Welcome to our Events Calendar roundup for the month of January! 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.

• Arisia, billed as New England's largest and most diverse science fiction and fantasy convention, will be held for the 23rd time from 18 to 21 January at the Westin Boston Waterfront in Boston, Massachusetts. The event features panels on a wide range of subjects, an art show, a masquerade, gaming spaces, musical guests, a film festival (featuring reel-to-reel films), a video and anime room, a blood drive, and much more. With over 3000 expected to attend, Arisia is sure to be an invigorating weekend for any fan.
  Read or Share about Arisia on Fanlore
• MarsCon 2013 is a multifandom, multimedia convention in Williamsburg, Virginia, USA from 18 to 20 January 2013. MarsCon features a wide range of programming including panels, workshops, movie screenings, music and comedic entertainment, gaming spaces, an art room, and more. The convention also offers a family programming track and is home to the Erotica a la carte: Iron Chef competition.
  Read or Share about MarsCon on Fanlore
• Festivids is a fannish vid exchange launched in 2009 and inspired by the Yuletide fic exchange. Participants will be submitting their vids by 6 January and they will be made publicly available on the 19th. Vidder reveals will then take place on 2 February. The fest is hosted through the Festivids Dreamwidth Community and Festivids LiveJournal Community.
  Read or Share about Festivids on Fanlore

We have two calls for papers to pass along this month.

The first is from Making and Sharing (MASH) 2013. The MASH conference on audience creativity is seeking papers that explore user-created content in relation to new media. The conference is interdisciplinary in nature and is particularly interested in topics around the themes of creative industries, creative audiences and practices, and methods and approaches. Abstracts of up to 500 words should be sent to mash2013[at]gmx.com no later than 11 January. The conference will be held 3-4 July 2013 at Maastricht University, The Netherlands.

Applicants are also encouraged to submit fanworks they have created to be publicly displayed during the conference. The Mash 2013 website has more information.

The second call for papers is for the first annual Fandom and Neomedia Studies (FANS) conference. Abstracts of no more than 500 words (along with a CV) are due no later than 1 February 2013 Update: Deadline has been extended to 15 March 2013. Accepted authors will be notified no later than 1 April. Accepted papers will also be published in the quarterly peer-reviewed journal, The Phoenix Papers. Papers may be submitted for journal consideration only - authors should state their preference in their submission. Abstracts and CVs should be sent to fansconference[at]gmail.com.

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

Welcome to our Events Calendar roundup for the month of October! 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.

• The multimedia, multi-fandom slash convention Connotations will be held for the tenth time from 5 October to 7 October in Durham, England. Unique features of Connotations include the large on-site zine library and the fact that all panels are voted on and selected by fans.
  More information about Connotations on Fanlore
• Celebrate the achievements of women in science and technology in honor of Ada Lovelace Day on 16 October. Lovelace was a 19th-century writer and mathematician whose writings inspired the development of modern computers. The day is marked by thousands of individuals blogging about women the admire in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
• The opportunity to further support women in open technology and culture is always available with the Ada Initiative. The international nonprofit sponsors AdaCamp, a series of technology camps for young women, in addition to events and conferences that support and engage women in open source work. The Ada Initiative is currently holding one of their annual fundraisers through 31 October with a goal of 1000 donors to help sustain their work.
• Join chemists around the world in honoring Mole Day on 23 October with this year's theme of 'Molar Eclipse'. The celebration occurs annually on this date from 6:02 AM to 6:02 PM and is derived from Avogrado's number - ~6.02x10²³ - which defines the number of particles in one mole of substance. Commonly celebrated in high schools to get students interested in chemistry, the holiday is also supported by the U.S.-based National Mole Day Foundation.

A Call for Submissions this month comes from the Australian Law Reform Commission in response to the issues paper Copyright and the Digital Economy.

"This Issues Paper is the first formal publication of the Inquiry, intended to help frame discussion and encourage public consultation at an early stage. It provides background information about copyright in the digital environment, highlights the issues so far identified in preliminary research and consultations, and outlines the principles that will shape the ALRC’s proposals for reform."

Responses are due via the online submission form no later than 16 November 2012.

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

Welcome to our Events Calendar roundup for the month of July! 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.

