Here's a roundup of stories explaining fandom that might be of interest to fans:

• As awareness of fandoms and the fandom market grows in the commercial sector, the media has followed suit, offering posts that "explain fandom" to their users. In some cases the financial motivation is obvious, such as this CNBC article informing the public that Bieber is passe while Kpop may be the new cash cow. In others, the fan practices are explored as a form of community reporting, looking at those activities in isolation.
• More thoughtful discussions are rarer but exist, such as this patient exploration of fanfic in the Wall Street Journal which explains fanfic to a reader who apparently missed its recent three pronged feature on the topic. The Kansas City Star included commentary from the OTW's Francesca Coppa in its fanfic discussion, who summed things up nicely by saying "“We may have momentarily forgotten that this is how literature works, people telling stories over and over again and changing them,” Coppa said. “Fan fiction is where non-commercial storytelling lives.”"
• But the mass media isn't the only source of fandom explanations. There's always a more academic approach, such as this look at Olympic memes or the IDEA Channel's latest fanworks segment looking at fanfic activity through history. And nowadays there are entire academic courses to explain fanworks, such as the one at Yale which has students "writing their own fan fiction and analysing existing fan fiction."
• Then there are the introductions done on a more fan-to-fan level such as this introduction to Korean dramas on The Learned Fangirl, or this Q&A with a maker of fan films. Indeed, introductions and explanations can be a part of overall fannish discourse such as this series on fan practices.

If you've got your own fandom explanations to share, why not share them on Fanlore? Additions are welcome from all fans.

We want your suggestions! If you know of an essay, video, article, event, or link you think we should know about, comment on the most recent Links Roundup. 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.

Here's a roundup of "fandom everywhere" stories that might be of interest to fans:

• Mardi Gras in New Orleans now has an open-source side. "Bar2D2, as the robot is called, is the mascot of the Intergalactic Krewe of Chewbacchus, which runs a ragtag operation dedicated to all things science fiction. In two years, the group, which started as a drunken joke in a bar, has become the quickest-growing krewe in the city, and a center of the amateur costume culture in New Orleans." Aside from giving people a chance to be creative, "Chewbacchus and krewes like it are a response to the exclusivity of the older groups. Chewbacchus does not have any waiting lists or recommendation requirements, and dues are only $42 (an arcane numerical reference to the novel “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”)." Rather than change old traditions, the krewe believes they are modernizing it. "“The old Mardi Gras krewes play off of Greek gods,” Mr. Powers said. “We believe sci-fi is the strongest mythology of our time.”"
• Star Wars fandom was also in focus at the Hollywood Theater in Pittsburgh. The Fandom Meant Us is "a romantic comedy about Star Wars fans’ love for Star Wars, and their love for each other" that was advertised as "an awesomely geeky Valentine’s Day date."
• Media scholar Henry Jenkins ran a three-part interview with authors Catherine Belcher and Becky Herr-Stephenson, authors of Teaching Harry Potter: The Power of Imagination in the Multicultural Classroom, which Jenkins recommended as "one of the most powerful and engaging books I've read about American education in a long time." In discussing student reluctance, the authors write "The first thing we question is the idea that the "whiteness" of the books negates their use in multicultural classrooms. The nature of the books themselves - their complexity and Rowling's willingness to take on difficult and contemporary issues such as racism, genocide, classism, and difference - make them uniquely valuable." They add "On another level, it is also important because so many white, middle to upper middle class kids DO have ample access to Potter and other popular series at home and at school. In many ways, building students' reading confidence, helping them discover that yes, they too can tackle a book of this length or "that style," whether they end up feeling it is ultimately for them or not, is the most valuable accomplishment."

If you are a Star Wars or Harry Potter fan, why not contribute to Fanlore? Additions are welcome from all fans.

We want your suggestions! If you know of an essay, video, article, event, or link you think we should know about, comment on the most recent Links Roundup — on transformativeworks.org, LJ, or DW — or give @OTW_News a shoutout on Twitter. 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.

Here's a roundup of stories on women in fandom that might be of interest to fans:

• A post at Pop Culture Pirate both celebrates women's skills in creating remixes, and urges others to join in. "For women and girls, especially, it’s a way to talk back to branded affirmations of beauty, take back our identities from corporate commodification, and create better stories about women that don’t revolve around men."
• Two instructors at the The Alice Smith School Secondary Campus in Malaysia also urge the hands-on approach when writing about how to use fan fiction in the classroom to help students better engage with literature. Among their suggestions are the “substitute” ending, the "“what if?” of both characters and events", creating backstories, imagining crossovers, and creating diary entries or email exchanges for characters.
• Much of the media coverage of fans tends to focus less on fan activities than in how they make a good market for the entertainment industry. In this article from the Christian Science Monitor titled "Duran Duran fans spend hard", fan finances are the focus in a piece that nonetheless reveals the fandom's influence on their lives. "Kasandra O’Connell lives in Dublin, Ireland. At the end of October, she will travel to New York on business. The trip, however, coincides with Duran Duran’s Madison Square Garden show...She plans to travel to Venice, Italy, in the spring for a concert. "I never would have traveled like this to see them before Twitter but I've met so many ‘DD sistahs’ that I feel perfectly happy traveling and meeting up with new friends,” O’Connell says.""

