Communications Committee

  • In contact blijven met de OTW

    By Priscilla Del Cima on Sunday, 27 April 2014 - 3:14pm
    Message type:

     

    Banner by Diane with the outlines of a man and woman speaking with word bubbles, one of which has the OTW logo and the other which says 'OTW Announcement'

    Samen met de toename van donaties die de OTW heeft ontvangen tijdens onze campagne in April, hebben we ook nieuwe leden gekregen voor de OTW! Hierom wilden wij graag een update geven over hoe je in contact kan blijven met de OTW, of dat nu direct contact is of alleen het op de hoogte blijven van nieuws van de OTW in haar geheel of haar projecten.

    Officiële vs. Onofficiële Accounts

    Veel mensen kiezen ervoor zich te abboneren op OTW nieuws door ofwel hun social media accounts, of door feed readers. Er zijn echter een aantal belangrijke verschillen tussen deze keuzes, welke zowel het nieuws dat je krijgt als hoe je met ons in contact kunt komen kunnen beinvloeden.

    We hebben een lijst met al onze active accounts op de OTW homepage: transformativeworks.org Echter, soms hebben fans hun eigen feeds opgezet, of zelfs onofficiële accounts, op dezelfde platformen die wij gebruiken. Onofficiële accounts maken soms hun status duidelijk en soms niet, maar hebben over het algemeen iemand die het account onderhoud. Aan de andere kant, feeds zijn zoals televisie uitzendingen -- ze zijn geautomatiseerd, de informatie is alleen tijdelijk beschikbaar, en je kunt ons niet via deze accounts bereiken.

    Officiële accounts ontvangen individuele posts door het Communicatie Comité, en we ontvangen opmerkingen en vragen ingestuurd naar de OTW door deze accounts. Dus als je twijfelt, controleer dan alsjeblieft of het account dat je volgt op de hierboven genoemde lijst staat. Als je niet een van deze accounts volgt, dan volg je geen officieel account.

    Ons Contacteren

    Als je met ons in contact wilt komen, kun je ook onze Contact pagina gebruiken. Als je niet zeker bent naar wie je je vraag moet sturen, probeer dan Communicatie (Communications), en als wij het antwoord niet hebben sturen we je bericht door naar het deel van de OTW dat jou kan helpen.

    De OTW kan worden gecontacteerd in de volgende talen: Arabisch, Catalaans, Chinees, Duits, Engels, Fins, Frans, Hongaars, Indonesisch, Italiaans, Koreaans, Nederlands, Pools, Portugees, Spaans, Swahili, Turks en Zweeds.

    Informatie Vinden

    Een ander nadeel van feed accounts is dat vanwege de gelimiteerde tijd dat posts verschijnen, ze niet doorzoekbaar zijn. Als je eerdere nieuwsposts van de OTW wil vinden, kun je onze homepage bezoeken en de zoekbox rechts bovenin gebruiken.

    Een alternatief is ons OTW Pinboard, dit account levert getagde, zoekbare bladwijzers naar al onze nieuws uitgaves en posts op OTW Nieuws (News), net als van Fanhackers en meer recent nieuws van AO3. De beknopte indeling van de site zorgt ervoor dat je gemakkelijk alles kunt scannen onder een bepaalde tag, zoals al het nieuws over een bepaald project of alles uitgegeven door een bepaald comité.

    Toegang tot onze Accounts

    Wij zijn op de hoogte van het feit dat mensen vaak geblokeerd zijn van het bereiken van onze sites, of dat nu een social media account is of de OTW website zelf. Dit is een van de redenen dat we officiele accounts beheren op verschillende locaties.

    Hoewel voor velen deze restricties misschien opgelegd worden door lokale blokeringen van een school of bedrijf, China’s firewalls blokkeren Facebook, Twitter en Google domeinen, ten voordeel van de lokale sociale netwerken Renren, Weibo, en zoekmachine Baidu. In 2012, blokeerde Rusland per ongeluk alles van LiveJournal door het blokkeren van LJ’s IP adres. Verschillende andere landen blokkeren een of meerdere social media sites of domeinen, zoals Turkije en Vietnam. Echter, soms staan firewalls toe om specifieke onderwerpen en woorden te filteren in plaats van de gehele website te blokkeren.

