and then contact us.

Note: We are working on a set of Volunteering Frequently Asked Questions that we hope to have posted within the next few weeks. If you have any questions about volunteering for the OTW, please let us know.

Support Staff
The Support Committee handles communication between users and the various teams involved with the Archive of Our Own. We receive questions and ideas about all aspects of the Archive from users. The Support team helps to answer questions about using the Archive, diagnosing issues, documenting bugs for the coders to address, getting the most out of features like skins or challenges, passing on questions about tags to the wranglers, documenting requests for new or improved features, or getting answers about general policy.

If you like to interact with a wide variety of people through email and answer their questions, if you're familiar with the Archive, and you like finding the answers to issues, you might enjoy working as Support staff! To come join us, fill out the Support job description and application form. Applications are due May 12

Tag Wrangler Volunteer
The Tag Wranglers are responsible for keeping the hundreds of thousands of tags on AO3 in some kind of order! We choose which form of a fandom title appears on the Media pages, as well as all the character, relationship, and additional tags which appear in the filters and the auto-complete. We link tags together to make all the works and bookmarks on the archive easier to browse and search (so that users can find exactly what they’re looking for, whether that’s alternate universes with Cloud Strife, Steve/Tony and tentacles, or g-rated Rose/Kanaya fluff!)

If you like organizing, bringing order to chaos, excuses to fact-check your favorite fandom canons, or you just get a kick out of seeing all the wacky and wonderful terms fans come up with, you might enjoy tag wrangling! To join our team, click through to the Tag Wrangler job description and application form. Applications are accepted on an ongoing basis

Mirrored from an original post on the OTW blog. Find related news by viewing our tag cloud.

OTW Fannews: Fans front and center

Fri, 03 May 2013 22:54:52 GMT

Television is increasingly turning to fandom to find viewers. The Los Angeles Times put a spotlight on AMC's The Talking Dead. "Broadcast directly after the phenomenally successful 'The Walking Dead,' 'The Talking Dead' has taken on a life of its own, evolving from a half-hour companion show into a full-fledged, hour-long monster mash whose ratings in the coveted 18-49 demographic surpass a host of prime-time shows on the major networks." It seems likely this recipe will be copied since "Even more significantly, 'The Talking Dead' is one of the least expensive series on AMC's prime-time slate — the set is spare, there's no band and the production is low-frills. While declining to say how much the show costs, Stillerman said 'it's a good business model. We get a nice return on our investment.'"

In a 2-part interview on Henry Jenkins' blog, several academics address the future of television, focusing in part on the Veronica Mars kickstarter campaign. "Fans are now Studios. Advertisers are Studios. Amazon is a studio. Netflix too. So, the roles are not only changing, they are blurred and the winner is the story. Because generally we don’t know what we want until a story is in front of us and we say: I want more of that. And I will pay with my time, my emotions, my network of friends and my money."

Other shows aren't just for fannish audiences, fans are the content as well. Articles about shows in development mentioned AMC's "Geek Out" and SyFy's "Cosworld" and "Fandemonium". "'Cosworld' will...follow some of the top people in the cosplay world as they come up with new and ever more imaginative and intricate costumes in an effort to win a cash prize and bragging rights" while "'Fandemonium'...will follow a group in Los Angeles as they try to balance their lives and their obsession with their heroes." However, people are more likely to want to appear on "Geek Out" which "aims to make the dreams of real-life Number One fans come true and give them an 'awesome, otherwise unattainable experience related to their obsession.'" The show will be taking a broad fandom approach, as "fans tracked down for the show will be of the sci-fi lover/videogame player/comic book reader/George Lucas-opinion-haver variety [but]...will also include aficionados of athletes, celebrities, and authors."

Have you been tracking the development of fan-focused shows? Write about it in Fanlore! Contributions are welcome from all fans.

We want your suggestions! If you know of an essay, video, article, podcast, or link you think we should know about, comment on the most recent OTW Fannews post. Links are welcome in all languages! Submitting a link doesn't guarantee that it will be included in a roundup post, and inclusion of a link doesn't mean that it is endorsed by the OTW. Mirrored from an original post on the OTW blog. Find related news by viewing our tag cloud.

April 2013 Newsletter, Volume 68

Thu, 02 May 2013 22:10:03 GMT

For more information about the purview of our committees, please see the committee listing on our website.

I. DONATIONS & VOLUNTEERS ARE COMING!

There were two huge pieces of news for the OTW this month: the success of its membership drive and its new volunteer recruitment system. Development & Membership received more than 2,054 individual donations totaling US$53,243.99 over the 3-9 April drive period. Thank you to everyone who participated! (See the thank-you post for more about the drive.)

We would also like to say a huge "thank you" to the mods, writers, and bidders of http://ao3auction.tumblr.com, an independently organized fan auction benefiting the OTW. The auction recently closed with an amazing pledge total of US$16,729! For tax reasons, the OTW cannot officially endorse third-party fundraisers — that's why we didn't promote the auction while it was still going on. However, we're extremely grateful when fans choose to put on such events. Aside from the money they raise, it means a lot to all the OTW staff and volunteers to see our fellow fans making such a wonderful show of support for our work. Thank you.

Another happy event was the success of the new Volunteers & Recruiting process and the reopening of volunteer recruiting. The new system was the culmination of months of work involving people from across the organization. Many thanks are due to the Webmasters Committee for their work and support in creating the new volunteering page. VolCom will continue to work with chairs and leads to get additional roles open and projects staffed as efficiently as possible.

VolCom's next major projects include an audit of access to organization tools, chair training and support documentation, personnel privacy and confidential information guidelines, and collecting training resources that can hopefully be used across the organization.

A large number of applications for the AO3 Documentation Workgroup and Communications Committee are being reviewed by those groups and the positions should be filled in coming weeks. In the meantime 53 new tag wranglers have already been inducted and are going through training!

*New Staffers List*: Matty Lynne (Abuse)
*New Tag Wranglers*: Sumeria, Claire, KeriArentikai, dizmo, Zeggy, Eleanor, vtn, subluxate, ParkerStark, Lia Ferrari, Abbie, JanOda, Sibilant, PetuniaDreaming, Eve Forbes, Nikibee, AiedailEclipsed, BeautifullyHeeled, miss_lucy, pedanther, Erin C., Elizabeth Young, Delwyn Cole, spock74, very, thegiggleloop, jet, Terizia, Helen Ryan, Adrienne Gorney, mmmdraco, Rachel S, lkthegreat, Janejenajeny, Jess, SevenCorvus, Alisha Miller, Yuppu, KeroseneChica, Cat P., Marta Kwasniewska, readerofasaph, stasha2g, Impsy, hvalrann, llutien, wantstothrill, tealeafer, blackPlague, PatentedPineapple, Zhang, WTCelesta, mremre
*New Testers*: Jenny Scott-Thompson

*Departing Staffers*: Alex Jenkins (Journal), Arrow (Systems), Matty Lynne (Tag Wrangling), Jenn Calaelen (AD&T)
*Departing Testers*: Jenn Calaelen
*Departing Tag Wranglers*: Kim McGreal

Tag Wrangling had such an overwhelming response that the OTW had to hit the pause button long enough to catch up! They should be re-opening recruitment as soon as the committee has finished helping the new wranglers settle in. In concert with that, the staff have been hard at work putting together a comprehensive training plan; basic tutorials are already completed and in use, and more advanced instruction is on the way. Meanwhile our new wranglers have enthusiastically begun helping all our experienced hands in cleaning up tags in fandoms across the Archive.

