Organization for Transformative Works News

OTW Fannews: Collaborative playgrounds

Sat, 18 May 2013 15:45:22 GMT

Posted by: otw_staff

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.

( Read more... )

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Strategic Planning Update #9

Thu, 16 May 2013 22:00:39 GMT

Posted by: otw_staff

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. ( Read more... )

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OTW Fannews: Separate by intention?

Tue, 14 May 2013 16:59:18 GMT

Posted by: otw_staff

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.'"

( Read more... )

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852 Prospect - AO3 Supports our Sentinel*

Sun, 12 May 2013 20:26:25 GMT

Posted by: otw_staff

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.
( Read more... )

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OTW Fannews: Cultural Triggers

Sun, 12 May 2013 01:27:45 GMT

Posted by: otw_staff

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."

( Read more... )

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OTW Fannews: The places fanfiction goes

Thu, 09 May 2013 22:04:32 GMT

Posted by: otw_staff

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."

( Read more... )

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

Wed, 08 May 2013 02:03:06 GMT

Posted by: otw_staff

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.

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Volunteer Recruiting: AO3 Support & Tag Wrangling

Sun, 05 May 2013 22:27:49 GMT

Posted by: otw_staff

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.

( Read more... )

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OTW Fannews: Fans front and center

Fri, 03 May 2013 22:54:46 GMT

Posted by: otw_staff

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.'"

( Read more... )

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April 2013 Newsletter, Volume 68

Thu, 02 May 2013 22:09:49 GMT

Posted by: otw_staff

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. ( Read more... )

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Join Support for a Chat!

Wed, 01 May 2013 17:07:59 GMT

Posted by: otw_staff

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! ( Read more... )

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Archive of Our Own Newsletter - March/April 2013

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 01:45:30 GMT

Posted by: otw_staff

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!
( Read more... )

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OTW Fannews: Giving people what they want

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 19:00:04 GMT

Posted by: otw_staff

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. ( Read more... )

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OTW Events Calendar for May

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 16:40:05 GMT

Posted by: otw_staff

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 )
( A request for research participation )

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.

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Strategic Planning Report #2: Volunteers & Recruiting Committee

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 18:22:15 GMT

Posted by: otw_staff

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. ( Read more... )

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OTW Fannews: Fanfiction, where can you find it?

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 17:18:40 GMT

Posted by: otw_staff

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."

( Read more... )

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Canadian Copyright Law Q&A - Part 3

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 18:48:34 GMT

Posted by: otw_staff

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. ( Read more... )

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Spotlight on Development & Membership

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 19:16:58 GMT

Posted by: otw_staff

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! ( Read more... )

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OTW Fannews: What fanworks do

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 18:57:31 GMT

Posted by: otw_staff

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.

( Read more... )

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Canadian Copyright Law Q&A - Part 2

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 17:53:39 GMT

Posted by: otw_staff

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). ( Read more... )

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OTW Fannews: Fair Use and the Modern Fan

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 19:05:36 GMT

Posted by: otw_staff

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)

( Read more... )

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OTW Fannews: Fandom ignited

Sat, 13 Apr 2013 18:10:03 GMT

Posted by: otw_staff

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."

( Read more... )

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Volunteer Recruiting: AO3 Documentation, Communications, and Tag Wranglers

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 18:47:51 GMT

Posted by: otw_staff

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.
( Read more... )

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Canadian Copyright Law Q&A - Part 1

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 16:44:28 GMT

Posted by: otw_staff

Near the end of 2012, a law called Bill C-11 made some significant changes to Canada's Copyright Act, some of which influence the way fanworks are treated under Canadian law. With that in mind, we're bringing you a series of Q&A posts written by Graham Reynolds, an Assistant Professor at the Schulich School of Law at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Graham teaches and researches in the areas of copyright law, intellectual property law, property law, and the intersection of intellectual property and human rights, so he's the perfect person to explain how the changes are likely to influence the law of fanworks in Canada.

We posed a series of questions to Graham, and will be posting his answers in this space over the next couple of weeks. 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.

Today, Graham answers two questions: first about the general contours of the law, and second about the law of "fair dealing" (which is a like the U.S. concept of "fair use," but as explained below, is somewhat different) In the latter, Graham walks through the requirements of what it takes for a fanwork to be considered "fair dealing" under the law. ( Read more... )

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April Membership Drive: Thank you for your support!

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 17:11:58 GMT

Posted by: otw_staff

The OTW’s April membership drive has officially concluded, and it was a wild success! Between April 3 and 9, we received 2,054 individual donations totaling US$53,243.99 — numbers that will grow once we’ve had a chance to count the donations sent via postal mail. That’s a nearly 39% increase over the amount raised in the April 2012 drive, which previously held the record for being our most successful drive ever.

Even though the drive is over, the pace of incoming donations has barely slowed down. The total raised during the month of April is US$57,526 and still climbing. ( Read more... )

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