    Als je niet in staat bent ons te volgen op een bepaald platform, is hopelijk een van onze andere sites dan toegankelijk voor je. Wij onderzoeken altijd extra locaties voor onze officiele accounts om ervoor te zorgen dat we onze fans het beste kunnen bereiken, en je bent welkom ons suggesties te sturen. Hoewel de huidige bemanning en werkdruk ons misschien verhindert van uitbreiding in de nabije toekomst, zullen we je verzoek in gedachten houden als onderdeel van onze lange-termijn planning.

    Promoot ons!

    We hebben recentelijk een aantal vragen ontvangen over promotie afbeeldingen(?) en andere manieren om de OTW te promoten. Je kunt deze vinden onder onze "Hoe te helpen" sectie op onze website. We willen graag wat er nu is bekijken een aanvullen, dus als je ideeën hebt voor inhoud die je graag zou willen zien, specifieke formaten, etc., laat het ons weten!

    En vergeet niet, je kunt altijd onze OTW video delenl!

     

  • إبقى على إتصال بمُنظمة الأعمال التحويلية (OTW)

    By Priscilla Del Cima on Sunday, 27 April 2014 - 3:10pm
    Message type:

     

    Banner by Diane with the outlines of a man and woman speaking with word bubbles, one of which has the OTW logo and the other which says 'OTW Announcement'

    جنباً إلى جنب مع الزيادة في التبرُعات التي وردت إلى OTW خلال حملة شهر أبريل للعضوية، فقد أيضاً حصلنا على أشخاص جدد كأعضاء في OTW! و نتيجة لذلك، أردنا تزويدكم ببعض التحديثات حول كيفية البقاء على إتصال مع OTW، سواء كان ذلك لتواصلك معنا مباشرةً أو لمتابعة الأخبار التي تصدرها OTW عامةً أو مشاريعها.

    الحسابات الرسمية ضد الغير رسمية

    يختار العديد من الأشخاص الإشتراك في أخبار OTW من خلال حسابات تواصل اجتماعي الخاصة بهم أو من خلال الفيد ريدرس (feed readers). و مع ذلك فإن هناك بعض الإختلافات المهمة بين هذه الخيارات، و التي من الممكن أن تؤثر على كلاً من الأخبار التي تصل إليك و كيفية التواصل معنا.

    لدينا قائمة بالحسابات الرسمية على الصفحة الرئيسة ل OTW في transformativeworks.org. بالرغم من ذلك، في بعض الأحيان يقوم المُعجبين بإعداد فيدس (feeds)، أو حتى حسابات غير رسمية، على نفس المنصات التي نستخدمها. الحسابات الغير رسمية في بعض الأحيان تجعل حالتها واضحة حول كونها غير رسمية و في بعض الأحيان لا تفعل ذلك، و لكن عموماً يوجد شخص ما يقوم بتشغيلها. من ناحية أخرى، الفيدس هي مثل البث التلفزيوني — هي آلية، المعلوملت تبقى مؤقتاً فقط، و لا تستطيع التواصل معنا عبر هذه الحسابات.

    تقوم لجنة الإتصالات بالنشر على الحسابات الرسمية بشكل فردي، و نتلقي التعليقات و الأسئلة التي ترد ل OTW من خلال هذه الحسابات. و لذلك إذا شعرت بالشك، من فضلك قم بالتحقق من الحساب الذي تتبعه و مقارنته بالحسابات التي ورد ذكرها في القائمة في الأعلى. إذا كنت غير مشترك بإياً منها، فأنت لا تتبع الحساب الرسمي.

    التواصل معنا

    إذا أردت التواصل معنا، يمكنك أيضاً إستخدام صفحة تواصل معنا الخاصة بنا. إذا كنت غير متأكد لمن يجب أن توجه سؤالك، حاول التواصل مع لجنة الإتصالات، و إذا لم تكون لدينا إجابة فسوف نقوم بإرسال رسالتك للقسم الذي سيستطيع مساعدتك في OTW.