II. CHANGES AT THE AO3

Accessibility, Design and Technology's deploy early in April to the Archive of Our Own included a major revision to the Archive header and some new designs for emails and they've had lots of feedback about both. Most users are enjoying the new header, which makes it a lot easier to find things on the Archive. Reactions to the new emails have been more mixed: we’ve listened to all the feedback and will make some changes to address common concerns, although we won’t be able to implement these immediately.

AD&T is gearing up for two more important pieces of work which have been on their (and Open Doors's) to-do list for a while. The final touches are being put on the code needed for the long-planned import of the 852 Prospect Archive: we’ve done a test run and are almost ready for the real thing. Once this code has been deployed, they’ll be doing a big revision of the site to switch it to Rails 3.2 (Ruby on Rails is the web framework the AO3 is built on). This is a really important piece of work which will help to ensure site stability and security going forward.

Meanwhile Support will be having another Open Support Chat. On May 4th-5th, scheduled from 16:00 UTC on the 4th to 04:00 UTC on the 5th so if you're having problems with the new AO3 features or other workings of the site, stop by and chat with them!

Internationalization & Outreach has been working with AD&T to finalize plans to put the Archive Diversity Statement up on the AO3 later this month. As part of this process, I&O is currently seeking feedback from OTW staff on the statement.

Abuse dealt with a combination of plagiarism, spam and warnings/ratings complaints, as well as a marked increase in reports of blog-type posts and announcements being uploaded as fanworks. This could be due to a confusion of what constitutes meta or simply enthusiastic and unknowing fans assuming the Archive also works as a social media site. Content Policy is still reviewing and integrating feedback to the AO3 for a revised Terms of Service document.

April Showers also came to a close at the AO3 and Fanlore. A quick scan of its 30 days of activities can be seen at the Fanlore twitter and through the april showers hashtag on Tumblr.

Lastly, but never least, Systems has been working to close holes in their documentation as well as finding better ways to formalize their training procedures and better track the committee's projects. They're also testing out the latest version of Debian Linux for our servers, setting up test servers to reflect production systems, plotting upgrades, and continuing their plan to take over the world ;)

III. THE OTW IN REVIEW

Board and Finance have been working on the 2012 Annual Report along with Communications. And Strategic Planning released their report on Volunteers & Recruiting. They have already received excellent and useful feedback, and are looking forward to more. Their report on Open Doors is currently being reviewed by Board, and the report for the Wiki Committee and Fanlore is in progress. The Translation survey has also begun.

IV. NEW CONTENT

Legal has been (1) answering lots of answering internal queries from various corners of the org; (2) putting together the Canadian Law Q&A for the transformativeworks.org blog; (3) starting work with ChillingEffects to update their FAQ on fanfiction; and (4) handling a few external queries.

Journal is working with guest editors for the first two issues of 2014. The next two issues of 2013 are in various states of undress but are mostly done. The Fanhackers blog has been building content since its launch last month, including some interesting discussions of fandom internationally.

Mirrored from an original post on the OTW blog. Find related news by viewing our tag cloud.

Join Support for a Chat!

Wed, 01 May 2013 17:14:32 GMT

Hi! Support here, again! In fact, Support is always here--when you submit a ticket through the Support and Feedback form we'll respond as soon as possible to register your feature suggestion, pass your bug report on to our coders, or do our best to help you out with a problem. However, when it comes to explaining how to do things or why something doesn't seem to be working right, the formal back-and-forth emails of a Support request aren't always ideal.

After receiving positive reviews of our previous chats in November and February, we're continuing on with Open Chat sessions with the Support Staff in our public chat room (the link will be made available on the day of the chat). We will be there this coming Saturday, May 04, 2013 at 16:00:00 UTC lasting through this Sunday, May 05, 2013 at 04:00:00 UTC. Members of Support will be available to interact with you one-on-one in live chat. See what time that is where you live. We are going to try to have future sessions at different times to make sure we eventually cover all time zones. If you can't make it to this one, keep an eye out for the next!

If you're having a problem using the Archive, want help trying something new, or would like an explanation of one of our features, please drop in and talk to us in person!

Some guidelines, just to keep things running smoothly

We don't have a fancy presentation or material prepared--there are plenty of FAQs, tutorials, and admin posts for that. The point of live chat is to talk with you, not at you. We're happy for you to drop in and say "hi", but it's even better if you drop in and say, "Hi, what's up with my work that won't show as complete even though it is?!"

As Support, our function is to help users with bugs and issues, and pass reports on to our Coders and Systems team, who actually keep the place running. This means that policy questions are way over our pay grade. (Just kidding--none of us get paid!) So, if you have questions or comments about AO3 or OTW policies, good or bad, Support Chat isn't the right place for them. If you do want to talk to someone about policy issues (meta on the Archive, philosophical issues with the tagging system, category change, etc.) we can direct you to the appropriate admin post or contact address so you can leave feedback directly for the people dealing with the area of your concern.

Additionally, if a question looks like it might violate a user's privacy to answer (if it needs an email address or other personal information, for example) we may not be willing to work with it in chat. In those cases, we'll redirect a user to the Support Form so we can communicate via email.

**So, now that that's out of the way, what kind of things are we going to talk about?**

Live chat is best for questions of a "How do I...?" or "Why does it...?" nature.

For example, you might have been wondering:

How do I use the new search and browse system to find a certain type of work?

I'd like to run a challenge, but I'm not sure how to do what I want.

For that matter, where did my work submitted to an anonymous challenge go?!

I want to post using formatting the Rich Text Editor won't give me. How do I do it using a work skin?

We'd be happy to help you with any of these questions, and anything else you're having trouble doing or would like to try doing with the Archive.

Mirrored from an original post on AO3 News. Find related news by viewing our tag cloud.

Archive of Our Own Newsletter - March/April 2013

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 01:41:53 GMT

March and April were busy busy busy months for the Archive. Our output included, among other things, a new header, an updated roadmap, and our annual April Showers promotion, a joint effort between Fanlore and the AO3 to highlight the fandoms you love!

All the Archive news that's fit to print!

As part of the continuing discussion about the OTW's decision to include meta, or fandom nonfiction, on the Archive, the OTW's Board released a statement. This statement outlined the history of the decision as well as the Board's reasons for including fandom nonfiction on the Archive. Another post, which was the culmination of a discussion between several committees, further clarified the position of the Archive's thoughts on fandom nonfiction and tentatively outlined the steps that would be necessary in introducing fandom nonfiction into the Archive.

The OTW Board released an updated Archive Roadmap. The Roadmap outlines future improvements and changes of the Archive. It is maintained by the Accessibility, Design & Technology committee, though it was created with the input of several other committees including Abuse, Internationalization & Outreach, Open Doors, Support, Systems, Tag Wranglers, and Translation. If you're interested in the future of the Archive, go check it out!

Although the event was not run by Archive committees (big props to the Development & Membership committee for all their hard work!), AO3 was happy to host a banner for the OTW's annual April Membership Drive as well as contributing a post sharing how much it costs to run the Archive. This year's drive was the most successful drive in OTW history. Thank you to everyone who donated!