• July kicks off with GeeKermesse on 8 July in La Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina. GeeKermesse is an event where all kind of fans can gather and have fun. Their doors are open to superheroes, zombies, space explorers, detectives, magical girls, wizards, Saiyans, people lost in time and everybody else! Get your geek out!
• In the U.S. and Harry Potter fandom, Ascendio is taking place from 11 July to 15 July at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida. Approximately 1,000 fans will take part in this mix of fan and academic conference. Two of the days will feature a “Formal Programming” schedule of presentations, panels, workshops and roundtables including the Quill Track focusing on books and writing. Some of the authors, agents, editors and publishers include Lev Grossman (author), Cecilia Tan (publisher & author), and Omnific (publishing company).

  Importantly for us in these parts, the OTW will have an information table about the org at Ascendio. So if you'll be there, stop by and say hello to our volunteers!

• Farther north, thousands more fans will be descending on Otakon. Started in Baltimore, Maryland in 1999, Otakon is "the convention of the otaku generation: by fans, for fans" and they will be holding their 19th event in 2012. Otakon celebrates anime, manga, and all facets of Asian pop culture with a variety of activities, workshops and contests. The con will be held from 27 July 2012 - 29 July 2012 at the Baltimore Convention Center.
• We wrap up with SysAdmin day on 28 July. The holiday exists to show appreciation for the work of systems administrators and other IT workers. The first System Administrator Appreciation Day was celebrated on July 28, 2000. There are many suggestions for the proper observation of the holiday, the most common being cake and ice cream, so if you're reading this, thank your SysAdmins!

A Call for Papers this month comes from Katherine Larsen (klarsen at gwu.edu) and Lynn Zubernis (LZubernis at wcupa.edu) for the book Supernatural (Fan Phenomena) to be published by Intellect Press. Please send an abstract (300 words) and CV or resume by 30 Aug 2012. Final chapters of 3000-3500 words will be due 01 Dec 2012. The final book will include ten chapters. More information about the book scope can be found here.

This month we have received a request for research participation from Robin Brenner, who is pulling together a presentation for the American Library Association Annual Conference 2012 and at the Young Adult Literature Symposium 2012. She writes that:

"This survey is here to gather information about how readers over the age of 13 have and continue to interact with their favorite media through fan works including fanfiction, fan art, and fan videos. Specifically we are interested in how participating in fandom has influenced your reading, writing, creativity, and literacy."

and

"[I]dentities will be concealed and pseudonyms may be used if requested. If a respondent over 18 has indicated we may do so, we may quote specific responses in a future print publication, but would only do so after we have their express, written permission.

We will be using the information gathered from this survey to report back to our colleagues in the library world about fandom, fan work, and participatory fan culture and its connections to reading, authorship, literacy, and creativity. We will not be using any identifying information in our reports except general age categories, and we will never connect your personal information with our survey results.

If you would like to grant us permission to use your full name and age in reporting about this survey, there will be an option at the finish of the survey to let us know your information and to grant us permission to use your name. If you are between the ages of 13 and 18, we will not publish your personal information. All survey takers must be at least 13 years of age."

You may also see Robin's resume and list of other publications. Her contact information is listed there, and you may also contact her with questions through:

Robin Brenner
Teen Librarian
Brookline Public Library
361 Washington Street
Brookline, MA 02445
robin@noflyingnotights.com
617-730-2370

The research results will be shared on her blog this fall: http://noflyingnotights.com

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!

A few events that might be of interest to readers of this blog:

* Göttingen, Germany. REMAKE │REMODEL: New Perspectives on Remakes, Film Adaptations, and Fan Productions: is an interdisciplinary conference taking place June 30 - July 2, 2010. The deadline for submissions is February 15, 2010; more information can be found on the linked call for papers.

* Boston, MA (and elsewhere!) On February 25, 2010, Lawrence Lessig will deliver a talk on fair use and politics in online video at the Berkman Center at Harvard Law School. The Open Video Alliance is webcasting the talk at http://openvideoalliance.org/lessig, or you can attend local screenings and events in many cities (check online for more details.)

* Los Angeles, CA, On March 25, 2010, Jonathan McIntosh, Julie Levin Russo (Stanford) and Alexis Lothian (USC) will curate an exhibition called "Subverting Gender and Sexuality with Remix Video" at California State University, Northridge that will feature PRVs (political remix videos) as well as vids. A question and answer session will follow the presentation.