    تستطيع التواصل مع OTW مستخدماً اللغات التالية: العربية، الكتالونية، الصينية، الهولندية، الإنجليزية، الفنلندية، الفرنسية، الألمانية، الهنغارية، الإندونيسية، الإيطالية، الكورية، البولندية، البرتغالية، الإسبانية، السواحيلية، السويدية، التركية.

    الحصول على معلومات

    عيب آخر لحسابات الفيد هي الوقت المحدود الذي ستظهر المشاركات عليه، و كونها غير قابلة للبحث عنها لذلك. إذا كنت ترغب في إيجاد مشاركات أخبار سابقة من OTW، يمكنك زيارة صفحتنا الرئيسية و إستخدام صندوق البحث في أعلى الجانب الأيمن.

    بالتناوب حساب OTW ل بينبورد (Pinboard) يقوم بتوفير إشارات موسومة و قابلة للبحث لكل النشرات الإخبارية و المشاركات عن أخبار OTW، و كذلك عن هاكرز أخبار المُعجبين (Fanhackers) و الأخبار الجديدة عن الأرشيف من جانبنا (AO3). شكل الموقع المُقتضب يسمح لك بفحص كل شيء بسهولة تحت وسم محدد، مثل كل الأخبار عن مشروع معين أو أي شيء آخر يتم العمل عليه من قبل لجنة معينة.

    الولوج لحساباتنا

    نحن على دراية بأن بعض الأشخاص محظورون من الولوج لمواقعنا، سواء كانت حسابات وسائل الإعلام أو موقع OTW نفسه. و هذا واحد من الأسباب لماذا ننشأ حسابات رسمية في مواقع متعددة.

    في حين أن بعض هذه القيود قد تكون بسبب حظر موضعي من مدرسة أو مكان عمل، جدران الحماية (firewalls) في الصين قامت بحجب الفيس بوك (Facebook)، تويتر (Twitter)، و نطاقات جوجل (Google)، لصالح الشبكات الإجتماعية المحلية رينرين (Renren)، ويبو (Weibo)، و محرك البحث بايدو (Baidu). في عام ٢٠١٢، قامت روسيا بفرض رقابة على لايف جورنال (LiveJournal) بدون قصد من خلال منع عنوان IP الخاص بلايف جورنال. العديد من البلدان الأخرى تقوم بحظر واحد أو أكثر من موقع وسائل إعلام أو نطاق مثل تركيا و فيتنام. بالرغم من ذلك، في بعض الأحيان جدران الحماية تسمح بفلترة مواضيع و كلمات معينة بدلاً من حجب المواقع بالكامل.

    إذا لم تستطع إتباعنا على واحد من المنصات، نأمل أن يكون واحد من مواقعنا الأخرى متاح لك. نحن دائماً نختبر أماكن إضافية لحساباتنا الرسمية من أجل الوصول إلى المُعجبين على أفضل نحو، و نحن ندعوك لإرسال إقتراحتك. بالرغم من أن الطاقم أو كمية العمل الحالي قد لا تسمح لنا بالتمدد في المستقبل القريب، و لكننا سنقوم بمراعاة الطلبات كجزء من التخطيط على المدى الطويل.

    الترويج لنا!

    في الآونة الأخيرة لدينا بعض الأسئلة عن الجرافيك الترويجية و الطرق الأخرى لترويج OTW. يمكنك إيجاد هذه في قسم "كيف يمكنك المساعدة" في موقعنا. نحن نرغب في المراجعة و الإضافة إلى ما هو موجود هناك، و لذلك إذا كان لديك أي أفكار أخرى حول المحتوى ترغب في جعله متاح، أو أحجام معينة، إلخ، قم بإعلمنا!

    و لا تنسى، يمكنك دائماً مشاطرة الفيديو الخاص ب OTW أيضاً!