Release 0.9.6 went live and what a release it was! It presented us with, most notably, a new header and new notification emails. Other new features included the ability to disable guest comments, and a new and improved front page. This release fixed several bugs, updated Tag Wrangling and Admin features, and gave us several other goodies. Unfortunately, this release also presented some unanticipated problems for several users. Our known issues posts describes these issues and we encourage any users who are encountering problems with Release 0.9.6 to look at the above post or contact Support.

Fanlore and AO3 ran their annual April Showers promotion, showcasing fandoms on AO3 and on Fanlore. The Archive's tumblr ao3org with the Fanlore twitter highlighted a fandom a day for the month of April.

Adventures with Support

In the months of March and April so far, we've managed 798 unique tickets so far - and we still have a couple days to go!

AD&T Committee business of note

In addition to releases, we've been working on documentation to start recruitment for selected positions soon.

Support Committee business of note

We will be holding another Open Chat session with the Support Staff in our public chat room (the link will be made available on the day of the chat) this coming Saturday, May 04, 2013 at 16:00:00 UTC lasting through this Sunday, May 05, 2013 at 04:00:00 UTC. Members of Support will be available to interact with users one-on-one in live chat. See what time that is where you live. (Real Life Monsters ate the April chat.)

Tag Wrangling Committee business of note

Tag Wrangling opened for volunteers and had such an overwhelming response that we had to hit the pause button long enough to catch up! We've now inducted the over 50 (\o/) new volunteers, and should be re-opening recruitment soon. In concert with that, staff have been hard at work putting together a comprehensive training plan; our basic tutorials are already completed and in use, and more advanced instruction is on the way. Meanwhile our new wranglers have enthusiastically been helping all our experienced hands in cleaning up tags in fandoms across the Archive; we're looking in better shape than ever!

And finally...

We are floored by the generosity of the participants in AO3 Auction. From the bottom of our squeeing hearts: THANK YOU!

Questions? Comments?

We welcome feedback from users! If you have questions or comments, feel free to leave them in the comments of the latest news post, or send in a Support request (if you're reporting a bug, please send that to Support, as they're super efficient - comments on our news posts sometimes get overlooked).

Mirrored from an original post on AO3 News.

OTW Fannews: Giving people what they want

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 19:00:04 GMT

Slate wrote about how badly the DMCA affects accessibility of technology from ebooks to online videos. "[P]ublishers, video programmers, and other copyright owners lock down digital content with digital rights management technology designed to limit users’ ability to access, copy, and adapt copyrighted works to specific circumstances. And copyright owners frequently fail to account for the need to adapt DRM-encumbered works to make them accessible to people with disabilities.

For example, e-books often include DRM technology that prevents people who are blind or visually impaired from running e-books that they have lawfully purchased through a text-to-speech converter that reads the books aloud. Similarly, Internet-distributed video and DVD and Blu-ray discs include DRM features that prevent researchers from developing advanced closed captioning and video description technologies that make movies and television shows accessible."

What's more the process is the same one the OTW has to follow to maintain its DMCA exemption for fan video makers. "Requiring nonprofit disability groups to ask permission from the government every three years and navigate a complex legal minefield to implement urgently needed accessibility technology is not compatible with progressive, conservative, or libertarian values; the goal of equal access for people with disabilities; or common sense

Two of the OTW's Legal Committee members, Heidi Tandy and Rebecca Tushnet, recently were on a fanfiction panel with Vice President and Senior Intellectual Property Counsel for Warner Bros, Dale Nelson at the 6th Annual PIPG Symposium. Tushnet wrote about the panel and Nelson's discussion of fan activities: "Fan activity is fans having fun. Are they legitimate, are they acting from love? Or do they see fan activity as a loophole—make a fan film to showcase talent without having read Harry Potter? It’s not fans commercializing the property. We have exclusive rights; commercialization/merchandising in particular will draw our attention. But we tolerate a lot, including fan films, websites (the Leaky Cauldron, popular HP site); Dallas fan site; Lord of the Rings fan site; Quiddich players." She also responded later that it was how they interpreted fan intentions that mattered the most. For example, running ads on a website was usually not an issue because "some fan activities/sites do involve costs, and if it couldn’t run ads/raise a little money it wouldn’t exist."

Techdirt posted about a White House petition aimed at changing copyright for the digital age. "The petition notes that the public has lost respect for copyright law, and the government should take steps to fix that, including securing first sale rights, more transparency and a right to remix." Fan rights are expressed in the following: "[A]s responsible creators we need to be able to freely remix existing music and other forms of creative expression to create new works without undue fear of prosecution. This upholds the original Constitutional purpose of copyright, which is to promote progress."

Popular bookmarking site Pinboard has made it easier for fans to use it. "For months now it's been possible to declare yourself a part of fandom on the Pinboard settings page, but apart from making people feel good, the checkbox had no practical effect. I've finally changed that by offering a version of the sitewide search engine scoped only to users who self-declare as fans. This should make it easier to find fic using common keywords that would get drowned out on the main search page."

Do you have stories about fan-focused technology or legal developments? Write about it in Fanlore! Contributions are welcome from all fans.

We want your suggestions! If you know of an essay, video, article, podcast, or link you think we should know about, comment on the most recent OTW Fannews post. Links are welcome in all languages! Submitting a link doesn't guarantee that it will be included in a roundup post, and inclusion of a link doesn't mean that it is endorsed by the OTW. Mirrored from an original post on the OTW blog. Find related news by viewing our tag cloud.

OTW Events Calendar for May

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 16:38:01 GMT

Welcome to our Events Calendar roundup for the month of May! The Events Calendar can be found on the OTW website and is open to submissions by anyone with news of an event. These can be viewed by event-type, such as Academic Events, Fan Gatherings, Legal Events, OTW Events, or Technology Events taking place around the world.

MISTI-Con, Harry Potter convention hosted by The Group Who Shall Not Be Named (the New York City Harry Potter Meetup) in cooperation with Ray "The Dark Lord Bartender" Smith and the Margate Hotel, will be held in Laconia, New Hampsire, USA from 9-13 May 2013. The convention will feature panels, programs, academic presentations, exhibits, wizard rock performances, and much more.
Read and Share about MISTI-Con on Fanlore

Vidukon, a United Kingdom-based fan-run convention focused on vidding, will be held in Cardiff, Wales on 18-19 May 2013. The con welcomes vids and vidders from all fandoms and features video shows along with workshops, panels, and even a 'Vid Bazaar' where vidders can swap DVDs of their work.
Read and Share about Vidukon on Fanlore

Celebrating its 31st incarnation, BayCon, the San Francisco Bay area's regional science fiction convention will be held 24-27 May 2013. In honor of this celebration, the program organizers have chosen the theme 'Triskaidekaphobicon' and are planning to explore the darker sides of science fiction and fantasy: phobias, superstitions, thrills, horror, and more. The con features panels, workshops, special guests, meet and greet opportunities, and gaming spaces for fans across the genre.
Read and Share about BayCon on Fanlore

The First Annual Fandom and Neomedia Studies (FANS) Conference will be held in Dallas, TX, on 1 and 2 June 2013. The FANS Conference is hosted and sponsored by A-Kon, the longest continually running anime and manga convention in North America. It will be held at the Dallas Hilton Anatole Hotel. Topics at the conference will include all aspects of being a fan, ranging from being a passive audience member to producing one’s own parafictive or interfictive creations. Neomedia includes both new media, as it is customarily defined, as well as new ways of using and conceptualizing traditional media.

