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

• Show appreciation to the programmers in your personal, fandom, and professional life on 12 September. Celebrated on the 256th day of each year (the number of distinct values that can be represented by an 8-bit byte), Programmers' Day is a holiday that recognizes the work of programmers around the world.
  Programmers' Day information on Fanlore
• An academic conference being held in London provides opportunities to explore intersections between fandom and identity. Girls and Digital Culture: Transnational Perspectives on Girlhood will take place on 13 and 14 September at King's College London, Strand Campus. The interdisciplinary conference features a number of papers that explore girls' participation in fandom activities.
  Conference information on Fanlore
• "Arrr!" Be sure to practice your pirate slang so you're ready in time for International Talk Like a Pirate Day on 19 September. Originally celebrated in 1995, the day came to popularity following a mention by Dave Barry in his syndicated newspaper column in 2002. The day is an excellent opportunity to show off your pirate fandom.
  Pirate Day information on Fanlore
• Honor the birth of Bilbo and Frodo Baggins on Hobbit Day, 22 September. A part of Tolkien Week, the day is a celebration of all things Hobbit and Middle-Earth.
  Hobbit Day information on Fanlore

We have no research participation requests or calls for papers to share this month. 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!

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

• Blogger Suzanne Lahna wrote recently about things she's learned from fandom. Concluding that "Fandom is important, and I think the why needs to be told," she lists a few benefits from the immediately practical to the lifelong. "Fandom taught me how to make a fight scene work like a fluid thing. Fandom taught me that present tense is actually okay, and can be used well in the appropriate scenarios...Fandom taught me how to write boldly, without shame, without hesitance." She writes, "Fandom has given me hope. Fandom reminds me that there are no limits to what we can write about, what we can do, only the limits we place on ourselves."
• The Atlantic looks at soccer fans and finds much the same thing as Lahna. "Trying to rationalize fandom can be a complicated, even futile process. But studies by psychologists have shown that identifying yourself with a sports team can have profound implications. According to Daniel L. Wann, a professor at Murray State University, and a pioneer in the field of sports psychology, the more passionate your fandom, the more positive the impact is on your psychological health. Based on surveys of American sports fans over more than two decades, Wann has categorized fans in relation to the degree to which they consider their team an extension of themselves. He describes the more ardent fans, the ones who consider their team to be an important part of their lives, as 'highly identified' fans, and the ones who follow their team more loosely, with a sense of detachment, as "weakly identified" fans. He says, in the case of the highly identified fans, the social connections that are formed through their fandom—the camaraderie that comes out of following games with a group of people—plays a significant and positive role in their lives."
• A piece on sci-fi cons in The Seattle Times came across the same opinions yet again: "'It's a community,' Katrina Marier, editor of Westwind, the magazine of the Northwest Science Fiction Society, said. 'People in fandom care about each other. We're excited to get together.' She said when someone gets sick, people visit with casseroles and offers of help just like in any group." Indeed some ideas should spread outside of fandom. "'Some [people] you'll like and some not. Some you'll agree with and some not,' she said. 'You all can occupy the same space for the course of a weekend. That is very important, and we could use a lot more of that in our national discourse.' That's reason enough to be involved. Besides tolerance, Marier says, fandom has solidified some other good traits. 'Fandom has encouraged my tendencies to both be open to new ideas and to think about them critically, and to ask questions.'"
• Indeed a story in The Advocate stresses the ways in which fandoms and society can be intertwined with their feature on a comic book store wedding. Various comics shops honored the marriage of characters Northstar and Kyle with fundraising events and receptions, but Midtown Comics took it a step further when they hosted a wedding in-store. The groomsmen featured in the story "were selected from more than 50 applicants because 'they really stood out as super-fans,' said Thor Parker, Midtown Comics’ social media and events director. They met online and had one of their first dates at a comics-related event."

If you're an X-Men fan or in a comics or sci-fi fandom, or want to share your own story about what fandom has meant to you, why not write about it in 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 at transformativeworks.org. 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.

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!

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

• Coming up next week is CON.TXT. CON.TXT is a multi-fandom slash con held biennially (in even-numbered years) since 2006 and features panel discussions, and art and vid shows. It will be held this year at the Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza in in Silver Spring, Maryland from 15 June 2012 - 17 June 2012. For more information visit con-text.net
• At the end of the month we can celebrate Tau Day. In 2010, Michael Hartl posted an essay called The Tau Manifesto on his personal website. In it, he proposed using the Greek letter tau (τ) to represent that number instead. Hartl argued that an existing symbol like τ would face fewer barriers to adoption than a new symbol like the "three-legged pi." A number of news outlets reported on "Tau Day", a holiday proposed in The Tau Manifesto' for June 28 to honour the number 2π.

In addition to this month's events we also wanted to announce that we will be using the Events Calendar posts to publicize academic calls for papers, and these will also be added to our website Event Calendar. So if you have a CFP coming up for a journal or conference, feel free to submit it to us via the Communications committee contact form. Please keep in mind that while the Event Calendar is available at all times, this announcement post is only made at the start of every month, so please allow for sufficient lead time.

This month we have received a request for research participation from Dianna Fielding, who is writing an Honor's Thesis towards her Bachelor's degree in Sociology from Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota. She writes that:

"I hope to make this part of my doctoral dissertation. It has received approval from IRB. I will be conducting semi-structured interviews with authors and readers of genderswap fanfiction. I chose these authors in particular because genderswap is generally unstudied (unlike slash!) and not very many scholars have actually talked to fans about their work. In addition to the interviews I will be engaging in participant-observation by joining a genderswap community. This last part is still tentative, because it is difficult for me to find an active community."

You may see the consent form and contact information for Dianna here if you would be interested in helping her with her study: Consent and Contact Form.

Her thesis will be available through the Hamline University library and will also be posted to her blog: http://www.sociologyfornerds.com/

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