     

  • Staying in Touch with the OTW

    By Priscilla Del Cima on Sunday, 27 April 2014 - 3:09pm
    Message type:

    Banner by Diane with the outlines of a man and woman speaking with word bubbles, one of which has the OTW logo and the other which says 'OTW Announcement'

    Along with the increase in donations the OTW received during our April drive, we also got new people in as members of the OTW! As a result, we wanted to provide an update on how you can stay in touch with the OTW, whether it's to contact us directly or just keep up on news from the OTW at large or its projects.

    Official vs. Unofficial Accounts

    Many people choose to subscribe to OTW news through either their social media accounts or through feed readers. There are some important differences to these choices, though, which can affect both the news you receive and how you can get in touch with us.

    We list all our active accounts on the OTW homepage at transformativeworks.org. However, sometimes fans have set up feeds, or even unofficial accounts, on the same platforms we use. Unofficial accounts sometimes make that status clear and sometimes they don't, but they generally have someone running them. On the other hand, feeds are like television broadcasts -- they are automated, the information only stays up temporarily, and you can't contact us from those accounts.

    Official accounts are individually posted to by the Communications Committee, and we receive comments and questions submitted to the OTW through those accounts. So if you're in doubt, please check the account you're following compared to the accounts listed at the link above. If you're not subscribed to one of those, you are not following an official account.

    Contacting Us

    If you want to get in touch with us, you can also use our Contact Us page. If you're not sure who to direct your question to, try Communications, and if we don't have the answer we can send your message on to the OTW section that can help you.

    The OTW can be contacted in all of the following languages: Arabic, Catalan, Chinese, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Turkish.

    Finding Information

    Another drawback to feed accounts is that due to the limited time that posts appear on them, they are not searchable. If you would like to find previous news posts from the OTW, you can visit our homepage and use the searchbox in the upper right corner.

    Alternately, our OTW Pinboard account provides tagged, searchable bookmarks to all our news releases and posts on OTW News, as well as from Fanhackers and more recent news from AO3. The brief format of the site allows you to easily scan everything under a particular tag, such as all news from a particular project or anything put out by a particular committee.

    Access to Our Accounts

    We are aware that people are often blocked from accessing our sites, whether it's a social media account or the OTW website itself. This is one of the reasons why we maintain official accounts in multiple locations.

    While for many these restrictions may be due to local blocks from a school or business, China's firewalls block Facebook, Twitter and Google domains, in favor of homegrown social networks Renren, Weibo, and search engine Baidu. In 2012, Russia accidentally censored all of LiveJournal by blocking LJ's IP address. Various other countries block one or another social media site or domain such as Turkey and Vietnam. However, sometimes firewalls allow filtering for specific topics and words rather than necessarily blocking entire websites.

    If you are unable to follow us at one platform, hopefully another one of our sites will be available to you. We are always examining additional locations for official accounts in order to best reach fans, and you are welcome to send us suggestions. Although current staffing or workloads may prevent us from expanding in the near future, we will keep requests in mind as part of long-term planning.

    Promoting us!

    We've had a few questions recently about promotional graphics and other ways to promote the OTW. You can find those under our "How to help" section on our website. We'd like to review and add to what's there, so if you have any ideas about content you'd like to have available, particular sizes, etc., let us know!

    And don't forget, you can always share the OTW video as well!

     

  • Help out Support, Translation, and Communications!

    By Claudia Rebaza on Monday, 17 February 2014 - 6:23pm
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    Banner by Erin of a close-up of Rosie the Riveter's arm with an OTW logo on it and the words 'OTW Recruitment'

    We would like to thank everyone who responded to our previous call for Translation Committee Staff, Development & Membership Committee Staff and Communications AD&T Liaisons.

    Today, we're excited to announce the opening of applications for:

    • Support Committee Staff - Applications accepted until 24 February 2014
    • Translator Volunteers - Applications accepted until 24 February 2014
    • Communications Graphics Volunteers - Applications accepted until 24 February 2014

    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.

    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 -(at)- transformativeworks -(dot)- 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.

    If you have questions regarding volunteering for the OTW, check out our Volunteering FAQ.