A Call for Papers this month comes from Intensities - The Journal of Cult Media. Intensities has recently relaunched and has issued a call for papers for issue six focusing on television shows "that have achieved cult status at a historical distance". Papers are sought for both established shows and for shows that have received limited critical attention. According to the call: "[T]he papers will locate those shows historically, either by drawing on archive materials or suggesting new cultural, historical or institutional contexts in which they might be understood."

Submissions should be 6000-8000 words with a 200 word abstract (sent as separate documents) and made via e-mail to intensities[at]brunel.ac.uk. The deadline for submissions is 31 May 2013. See the official call website for more information.

This month we have received a request for research participation from Lucy Neville, a lecturer in criminology and sociology at the University of Middlesex. Dr. Neville's study is entitled "Women's Production and Consumption of (Male) Homosexual Erotica". The study has been approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the University of Middlesex.

Her contact information is available within the survey's cover page and she can be reached via e-mail at l.neville[at]mdx.ac.uk. The research results will be shared on the researcher's LiveJournal following the completion of the study.

If you are interested in participating, the survey questionnaire has additional information regarding the study and your rights as a participant.

If you have requests for research participation, please view our policy for inclusion at our website.

The OTW encourages anyone to submit an event that's not already listed, and to check out the calendar throughout the year!

Mirrored from an original post on the OTW blog. Find related news by viewing our tag cloud.

Strategic Planning Report #2: Volunteers & Recruiting Committee

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 18:22:21 GMT

The Strategic Planning Committee is pleased to announce that we have completed our second committee report, which is on the Volunteers & Recruiting Committee.

You can download the report as a PDF here:
https://transformativeworks.org/strategicplanning/reports/volcom

About this report

To write this report, we surveyed the VolCom staff and former staff, interviewed the chair, and conducted follow-up interviews with any staff (current or retired) who wished to speak with us further.

Everything in the report is based on the data we collected. The responses we collected were synthesized into this report, which summarizes the strengths and challenges VolCom staff (both current and former) noted in their responses, and makes recommendations for change based on their suggestions. More information about our process is included in the report itself.

Before coming to you, the report has been reviewed by VolCom and the Board, and copyedited by the Communications Committee. The purpose of this was to correct any factual errors we might have made and to solicit feedback before the wider release. No data collected from any surveys or interviews were changed or removed from the report as a result of these reviews.

Feedback

We hope that you find the report interesting, and very much welcome your feedback! If you have any questions or wish to contact the committee, get in touch with us through our contact form.

Please note that this report incorporates internal stakeholders only, so while public comments on this post will be read and discussed (and possibly taken into account for future reports, as well as the next round of strategic planning), external stakeholder opinion will not be incorporated into future revisions of this report.

All contact we receive is kept to a high standard of confidentiality, and we'd be happy to discuss that with you if you have any concerns.

Upcoming reports

Over the next several months, we will continue to survey committees and release reports. The next scheduled report will be on the Open Doors Committee. Ultimately, we will release a final report that synthesizes all of the data we received across the entire organization.

Mirrored from an original post on the OTW blog. Find related news by viewing our tag cloud.

OTW Fannews: Fanfiction, where can you find it?

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 17:18:47 GMT

College newspapers are a constant source of stories on fanfiction, but The Varsity tried to take a more comprehensive look at the practice, noting that "fan fiction predates the Internet. In fact, amateur press associations, which first flourished in the early decades of the 20th century, provided a way for aspiring writers to put together and share their own magazines and works of fiction. A distribution manager or official editor would collect the magazines and letter publications and send them to other members of the association. In the 1930s, fans of science fiction magazines printed their own mimeographed or hectographed works which contained their own reviews, printed fiction, and even art."

Meanwhile The Londonist decided to write fanfiction as a review of a play that was itself RPF. The play takes the real-life inspirations for Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan and has them meet "at a bookshop in the 1930s...An American playwright, John Logan, takes this meeting as his inspiration; the ensuing 90-minutes muse on the nature of childhood, the draw of fantasy, memory, loss, celebrity and several other things besides." The review is in the style of J.M. Barrie writing to Arthur Llewelyn Davies about the play he's just seen.

Speaking of RPF, it isn't just AUs and canon fiction rewrites that are getting published these days. In an interview about her book, Tell Me You Want Me, writer Amelia James is open about her inspiration for the novel. "I had lots of downtime to daydream with Eliot in the center of all my fantasies. I had to know more about him, so I read Christian Kane's bio and dusted off my Angel DVDs...I started a short story about a cocky college quarterback with a smile like an angel and deep blue eyes that promised sin: Austin Sinclair. But long hair just didn't work on him. I couldn't picture it, so I gave him a best friend, Jack Wheeler. Jack became everything I'd imagined about Eliot — a tormented past, a wounded heart and long dark hair a woman could get tangled up in."

Unfortunately all the coverage of a fanfiction reference on The Good Wife seemed to play into the show's framing of fanfiction writing as something unusual and unknown. Instead it's something that shows up in the general media all the time, and is connected to just about anything.

If you have your own take on all the places fanfiction can be found, write an entry in Fanlore! Contributions are welcome from all fans.

We want your suggestions! If you know of an essay, video, article, podcast, or link you think we should know about, comment on the most recent OTW Fannews post. Links are welcome in all languages! Submitting a link doesn't guarantee that it will be included in a roundup post, and inclusion of a link doesn't mean that it is endorsed by the OTW. Mirrored from an original post on the OTW blog. Find related news by viewing our tag cloud.

Canadian Copyright Law Q&A - Part 3

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 18:54:49 GMT

This is the last in a series of Q&A posts with Graham Reynolds, a Canadian copyright scholar from Schulich School of Law at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The Q&A focuses on Bill C-11, which went into effect near the end of 2012 and made some significant changes to Canada's Copyright Act, some of which influence the way fanworks are treated under Canadian law. The first post, in which Graham answered questions about the general contours of the law and about the law of "fair dealing", is available here. The second post, in which Graham answered questions about the probable effect of the law on fanfiction, fanart, and fanvids, is available here.

Today, Graham addresses Canadian "moral rights," trade-mark rights, and rights of personality; and what the new law means for fanwork creators outside of Canada. Graham explains that creators of noncommercial fanworks may face challenges under Canada's moral rights law, which encompasses rights to integrity and attribution. Creators of non-commercial fanworks are less likely to face problems from Canadian trade-mark laws, but the answer regarding rights of personality is more complicated. Graham also explains that the law may have some impact on fans who are located outside Canada, because the law applies to some Internet activities.

As before, these answers aren't legal advice, and if you need specific legal advice Graham (and we) advise you to consult with a lawyer and/or send a query to the OTW Legal Committee.

7. Now that this law has taken effect, what should non-commercial fanwork creators in Canada know about “moral rights”?

"Moral rights" are protected in Canada under the Copyright Act (see, in particular, ss. 14.1, 14.2, 17.1, 17.2, 28.1, 28.2). Bill C-11 expanded moral rights protection under the Copyright Act by granting performers moral rights in their performances. Moral rights in Canada cannot be assigned (ss. 14.1(2), 17.1(2)). They last for the same term as the period of copyright in the relevant copyrighted expression (ss. 14.2(1), 17.2(1)) (generally the life of the author plus fifty years for works, and fifty years for performers’ performances).

