Fan Conventions

  • Links Roundup for May 24, 2011

    By .fcoppa on Tuesday, 24 May 2011 - 11:02pm
    Message type:
    News of Note
    Tags:
    Fan Conventions, YouTube

    Here’s a roundup of stories that might be of interest to fans: news about Google Video, Blogger, "A Billion Wicked Thoughts," Creative Commons, and "Con or Bust," just beneath the cut!

    * Google Video is being subsumed into YouTube for all but "Google Video for Business" and "Google Video for Education" users. If fans are using Google Video to host their fanworks, they can either move them to YouTube or download and save copies. (This is, for the record, more courtesy than Imeem showed its users when it eliminated its video hosting service, as it did not give patrons the chance to download their works before deleting them.) You can find more information in this Google Video Help article.

    * Many fans have been closely following the coverage of the publication of Ogi Ogas and Sai Gaddam's book, "A Billion Wicked Thoughts: What the World's Largest Experiment Reveals about Human Desire." Ogas and Gaddam attempted to survey fans two years ago both individually and by means of an online survey that fans found to be a blunt and badly-designed instrument; many fans are now giving the resulting book a decisive thumbs-down. Read Doctor Science's article at Obsidian Wings, A Billion Made-Up Conclusions, for one fan's perspective.

    * For Blogger Users: While Blogger has moved to using the Google accounts system for logins, legacy users have up till now been able to maintain their own accounts. This will soon no longer be the case: if you have a Blogger account and haven’t logged in since 2007, you will lose access to the account and associated content permanently unless you update to the Google Account system before June 25th.

    * In its most recent alumni magazine, Cambridge University professor Dr. Rupert Gatti argues something that the OTW (and its gold standard, Open Access journal Transformative Works and Cultures) has believed for years: that Open Access models and Creative Commons are the future of academic scholarship. (See p. 40-41 for the whole article.)

    * Lastly, "Con or Bust" is taking applications to fund con attendance for fans of color. "Con or Bust" is a sub-project of the Carl Brandon Society, an organization whose goal is "is to increase racial and ethnic diversity in the production of and audience for speculative fiction." Grants are being administered by Kate Nepveu.

    We want your suggestions! If you know of an essay, video, article, event, or link you think we should know about you can submit it in three easy ways: comment on the most recent Link Roundup on transformativeworks.org, LJ, or DW, tag a link with "for:otw_news" on Delicious 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.

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  • Calling All European Vidders!

    By .Helka Lantto on Tuesday, 28 September 2010 - 6:10am
    Message type:
    News of Note
    Tags:
    Fan Conventions

    Written by Natacha Guyot

    The organizers of 2008's Vidukon are currently trying to put together a second European vidding convention. If you think you might attend such a convention (or be willing to help them put it on!) please fill out their poll. Help is crucial and is encouraged from both vidders and vid-watchers.

    OTW's international staff are excited about this opportunity for gathering vidders on the European side of the ocean. International vidders will benefit from such an event, even if they are actually creating in 'mainstream' fandom. No matter how the Internet has made 'worldwide' access easier for many, vidders' presence can still remain scattered.

    A second European vidding convention would be a chance for vidders to discover others' works, and through vids, new fandoms. (For instance, French shows like Clara Sheller or David Nolande became known through vids; vids about the first brought about discussion with Brazilian fans, and a vid about the second sparked some American watchers’ interest, and a lot of conjectures about the TV series itself.)

    Gathering people, works and history on an international scale remains an important goal for the OTW and its various projects, from the Archive of Our Own to the various parts of the Vidding Roadmap. We are committed to building a community and archive for fic, art, and vids that goes beyond fandom and language boundaries. You can help us make this happen by volunteering.

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  • TWC Editor Kristina Busse: Special Guest At WriterCon

    By .fcoppa on Monday, 10 August 2009 - 4:07am
    Message type:
    Event
    Tags:
    Fan Conventions, Fannish Communities

    Transformative Works and Cultures editor Kristina Busse was one of the special guests at WriterCon 2009, where she gave several talks, including the keynote, Affect and the Individual Fan:The Role of Genre and Tropes in Writer Creativity and Reader Engagement, and a presentation on "Genderswap and Feminism". Kristina also gave a talk about the OTW for a panel called, "If You Build It, They Will Come: How the Internet Builds Communities Around Fanfic": the full text of this overview is now available online.

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  • Writercon 2009 - A Q & A with TWC's Kristina Busse

    By .fcoppa on Sunday, 3 May 2009 - 1:17am
    Message type:
    Event
    Tags:
    Fan Conventions, Fanfiction , OTW Sightings

    Kristina Busse, co-editor of Fan Fiction and Fan Cultures in the Age of the Internet and one of the editors of Transformative Works and Cultures, was interviewed in a Q & A for the upcoming Writercon 2009, a con dedicated to fannish and original writing. Kristina is going to be one of three special guests at the con, which takes place July 31 through August 2, 2009 in Minneapolis. For more information about Writercon 2009, check out their website or their LiveJournal community. Writercon describes itself as a con "about the writing and the shared love, not shipper politics or the plots of the shows, except as related to the fic. It's about how fan fiction is literature, and it's about showing that it's as worthy as any other genre of writing."

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  • Fanlore Chat Now Open!

    By .fcoppa on Saturday, 4 April 2009 - 7:46pm
    Message type:
    Announcement
    Tags:
    Fan Conventions, Wiki Committee, OTW Sightings

    The Wiki committee is pleased to announce the opening of a permanent chat room for the Fanlore community. You don't need to be a member of OTW to get into the room. It's open to everyone and can be accessed from the Main Page of Fanlore. Best of all, it's open 24 X 7, so it's always there for you to come in and chat about edits and articles with other fans at any time, day or night.

    FYI -- There will be a log of the chats kept, but it will be purged on a periodic basis.

    Other cool things we've done recently include the Fanlore Live panel at Escapade. We invited several fans who have been around a long time (think decades rather than a few years) to talk to us about how they got into fandom. We have our notes put up here. Check it out.

    And be sure to watch this space for more information on participating in our Oral Histories.

    --The Wiki Committee: Rache, Melina, Anatsuno, Betty, Meri

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  • OTW Selected As Designated Charity for Escapade 19

    By .fcoppa on Monday, 16 February 2009 - 5:57pm
    Message type:
    Event
    Tags:
    Fan Conventions, Financial Support

    The OTW is delighted to announce that it has been chosen as the recipient charity for Escapade 19. Escapade is one of the longest running slash cons, held annually in southern California since 1990, and known for the quality of its panel discussions, its vidshow, and its charity art auction. Escapade runs March 6- 8, 2009, and places are still available.

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