    Support Committee Staff The Support Committee handles communication between users and the various teams involved with the Archive of Our Own. We receive questions and ideas about all aspects of the Archive from users. The Support team helps by answering questions about using the Archive, diagnosing issues, documenting bugs for the coders to address, getting the most out of features like skins or challenges, passing on questions about tags to the wranglers, documenting requests for new or improved features, or getting answers about general policy.
    Applications are due 24 February 2014

    Translator Volunteers Translators and translation betas help make the OTW and its projects accessible to a wider international audience. We work on translating all sorts of content throughout the OTW and its projects: site pages, news posts, Archive FAQs, AO3 Support tickets, and any inquiry that reaches a committee or volunteer group in languages they can’t translate themselves. Most of our work consists of translations from English to another language, though we also need to do the reverse in some occasions.

    If you are fluent in one language (or more!) other than English, if you enjoy working collaboratively, if you like having flexible deadlines that you set yourself, if you’re passionate about the OTW and its projects, and want to help it reach more fans all around the world, working with Translation might be for you! We have a pressing need for volunteers who speak Dutch, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Swedish and Turkish — but any and all help with other languages would be much appreciated!
    Applications are due 24 February 2014

    Communications Graphics Volunteers
    Communications has primary responsibility for internal and external communication for the OTW. We manage the OTW blog and social media outlets and assist other teams in managing project-specific communication. We’re currently looking for someone to create graphics to accompany our news posts and for special events. Please see our News page for examples. If you have experience with graphic design or fanart, click through to learn more about the role and apply to join as a Communications Volunteer. Applications are due 24 February 2014.

  • Help the OTW Grow! Volunteer Today

    By Claudia Rebaza on Monday, 20 January 2014 - 4:59pm
    Message type:

    Banner by Erin of a close-up of Rosie the Riveter's arm with an OTW logo on it and the words 'OTW Recruitment'

    Today, we're excited to announce the opening of applications for:

    • Development & Membership Committee Staffer - 27 January 2014

    • Translation Committee Staffer - 27 January 2014
    • Communications Committee: AD&T Liaison - open until filled

    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 -(at)- transformativeworks -(dot)- 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.

    If you have questions regarding volunteering for the OTW, check out our Volunteering FAQ.

    Development & Membership Committee Staffer
    The Development & Membership committee (DevMem) coordinates the OTW's fundraising and membership-building activities. Our work includes planning membership drives, designing a convention outreach process, answering questions from donors, and exploring new fundraising opportunities. If you have skills and interests in fundraising, writing or designing promotional content, or customer service, consider applying to join our staff.

    Applications are due 27 January 2014

    Translation Committee Staffer
    The Translation Committee coordinates localization efforts across the OTW: the translation of site pages, news posts, Archive FAQs, AO3 Support tickets, and any inquiry that reaches a committee or volunteer group in languages they can’t translate themselves. While volunteers do the actual text translation and editing, staff helps them by keeping track of priorities, deadlines and pending tasks; assigning work; talking and working with other committees to arrange tools for the volunteers; uploading translated documents; writing training and procedures documentation; and many other tasks involved in managing a wide, diverse and very active volunteer pool.

    If you enjoy teamwork, if you like organizing, writing documentation and working with people, if you’re passionate about the OTW and its projects, and want to help us reach more fans all around the world, working with Translation might be for you!

    Applications are due 27 January 2014

    Communications Committee: AD&T Liaison

    Communications staffers are responsible for the distribution of information internally to OTW personnel and externally to the general public, the media, fans, and other fannish organizations. Communications is also typically the first point of contact for someone interested in or wanting help from OTW.

    The position of AD&T liaison requires an individual with an interest in technical writing to help maintain that area of our communications and outreach strategy. If you are interested in the behind-the-scenes development of an open-source project, and would like to help us create and share news about the AO3, this is the position for you!

    Applications will be accepted until the role is filled.

  • Looking for a Communications-AO3 Liaison

    By Claudia Rebaza on Monday, 26 August 2013 - 2:52pm
    Message type:

    We would like to thank everyone who responded to our previous call for Web Developer Staff and Open Doors Staff.