Two primary moral rights are protected under the Copyright Act: the right of integrity (s. 28.2) and the right of attribution (ss. 14.1, 17.1). The right of integrity bars the distortion, mutilation, or modification of a work, or the use of a work in association with a product, service, cause, or institution, when that use or distortion would harm the creator's honour or reputation. The right of attribution concerns the right of a creator to be associated with his or her work.

Section 28.2 of the Copyright Act sets out the circumstances in which the right of integrity will be infringed:

28.2 (1) The author’s or performer’s right to the integrity of a work or performer’s performance is infringed only if the work or the performance is, to the prejudice of its author’s or performer’s honour or reputation,

(a) distorted, mutilated or otherwise modified; or

(b) used in association with a product, service, cause or institution.

(2) In the case of a painting, sculpture or engraving, the prejudice referred to in subsection (1) shall be deemed to have occurred as a result of any distortion, mutilation or other modification of the work.

(3) For the purposes of this section, (a) a change in the location of a work, the physical means by which a work is exposed or the physical structure containing a work, or (b) steps taken in good faith to restore or preserve the work shall not, by that act alone, constitute a distortion, mutilation or other modification of the work.

Thus, fanworks that distort, mutilate, or otherwise modify a work or performance, or fanworks that associate works or performances with products, services, causes, or institutions, may run afoul of Canada's moral rights laws if they harm the author's or performer's honour or reputation. Canadian courts have indicated that the test for whether a distortion, mutilation, or modification is prejudicial to the author or performer’s honour or reputation is subjective-objective (see, for instance, Prise de Parole Inc. v. Guérin, Éditeur Ltée, (1995) 66 C.P.R. (3d) 257). That is to say, the author or performer has to believe that the distortion, etc. is prejudicial to their honour or reputation. This subjective belief must be supported by objective criteria.

The moral right of attribution gives authors and performers the right, “where [or if it is] reasonable in the circumstances, to be associated with the work [or with the performance] as its author [or as its performer] by name or under a pseudonym and the right to remain anonymous” (ss. 14.1(1) and 17.1(1), combined).

8. Now that this law has taken effect, do non-commercial fanwork creators have to think about non-copyright doctrines like trade-mark law and misappropriation of personality?

Canadian courts have interpreted the Trade-marks Act, R.S.C., 1985, c. T-13 as indicating that in order to infringe a trade-mark under ss. 19, 20, and 22 of the Act, there must be an “element of commercial use” (see, for instance, British Columbia Automobile Assn. v. Office and Professional Employees’ International Union, Local 378, 2001 BCSC 156, at para. 152). On the basis of these decisions, it would appear that the creation of non-commercial fanwork would not infringe these sections of the Trade-marks Act (although questions could be raised as to what constitutes “commercial use”).

Many registered trade-marks, however, are also protected by copyright. Unlike Canadian trade-mark law, the fact that a use of a copyrighted work is non-commercial is not, in itself, a defence to copyright infringement in Canada.

Canadian courts have articulated a common law tort of misappropriation of personality. The case that has discussed this tort in the most depth is Gould Estate v. Stoddart Publishing Co. (1996), 30 O.R. (3d) 520 (Ontario Court of Justice, Lederman J.) (Gould affirmed on other grounds by the Court of Appeal for Ontario ((1998), 39 O.R. (3d) 545); application for leave to appeal to the SCC dismissed ((1998) S.C.C.A. No. 373)).

In Gould, Lederman J. discussed the need to “[place] limits on the tort of appropriation of personality” due, in part, to freedom of expression considerations (para. 18). Lederman J. stated that:

"In the end then, and perhaps at the risk of oversimplifying, it seems that the courts have drawn a 'sales vs. subject' distinction. Sales constitute commercial exploitation and invoke the tort of appropriation of personality. The identity of the celebrity is merely being used in some fashion. The activity cannot be said to be about the celebrity. This is in contrast to situations in which the celebrity is the actual subject of the work or enterprise, with biographies perhaps being the clearest example. These activities would not be within the ambit of the tort. To take a more concrete example, in endorsement situations, posters and board games, the essence of the activity is not the celebrity. It is the use of some attributes of the celebrity for another purpose. Biographies, other books, plays, and satirical skits are by their nature different. The subject of the activity is the celebrity and the work is an attempt to provide some insights about that celebrity."

Given this statement, there is a strong likelihood that non-commercial fanwork creators seeking to include (or feature) celebrities in their works would be seen by a Canadian court as falling on the “subject” side of the sales vs. subject distinction described by Lederman J.

However, several Canadian provinces (British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Newfoundland and Labrador) have passed privacy acts that provide varying degrees of protection for personality rights. Québec also provides protection for personality rights through the Civil Code of Québec. Creators of non-commercial fanwork seeking to include or feature individuals, living or dead, in their works may wish to consult these acts.

9. What does this law mean for people who live outside of Canada?

Copyright laws are national in scope (although their development and interpretation may be informed by international treaties and legislation and case law from other jurisdictions). Canada’s Copyright Act governs copyright-related matters in Canada. As a result, it has a particular relevance to people who live inside Canada (and who engage on a regular basis with copyrighted works).

For people that live outside of Canada, however, the Canadian Copyright Act is still relevant in several ways. For instance, works created in countries other than Canada are protected by copyright in Canada provided certain conditions are satisfied (see Copyright Act, s. 5). Individuals who create fanwork in countries other than Canada may want to consult the Canadian Copyright Act to find out the scope of their rights in Canada.

Another instance where Canadian copyright laws may be relevant for individuals who live outside of Canada relates to online communications. In Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada v. Canadian Assn. of Internet Providers, 2004 SCC 45, Binnie J., writing for the majority of the SCC, stated that the Copyright Act applies to international Internet transmissions provided that there is a “real and substantial connection to Canada” (60). Binnie J. states that:

61 In terms of the Internet, relevant connecting factors would include the situs of the content provider, the host server, the intermediaries and the end user. The weight to be given to any particular factor will vary with the circumstances and the nature of the dispute.
…

63 Generally speaking, this Court has recognized, as a sufficient “connection” for taking jurisdiction, situations where Canada is the country of transmission (Libman, supra) or the country of reception (Liberty Net, supra). This jurisdictional posture is consistent with international copyright practice.

It is therefore possible (although perhaps unlikely) that an individual living outside of Canada could be sued in Canada for copyright infringement (based on Canada’s Copyright Act) with respect to acts committed outside of Canada.

We hope you've enjoyed this foray into Canadian law. For the text of the new law, see Bill C-11. For the full text of the Copyright Act, as amended, see the Canadian Copyright Act. If you find yourself in need of fanwork-related legal advice, feel free to contact the OTW Legal Committee.

Mirrored from an original post on the OTW blog. Find related news by viewing our tag cloud.

Spotlight on Development & Membership

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 19:17:45 GMT

Having completed our most successful drive in OTW history, we'd like to spotlight the work of our Development & Membership Committee ("DevMem"). Among its many accomplishments in 2012, DevMem held two successful membership drives in April and October. The success of these drives, coupled with recurring donations, brought the total raised in 2012 to $90,600. Without the dedication and talent of the DevMem committee members, 2012 would not have been a record-setting year in fundraising. We were able to do a Q+A with two members of DevMem, Aja and Lesann, in the weeks before this drive despite their busy schedules!