If you create remixes or fan fiction or travel to concerts, why not contribute your perspectives to Fanlore? Contributions are welcome from all fans.

We want your suggestions! If you know of an essay, video, article, event, or link you think we should know about, comment on the most recent Links Roundup — on transformativeworks.org, LJ, or DW — or give @OTW_News a shoutout on Twitter. 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.

So how many teens in the United States do you think are familiar with the concept of fair use? How many are exposed instead solely to the message that copyright infringement is always a crime? Between warnings on DVDs, television PSAs, movie theater anti-piracy ads, and print advertising, kids are usually pretty familiar with a vague idea that copyright is that law that means you can't copy stuff, and that in particular, any commercially produced entertainment or cultural property is sacrosanct. The message is that remix, criticism, reinterpretation, and transformation are legally transgressive. Missing from this message is both the actual aim of copyright law and the idea that there are legitimate artistic and critical reasons to use copyrighted material, and that such use is legal. The OTW believes that education about the principles of fair use and similar rights around the world are an important part of the defense and preservation of fanworks -- our rights to create, share, and enjoy our work. To that end, we are developing resources for schools, teachers, and students that will allow students to learn about their rights, and how to exercise those rights.

Copyright is intended to protect the creator's right to profit from her work for a period of time to encourage creative endeavor and the widespread sharing of knowledge. But this does not preclude the right of others to respond to the original work, either with critical commentary, parody, or, we believe, transformative works.

The Business Software Alliance (BSA) has long provided a free educational package to schools and teachers that purportedly teaches the students about copyright law. A current summary of the program from TeachersFirst.com states:

B4USurf is a free educational program for grades 3-12 that is designed to raise awareness of copyright laws and reinforce responsible behavior online. This site has safety tips, lesson plans, resources, and interactive activities for helping educators, parents and youths with cyber-ethics and cyber-safety by having fun on the web while learning to surf safely and responsibly. The information is pertinent for elementary, middle, and high school students, who communicate, work, socialize, and entertain themselves on the internet. Unlike many of the other internet safety sites, the B4USurf educational initiative is dedicated to promoting both a safe and legal digital world by addressing unlawful copyright behavior through educating and guiding students to use computer technology responsibly.

Understandably their focus is on software piracy, and they encourage students to report "[i]f you're a victim of a software pirate, or suspect that the computer software offered for sale is an illegal copy." But nowhere on their website, which includes the entire curriculum, do they discuss the concept of "fair use".

We are not aware of a single curriculum or program for students that discusses copyright and trademark law from a pro-fair-use/pro-fan perspective; rather, any education children are getting regarding copyright and trademark law comes from the corporate sponsors behind the BSA. While we are happy to note that the EFF has a copyright-specific curriculum that does discuss fair use (Teaching Copyright), our intention is to focus more on creative applications and transformative works.

Project Summary
Within our Fair Use Curriculum project, OTW plans to create a team of educators, students, parents, and lawyers who will develop a United States copyright law curriculum for high school students (with the possibility of a curriculum for grades 6 - 8 as well). The aim of this project is to educate and inform students about the copyright and trademark issues that impact their lives, including the principles of fair use and the concept of transformative works. The resulting curriculum will be made available at no cost to educators worldwide.

In addition to the team participants listed above, we will also be seeking high school students to help beta-read and offer critical commentary on the curriculum as it is developed, and in grant-writers who would be able to assist with our grant application processes.

Estimated Time Involved and Schedule
We expect to assemble our team during October 2010 but do not expect any extensive development or writing until late in the month, so if you can't start with the project until November, that's fine! Lawyers, teachers, and anyone experienced with curriculum development should all expect to spend 50+ hours on this project between November and January, with additional time thereafter. No specific time commitment is required per week, but we would like to see steady progress.

Law students who are interested in working on this project for independent study credit are encouraged to contact us to coordinate; we will work with your institution to offer credit during the first semester/trimester of 2011.

Beta readers will be needed beginning in early 2011.

How to Volunteer
Please use our contact form to tell us:

• Your name
• Your email address
• Applicable experience and what you believe you can contribute to the project

All volunteers will receive an email confirming their information has been received; please give us up to a week to reply. You are welcome to send us a resume at that point if you wish.

Edited to add contact form link.