    Today, we're excited to announce the opening of applications for:

    • Communications Staff: AD&T Liaison - applications accepted until September 2

    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 -(at)- transformativeworks -(dot)- 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.
    If you have questions regarding volunteering for the OTW, check out our Volunteering FAQ.

    Communications Staff: AD&T Liaison: Communications staffers are responsible for the distribution of information internally to OTW personnel and externally to the general public, the media, fans, and other fannish organizations. Communications is also typically the first point of contact for someone interested in or wanting help from OTW.

    The position of AD&T liaison requires an individual with experience/interest in technical writing to help maintain that area of our communications and outreach strategy. If you know about the behind-the-scenes development of an open-source project, and are interested in helping us create and share news about the AO3, this is the position for you! Applications are due September 2.

  • Spotlight on Communications

    By Claudia Rebaza on Monday, 5 August 2013 - 6:09pm
    Message type:

    The Communications committee serves as the main facilitator of information for the OTW. Since there's never been a spotlight done on how the Communications Committee works, new staffers Veronica Pole and John Bayard have created a list of some questions and answers that they themselves had when joining the organization, which other people might have as well.

    Veronica describes herself as your average, British, internet-addicted, teen into adult, although perfectly in touch with her inner child. She became a part of the OTW because of her interest in fan fiction, reading, and writing.

    John became involved with OTW’s Communication committee because of his interest in Copyright law and its interaction with fandom. John works as an attorney and currently resides in the Philadelphia area in the U.S.

    They worked together with Claudia Rebaza, one of the committee's co-chairs, to provide the answers.

    Q1: What is the Communications committee?

    A1: Communications (also known as "Comms") is concerned with organizing communication internally among committees and workgroups, and also between the OTW and the 'outside world'. It serves various audiences including staff and volunteers in the OTW; fans and users of the OTW's projects; international media; and contacts from the general public or other organizations.

    Q2: What sorts of people work for Comms and what do they do?

    A2: There have been many people involved in Communications, from all over the world, and from different cultures and backgrounds. Everyone plays their own part in the committee and they have different skills that they bring to it.

    As in the rest of the OTW, one can be in either a volunteer or staffer role. Comms recruited for both positions in the past months. Volunteers generally focus on only one particular task (such as creating artwork) and have more limited responsibilities to the committee.

    Staffers help guide the committee's work, whether through taking on particular tasks such as drafting newsletters; doing beta reading; writing a Spotlight post!; working directly with other committees; or discussing broader policy issues in the OTW that involve communications.

    Q3: How does the Communications Committee interact with other OTW committees?

    A3: Communications works with other committees in the OTW in both short term and ongoing ways. For ongoing work there are liaison positions so that Comms can stay up to date on developments in those committees that should be publicized. These liaisons attend meetings or read meeting minutes of the committees they're assigned to, and they help draft reports or posts for those committees. They may also be the person responsible for communicating on that project's Twitter outlets.

    Short term work may involve taking part in multi-committee discussions that involve communicating to the public; developing policies that relate to internal communication; or creating online events to celebrate or publicize an OTW accomplishment.

    Q4: What recent projects has the Communications committee been working on?

    A4: Some work comes to Comms and other projects are work that Comms develops. For example, in May OTW staffers were interviewed by news outlets about the OTW's stance towards Kindle Worlds and similar efforts to commercialize fanfiction, and requests on this topic continue to come in. Comms is responsible for either answering incoming questions or forwarding them on to other people or committees in the organization who can provide the answer.

    Comms has also worked with other committees to highlight Fanlore's recent milestone and the OTW's Annual Report, which Comms compiles along with the OTW Board.

    Two projects that Comms plans to develop in the coming year involve celebrations for AO3's 1 millionth fanwork milestone, and a podcasting project that will explain the OTW's activities and internal functions.

    Q5: If I want to learn more or join the Communications Committee, what is the best way to contact them?

    A5: Comms is the default contact point for the OTW and you can message them through their contact form on the OTW website.

    People rotate in and out of the OTW so there will be ongoing searches for new staffers or volunteers as new needs arise or positions open up. There is a "Curently Recruiting" box on the OTW website that lists any open positions, and posts are made through OTW News whenever new positions are available. So just subscribe to OTW News through your preferred online platform to stay up to date!