Sum up Development and Membership in 6 words.

Aja: Positively representing OTW to fandom (&) beyond!

Lesann: The organization's financial and outreach backbone.

How did you decide that you wanted to be a part of DevMem?

Aja: I actually applied to be a part of Internationalization & Outreach but VolCom felt I'd be a better fit for DevMem, so it wasn't until I was actually attending meetings and watching what the group did--marketing, fundraising, and a lot of outreach of our own--that I realized I wanted to be right where I was.

Lesann: It was recommended to me by Allison Morris as somewhere I would fit in, during her tenure as VolCom chair. We talked over what the committee did and it sounded new and different and like something I wanted to try.

Why is DevMem an important part of OTW?

Aja: DevMem handles the logistics of fundraising, primarily, but it also puts a positive face on the OTW and fandom in general. We connect people who're going to conventions with each other, and provide researchers with ways to talk about fandom.

Lesann: Because it keeps funds coming in to run the servers and keep the projects financially viable, and because it is part of a group of committees that represents OTW to both fans/the target audience, and the larger world.

Since joining DevMem, what has been your favorite project thus far?

Aja: Participating in an American Library Association panel about fandom with my fellow DevMem member Lesann! :)

Lesann: Hah! I had to change this answer since Aja got mine first. That was such a great experience with positive feedback from all corners, in a different way than the average fandom response to OTW.

I actually really enjoy the drives. It's when our best brainstorming happens, and there are very concrete goals, which I love. Additionally, there's a lot more interaction with members/donors that week, a lot more feedback, and even when the feedback is that we need to be doing something better, it's appreciated.

What are some goals that you have for DevMem in 2013?

Aja: Convention outreach especially is something I'd love us to get better at. It's my hope we can develop more ready resources (update our flyers/brochures) and information for fans, and get even better at connecting members of the OTW to each other so they can more successfully rep for the OTW wherever they go.

Lesann: Personally? I would super like to get some varied merchandise out for regular purchase, as opposed to only having premium gifts.

Think of your favorite fandom character of all time. Would that character be a good fit for the DevMem committee?

Aja: Eames from Inception is very dear to my heart!! He's a trickster and a con man; he becomes whatever people want him to be, and he can make them believe what he wants them to hear. In that sense, he'd probably be the ideal DevMem member--he'd be able to convince anyone that OTW is right for them, and that it'd be doing them a favor to take all their money in support! But then he'd likely skedaddle and leave the rest of us holding the bag for fulfilling the expectations of funders. So in the long run, it'd be better to have someone committed to teaching people about what the OTW is and already does, rather than letting them see the OTW as a catch-all solution for all their fandom problems. To that end, Eames' partner-in-crime-and-in-love, Arthur, would probably be the steady choice for an OTW member: loyal, logistical, practical, but ready to get creative at a moment's notice!

Lesann: Hermione Granger, and I suppose that kind of depends on whether I believe Hermione's people skills improve as an adult. Her foray into helping the house elves was pretty much a disaster because of an inability to rhetorically connect with others, so, probably not? But on the other hand, she'd be enthusiastic as hell. So there's that!

Mirrored from an original post on the OTW blog. Find related news by viewing our tag cloud.

OTW Fannews: What fanworks do

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 21:44:17 GMT

Spectacle: The Music Video is "the first museum exhibition to celebrate the art and history of the music video...the exhibition reveals the enormous influence music videos have had on contemporary culture over the past 35 years." Included in the exhibition are fan videos -- Killa and T. Jonesy's vid "Closer" and Luminosity's vid "Vogue". The exhibit opened on April 2 at the Museum of the Moving Image in NYC and continues until June 16.

Former OTW Board member Francesca Coppa's Transmedia vs Fan Media presentation was live blogged and made available on Swarthmore University's website. "Coppa shifts to discussing vidding, the making of fan music videos out of television or film clips. Vids translate “from narrative to poetry.” Vids are lyrical and emotion-driven rather than plot-driven works...Coppa asks the audience to take a few notes while she shows a series of Harry Potter vids, paying special attention to narrative structure, color manipulation, timing and editing, and song choice. Everything in vids is intentional."

One advantage of fanart is the way it can cross language barriers to spread fandom joy. Aja Romano wrote about a fanart challenge that began in Japanese-language Sherlock fandom and spread on Tumblr to its English-language counterpart. "Taken together, the works of fanart from 101 Japanese-language artists form a meme collage...Though each one is using the same basic body pose and layout, when viewed closer, they're all different." The meme has since spread to other fandoms.

Wired wrote about charity fundraisers in a variety of fandoms. "Here’s the thing about geeks...more than just about anyone, we’ve figured out how to digitally connect with each other, and how to use the internet as an extension of ourselves. Yes, some of our time will always be spent arguing over whether Matt Smith or David Tennant is the better Doctor — but that same passion, interconnectivity, and OCD-ness can be used for good. The trick is to keep that in mind — even when somebody’s totally wrong about Doctor Who — and see what else we can accomplish."

If you have your own fandom activities to talk about, write an entry in Fanlore! Contributions are welcome from all fans.

We want your suggestions! If you know of an essay, video, article, podcast, or link you think we should know about, comment on the most recent OTW Fannews post. Links are welcome in all languages! Submitting a link doesn't guarantee that it will be included in a roundup post, and inclusion of a link doesn't mean that it is endorsed by the OTW. Mirrored from an original post on the OTW blog. Find related news by viewing our tag cloud.

Canadian Copyright Law Q&A - Part 2

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 17:53:45 GMT

This is the second in a series of Q&A posts with Graham Reynolds, a Canadian copyright scholar from Schulich School of Law at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The Q&A focuses on Bill C-11, which went into effect near the end of 2012 and made some significant changes to Canada's Copyright Act, some of which influence the way fanworks are treated under Canadian law. The first post, in which Graham answered questions about the general contours of the law and about the law of "fair dealing", is available here.

Today, Graham addresses whether the new law expressly legalizes non-commercial fanfiction; parody and/or satire; fanart; and vidding. Spoiler alert: the answer is "no." It does, as Graham puts it, "create considerable space for the creation and dissemination of these types of works." As with all legal questions, courts may interpret the law in a favorable or unfavorable way, but non-commercial works of fanfiction and fanart that do not compete with the original appear to be more protected under Canadian law than they were before. However, the new law has arguably made things worse for vidders by adding anti-circumvention measures akin to those in the U.S. DMCA (minus the rulemaking exception for non-commercial fanvids that the OTW was involved in securing).

As before, these answers aren't legal advice, and if you need specific legal advice Graham (and we) advise you to consult with a lawyer and/or send a query to the OTW Legal Committee.

-- Betsy Rosenblatt, Legal Committee

3. Does C-11 expressly legalize non-commercial fanfiction?

No. Non-commercial fanfiction, however, may be protected from claims of copyright infringement by one of two doctrines. First, the doctrine of fair dealing (discussed in last week's post) may protect fanfiction made for the purpose of research, private study, parody, satire, criticism, or review, depending on the circumstances surrounding the creation and/or dissemination of the fanfiction. Second, Bill C-11 set out new users' rights relating to non-commercial user-generated content. These rights are set out in s. 29.21(1) of the Copyright Act.

This section states that:

29.21 (1) It is not an infringement of copyright for an individual to use an existing work or other subject-matter or copy of one, which has been published or otherwise made available to the public, in the creation of a new work or other subject-matter in which copyright subsists and for the individual — or, with the individual’s authorization, a member of their household — to use the new work or other subject-matter or to authorize an intermediary to disseminate it, if

(a) the use of, or the authorization to disseminate, the new work or other subject-matter is done solely for non-commercial purposes;

(b) the source — and, if given in the source, the name of the author, performer, maker or broadcaster — of the existing work or other subject-matter or copy of it are mentioned, if it is reasonable in the circumstances to do so;

(c) the individual had reasonable grounds to believe that the existing work or other subject-matter or copy of it, as the case may be, was not infringing copyright; and

(d) the use of, or the authorization to disseminate, the new work or other subject-matter does not have a substantial adverse effect, financial or otherwise, on the exploitation or potential exploitation of the existing work or other subject-matter — or copy of it — or on an existing or potential market for it, including that the new work or other subject-matter is not a substitute for the existing one.

This does not expressly legalize non-commercial fanfiction, but it creates considerable space for the creation and dissemination of these types of works. There are some points of uncertainty with respect to this defence, however, which may impact its usefulness to creators of non-commercial fanwork as a possible defence to copyright infringement. Namely, it is unclear exactly what the scope of “non-commercial purposes” might be (s. 29.21(1)(a)). Similarly, it is unclear what the scope of “a substantial adverse effect, financial or otherwise” might be (s. 29.21(1)(d)). Will courts take a narrow or a broad view of what constitutes an adverse effect? The inclusion of the word “otherwise” adds to the uncertainty because of the lack of guidance about what might constitute a non-financial adverse effect.

It is possible that the unauthorized use of copyrighted material to create fanworks may infringe moral rights (discussed in more depth in a future post). Neither fair dealing nor the user’s right relating to non-commercial user-generated content is a defence to moral rights infringement.

4. Does this law expressly legalize all uses of copyrighted material for the purpose of parody or satire?

No. There are two primary defences to the unauthorized use of copyrighted material for the purpose of parody or satire under the Copyright Act: fair dealing, and the new user’s right added to the Copyright Act as a result of Bill C-11 that relates to non-commercial user-generated content. While both of these defences create (or expand) space within which parodies or satire can be created and disseminated, they do not expressly legalize all uses of copyrighted material for the purpose of parody or satire.

With respect to fair dealing, although Bill C-11 added parody and satire to the list of fair dealing purposes, this does not mean that all uses of copyrighted material for the purpose of parody or satire will be considered to be fair dealing. As noted in the previous post, these uses must also be considered to be fair. In determining whether a dealing is fair, courts will weigh factors such as the purpose of the dealing, the character of the dealing, the amount of the dealing, alternatives to the dealing, the nature of the work, and the effect of the dealing on the work. With respect to the final factor (the effect of the dealing on the work), one point to consider is whether the creation of the parody or satire “adversely affects or competes with the [copyrighted source] work” (Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada v. Bell Canada, 2012 SCC 36, at para. 48). Based on recent case law, it appears as if Canadian courts are more likely to accept that a dealing is fair if it is not competing commercially with the copyrighted source work.

As discussed above, the new user’s right relating to non-commercial user-generated content only relate to works disseminated "solely for non-commercial purposes." To the extent that a parody or satire is disseminated for commercial gain, therefore, it likely cannot take advantage of this defence to copyright infringement. Also, the limitations discussed above with regard to non-commercial fanworks apply similarly here. It is unclear exactly what the scope of “non-commercial purposes” might be (s. 29.21(1)(a)). Similarly, it is unclear what the scope of “a substantial adverse effect, financial or otherwise” might be (s. 29.21(1)(d)). Will courts take the view that a non-commercial parody or satire creates a non-financial adverse effect to the exploitation or market for the original work? Also, as noted above, it is possible that the unauthorized use of copyrighted material for the purpose of parody or satire may infringe moral rights.

(NB: In response to a previous post, someone queried the legal distinction between parody and satire. While this is not a hard-and-fast rule, generally speaking courts define a parody of a work as something that pokes fun at the original work, and satire as something that uses the original work (or some other device) to poke fun at the world more broadly. -- Betsy)

5. Does C-11 have the same impact on visual fanart, like non-commercial photomanipulations or .gifs, as it does on textual works like fanfiction?

Yes. Both fair dealing and the user’s right relating to non-commercial user-generated content (the two defences to copyright infringement that have the greatest relevance for visual fanart) are structured in such a manner to apply to all “works” under the Copyright Act (literary, musical, artistic, and dramatic).

6. What about vids? Is it expressly legal in Canada to circumvent the copy protection on DVDs or BluRays, set ripped video clips to copyrighted music, and post the resulting non-commercial fanvids online?

No. Bill C-11 implemented legislative protection for technological protection measures (see Copyright Act, ss. 41-41.24). Among other provisions enacted as a result of Bill C-11 is a prohibition against circumventing a technological protection measure without the authorization of the copyright owner (s. 41.1(1)(a)). Circumvent is defined in part as “avoid, bypass, remove, deactivate, or impair” (s. 41(a)). Although numerous exceptions to this prohibition have been incorporated into the Copyright Act (see ss. 41.11-41.18), none of these exceptions appear to encompass the situation described in the question above. More specifically, the fact that a use may be a fair dealing is not an exception to the prohibition against circumventing a technological protection measure.

(NB: Article 41.21(1) does specify that the Governor in Council “may make regulations (a) prescribing additional circumstances in which paragraph 41.1(1)(a) does not apply," and may consider factors such as "whether not being permitted to circumvent a technological protection measure that is subject to that paragraph could adversely affect criticism, review, news reporting, commentary, parody, satire, teaching, scholarship or research that could be made or done in respect of the work." This would seem to leave some potential for future rulemaking along the lines of the U.S. model. However, no such regulations exist now, and it is impossible to predict whether they ever will in the future. -- Betsy)

Stay tuned for more Q&A with Graham Reynolds! Topics to come include questions about Canadian "moral rights," trade-mark rights, and rights of personality; and what the new law means for fanwork creators outside of Canada. For the text of the new law, see Bill C-11. For the full text of the Copyright Act, as amended, see the Canadian Copyright Act.

Mirrored from an original post on the OTW blog. Find related news by viewing our tag cloud.