  • OTW Tumblr passes 1000 Followers!

    By Claudia Rebaza on Tuesday, 30 July 2013 - 6:19pm
    Message type:

    OTW News can be found in multiple places online. One of our more recent outlets kicked off in May of 2012 on Tumblr. Since then two members of our Communications Committee, Nistasha Perez and Rachel G., have served as editor and artist for its content, particularly its Fandom First Friday (FFF) events.

    On Sunday, July 28th, peaceful_fury became our Tumblr's 1000th follower and we're holding a special FFF event to celebrate the milestone. If you're already on Tumblr, follow us! And if you're not, stop by our account anyway on Friday to share in the fun.

  • San Diego Comic Con Recap

    By Claudia Rebaza on Wednesday, 24 July 2013 - 6:48pm
    Message type:

    The following post was written by Heidi Tandy from our Legal Committee, who represented the OTW at Comic Con

    Were you at Comic-Con this past weekend, or did you follow the online news, announcements, surprise appearances, news leaks, first reactions and photos that covered Twitter, tumblr, Instagram, blogs, Facebook and journaling sites -- and inspired nearly a dozen fics on An Archive Of Our Own?

    The OTW was on site in San Diego, covering Comic-Con for the first time with a small team of reporters and bloggers; we couldn't be everywhere (although none of us slept much) so we'd love to hear your stories and see your photos! Please link to them in comments; if you'd like us to include your pics, please share only photos where the people visibly pictured are on a panel, are celebrities, or have given permission for you to share the photo with us at OTW to use on the site.

    A Meetup Of Our Own

    Team OTW met many of you at A Meetup Of Our Own on Wednesday night, where we chatted about fandom, panels we most wanted to see at Comic Con, strategies for coping with the lines for autographs and to get into Hall H and Ballroom 20, and whether we'd get to see sneak previews of shows and films, or advanced copies of books, comics, games and toys. Authors Scott Westerfeld and Sarah Kuhn joined the party, and it was a relaxing way to get ready for the excitement and frenzy of the next few days.

    Day 1 - Getting Connected


    Sherlock cosplayers

    On Thursday, some of the longest lines were for HASBRO exclusives, Marvel's "Coulson Lives!" t-shirts and Ballroom 20, where two shows - Intelligence and Star Crossed - were showing pilots before the Sherlock panel. Hall H was comparatively quiet. Before the doors opened for panels and presentations, we met fans in long and short lines, talked to costumed attendees about gender-swap cosplay, ran through a few rounds of Cards Against Humanity and looked over the schedule of events. This year, moreso than ever before, attendees with smartphones - or even just text messaging plans - were able to know what was going on at the other end of the con via Twitter or find out about last minute offsite event guests, like Tom Hiddleston on Sunday afternoon at Zachary Levi's NerdHQ. @HallHLine and @Ballroom20, as well as organizational Twitter accounts like OutsideComicCon and SD_Comic_Con and panelist accounts like Marvel's @AgentM and @GeekandSundry were continuous sources of information this year.

    Day 2 -- Fanworks On Display


    An audience of fanfiction lovers!

    On Friday afternoon, an overflow crowd gathered at the "Why Fanfiction Is Taking Over the World" panel. Fanart has become commonplace at SDCC, as Marvel hosted a fanart gallery at the offsite Geek & Sundry location.


    Video screen at the FOX booth

    FOX's booth showcased Teen Wolf fanart and memes during the actors' signing while BBCAmerica did similarly at their offsite Doctor Who meetup. DeviantART sponsored Artists' Alley and some of their staff were featured on various panels. But while many of the authors at signings and on panels at SDCC have backgrounds in fanfic, only the general Fanfiction panel on Friday and a Twilight panel of fanfic writers spent full sessions on fanfiction. However, people in lines and in rooms between panels read stories on their smartphones, tablets and laptops, sharing recommendations with and occasionally reading aloud to those sitting near them.


    "How It Should Have Ended" creators interview

    Simply connecting with the people in line around you was a great way to learn more about fellow attendees' fannish pursuits during the other 51 weeks of the year. Presenters like the team behind the "How It Should Have Ended" videos talked to us about their unexpected transition from fanboys and fangirls to creators of a webseries that people - including Damon Lindelof - are now fans of.

    Indie movies played almost around the clock at the Marriott, and Rob Benedict of Felicity and Supernatural premiered Sidekicks, a film impacted by his experiences interacting with fans of that show at cons over the years. Gingerhaze, who's well known for her original art as well as her fanart, created awesome, inspired drawings at the BOOM! booth just opposite Marvel's massive signing-and-selling-and-celebrating area. Felicia Day celebrated strong female characters, Neil Gaiman hugged MarkDoesStuff and praised his read-alongs, and John Barrowman fanboyed everything (except Stephen Moffat, it seems).

    For many, Friday included a Veronica Mars experience, as the show-turned-movie took over Hall H in the middle of the day, as well as a Horton Plaza movie theater that night. The film is currently the largest Kickstarter-funded project, as it brought together thousands of fans and millions of dollars to partially fund the cost of this major motion picture. (See the cast panel entrance) Perhaps because of Kickstarter's impact on a range of fandoms, this year Comic Con included more panels than ever on crowd-funding, self-marketing and transitioning to professional writing, costuming and art.

    Days 3 and 4 - From the Creator Side

    Team OTW spent much of Saturday and Sunday talking to fans in lines, outside panel rooms, and amid all that, we were also in the press rooms, interviewing the creators and casts of Almost Human, Lost Girl, Adventure Time, The Originals (with a question to Julie Plec about The Tomorrow People, too), Supernatural, Teen Wolf and Black Sails. We asked casts and showrunners about how they're inspired by fan creativity, why they think their shows inspire fans, and how they look at fan reactions, legal issues and social media. We'll be bringing you excerpts from these conversations over the next week.


    "Grrls Fall In Love" panel with Veronica Wolff (The Watchers), Ally Condie (Matched), Holly Black (The Coldest Girl in Coldtown), Veronica Roth (Divergent), Marissa Meyer (Scarlet) and Lissa Price (Starters) with Sherri Smith (Orleans) moderating

    While we went to Comic-Con with a plan to focus our attention on fan creativity and legal issues, random bits of "entertainment news" fell into our laps, and we had to make spontaneous decisions about how to share such news, while keeping OTW's coverage itself focused on stories related to our mission, site and advocacy issues.

    If you were at Comic-Con or the OTW Meetup, we'd love to hear from you, and include your words, images, and videos in our coverage and collections. Comment with links to your posts or videos, or to photos of yourself or panelists. If you're including people other than yourself and/or panelists in your links, please make sure you have the permission of anyone whose face can be seen in the photo.

  • ComicCon Event Reminder

    By Claudia Rebaza on Wednesday, 10 July 2013 - 6:02pm
    Message type:

    The OTW is hosting a party on Wednesday, July 17, 8:00-9:30 p.m. PDT at the Tequila Bar & Grille at the San Diego Marriott Marquis & Marina (333 West Harbor Drive, San Diego, CA 92101 map and directions here. There will be complimentary margaritas, sodas, chips & salsa, a few rounds of Cards Against Humanity, giveaways and other meet & greet moments designed to welcome everyone to San Diego and Comic Con.

    We're requesting a voluntary donation of $5 to attend. You don't need to be attending Comic Con to join us, although the Marriott is adjacent to the Convention Center so anyone coming from the off-site SDCC hotels via Con Bus can reach it easily.

    If you're planning to attend, you can RSVP or just stop by if you're in town. If you have any questions, leave them here!

    Now that the con's program schedule is available we are still looking for news coverage suggestions from readers. Some fandoms that will be covered include: Veronica Mars, Divergent, Hunger Games, The Mortal Instruments, Supernatural, and Marvel's Winter Soldier. However there are also possibilities for doing interviews with authors, comic book and merchandise artists who are on the exhibition floor but not necessarily in a panel. If you have suggestions, please leave them here!

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