OTW Fannews: Fair Use and the Modern Fan

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 19:05:32 GMT

On the Media aired an episode on the Past, Present and Future of Ownership, which included a number of good stories, including discussion of the art piece 'DRM Chair' "that collapses after just eight uses." Host Brooke Gladstone concluded with an observation on the origins of the word 'property.' "Eight hundred years ago or so, property’s meaning was pretty much related to the essential nature of something, as in it’s the property of water to conform to the shape of the vessel it’s in. The fact is property didn’t come to mean possession until the 17th century...Now our world runs on property...Once we dwelled in a brick-and-mortar world. Now, as poet Kenneth Goldsmith observed, we swim in a digital ocean. The only certainty is that in such a fluid situation, 20 years hence, property will not mean what it means today." (Transcripts available)

Among the people interviewed in the episode was OTW Legal Committee member, Rebecca Tushnet about the legal aspects of fanfiction. "There are such things as commercial fair uses. When 'The Daily Show' runs clips from the news and comments on them, that's fair use. And it's possible to have fictional fair uses, as well. However, the bar is higher and it really would be a case-by-case determination. For example there is a preacher who wrote a version of Harry Potter in which Harry Potter came to Jesus and renounced magic because it was evil. Whether or not that's good, it clearly does have a critical message that comments on the original and is something that would never be part of the original. And that makes it have a good case for fair use, even if he then solicits donations or even sells it for a buck." (Transcript available)

Another piece about fanfiction was posted on the site by Laura Mayer, discussing how it can emerge from episode recaps of reality shows. "Hype has been swirling around fan fiction for the past few months – the idea of hoards of super-fans, sitting in their homes, solitarily fleshing out the world and the characters from their beloved fiction. But it’s not just pure fiction that gets this treatment. Since there’s so much reality television on the dial, reality TV has been getting the fan fiction treatment, too." However, her examples all come from media sources, entirely ignoring the very long history of RPF. "This isn’t a new thing. Back in the days of 2010, Richard Lawson became the father of reality television fan fiction. While at Gawker he wrote recap upon recap of the Real Housewives of New York. Each post covered the basic details of the episode, sure. But what made these recaps so readable was the fantastical, borderline science-fiction, turns they took."

If you have your own RPF fandom tales to tell, write about them in Fanlore! Contributions are welcome from all fans.

We want your suggestions! If you know of an essay, video, article, podcast, or link you think we should know about, comment on the most recent OTW Fannews post. Links are welcome in all languages! Submitting a link doesn't guarantee that it will be included in a roundup post, and inclusion of a link doesn't mean that it is endorsed by the OTW. Mirrored from an original post on the OTW blog. Find related news by viewing our tag cloud.

OTW Fannews: Fandom ignited

Sat, 13 Apr 2013 18:10:06 GMT

The Japan Times talked about the anime industry catching up to the online revolution. "Today the despised former pirates at Crunchyroll.com — a now-legal multilingual Web portal for non-Japanese anime fans — are leading an industry revolution in content delivery and distribution, and Japanese producers are following their lead. Heavyweight veterans such as Toei, Bandai, Sunrise and others are scrambling to preview and offer their titles internationally via streaming sites like YouTube, Hulu, Niconico and Netflix. A new producer-collaborative streaming anime site, Daisuki, sponsored in part by one of the world’s largest advertising agencies, Dentsu, goes live in April. And a Japan-based site for videos about Japanese pop culture called Waoryu debuted last month."

Stephanie Mlot claimed in PC Magazine that 2013 Is the Best Time To Be a Fangirl. Discussing the record breaking fundraising success for a Veronica Mars movie, Mlot discussed statistics. "This month's SXSW boasted 31 Kickstarter-backed movies, and Kickstarter co-founder Yancey Strickler said this week that 10 percent of the films that debuted at Sundance raised money on the site...The letter-writing campaigns of yore have given way to Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook, and Kickstarter movements, taking 'power to the people' to a more sophisticated, and often more effective level. Still, it's unlikely that crowd-funded entertainment will become the new normal. Hollywood can't, and won't, subside on scraps from even the wealthiest of adoring fans," in part because the costs for the typical film or television series are so high.

Her Universe, a creator of fannish women's apparel, has begun a Year of the Fangirl promotion, featuring women telling their fannish stories after being nominated by other fans. One of them, Tricia Barr, advised fans to find their voices. "I always believed women would come into our own in fandom. Powered by a surge of female fans coming to the fore, a female-led action movie ruled at the box office and the range of stories with strong female characters is becoming almost limitless in books, comics, movies, and television. Doors are opening for women specifically because they are fangirls...Voice your opinions, hopes, or desires about the stories that you feel passionate about. Respect that every other fan – including the ones creating those stories – brings their own unique perspective."

If you have your own fannish history to share, write about it on Fanlore! Contributions are welcome from all fans.

We want your suggestions! If you know of an essay, video, article, podcast, or link you think we should know about, comment on the most recent OTW Fannews post. Links are welcome in all languages! Submitting a link doesn't guarantee that it will be included in a roundup post, and inclusion of a link doesn't mean that it is endorsed by the OTW. Mirrored from an original post on the OTW blog. Find related news by viewing our tag cloud.

Volunteer Recruiting: AO3 Documentation, Communications, and Tag Wranglers

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 18:47:10 GMT

We are pleased to announce that our first applications for new OTW volunteers are open! We have three roles from across the OTW in the first round:

AO3 Documentation Volunteer
Communications Staff (Media Outreach)
Tag Wrangler Volunteer
Updated 14 April 2013 - Due to the fantastic response from individuals interested in Tag Wrangling, we've temporarily closed the application while we train the over 50 volunteers who have already responded and get them settled in. We aim to reopen Tag Wrangler recruiting in mid-May.

We have included more information on each role below. Open roles and applications will always be available at the volunteering page. If you don't see a role that fits with your skills and interests now, keep an eye on the listings. We plan to put up new applications every few weeks, and we will also publicize new roles as they become available.

You may be wondering why you aren't seeing positions listed here that you know are open. Those committees are finalizing their position descriptions and training plans, and we will be posting those opportunities when they're ready.

If you have any questions about volunteering for the OTW, please let us know through the Volunteers & Recruiting contact form.

AO3 Documentation Volunteer
The AO3 Documentation Workgroup manages external AO3 docs such as the FAQs and Tutorials, and helps create and/or expand our internal knowledge base.

We’re looking for some people who are familiar with the Archive of Our Own and are good at writing and proofreading help documentation. If this sounds like something you’re interested in, click through to read the full details and apply to join the workgroup. Applications are due April 26

Communications Staff (Media Outreach)
Communications has primary responsibility for internal and external communication for the OTW. We manage the OTW blog and social media outlets and assist other teams in managing project-specific communication. We also field requests from outside the organization and work to spread awareness of the OTW and its projects.

We’re currently looking for someone to perform Media Outreach, which involves making direct pitches to media contacts and working to place stories about the OTW. If you have knowledge or experience in the area of media relations and are interested in helping build up our communication strategies, click through to learn more about the role and apply to join the Communication Staff Applications are due April 26

Tag Wrangler Volunteer
The Tag Wranglers are responsible for keeping the hundreds of thousands of tags on AO3 in some kind of order! We choose which form of a fandom title appears on the Media pages, as well as all the character, relationship, and additional tags which appear in the filters and the auto-complete. We link tags together to make all the works and bookmarks on the archive easier to browse and search (so that users can find exactly what they’re looking for, whether that’s alternate universes with Cloud Strife, Steve/Tony and tentacles, or g-rated Rose/Kanaya fluff!)

If you like organizing, bringing order to chaos, excuses to fact-check your favorite fandom canons, or you just get a kick out of seeing all the wacky and wonderful terms fans come up with, you might enjoy tag wrangling! Updated 14 April 2013 - Due to the fantastic response from individuals interested in Tag Wrangling, we've temporarily closed the application while we train the over 50 volunteers who have already responded and get them settled in. We aim to reopen Tag Wrangler recruiting in mid-May.

Mirrored from an original post on the OTW blog. Find related news by viewing our tag cloud.