Transformative works...

[fajrdrako]

Does anyone here know anything about Organization for Transformative Works? Their FAQ is interesting.

Looks interesting. My first impression is that they are presenting themselves as over-serious, but perhaps they feel they must. I like the way this is a new approach to fanfic and other fannish creative projects, solving problems by changing the perspective. And good luck to them.

Comments

[jackarono.livejournal.com]

Sounds good-- a peer-reviewed journal means that grad students can write about US!!!!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Which they have done before and will do again - and if I were a grad student, I might be doing it, too!

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

Or those of us who are professionally trained historians who write in historically-related fandoms because we are angry with what film, tv and published historical fiction can do to history. I'm currently writing an essay (as much for my own fun as anything) about the historical problems with a serial that drove me to fic it. I'm wondering if this might be a suitable outlet.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Now, that's a great idea - a place to put our essays of commentary. I like the idea.

[teaphile.livejournal.com]

I like some of their ideas, but I just can't shake the feeling that they're spoiling for a legal fight and that members will be funding it, possibly under duress.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Well... I'm of two minds here. Members will know what they're getting into, and it's a good fight that needs to be fought, to resolve a conflict that is currently inevitable. (And which quite possibly will be recurring.) In the past, when corporate lawyers try to stomp on a fan, the fan is helpless before their onslaught. This might rectify that - or mitigate it - or at least, it's a heroic attempt.

[teaphile.livejournal.com]

I don't have a problem with fighting the battles as they come up (although I don't quite buy that the fan is helpless -- a C&D order forces you underground again. Big deal. We're not talking about Gordon Lee-type circumstances, here.)

I do have a problem with being forced to pay for someone else's battle, and I just do not trust many of the people involved not to say "pay up or lose your membership, and by the way, we're going to make your name public if you do contribute".

[shrift.livejournal.com]

I'm on staff at the OTW, but I'm only speaking for myself when I say that the OTW is most definitely not spoiling for a legal fight. And that no OTW member would be pressured to fund a legal fight if it happened.

[teaphile.livejournal.com]

Well, some of your early evangelists certainly made it sound that way, and when those same people have also been heavily featured on Fandom Wank, I back away.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Good to hear! Thanks for the reassurance. My impression was not that they were spoiling for a fight, but that they wanted to appear organized and competent.

[commodorified.livejournal.com]

Talk to fairestcat: she's been involved from the get-go.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I was sure someone I knew would be! Thanks.

[puritybrown.livejournal.com]

Oh, they've been around for a while now. More than a year, in fact, although they didn't start out under that name -- at first they were just going to create a central archive for fanfic that was fan-run and fan-owned and thus, unlike LJ, not vulnerable to the owners suddenly panicking and pulling the plug. Their purposes broadened; you can track the shifts in the early posts on the otw_news comm. The whole thing started here on LJ as a pipedream in comments on astolat's journal, and then people started saying "hey, why don't we do this?"

I can only be half-hearted in my support for the OTW, unfortunately. They have nothing but good intentions and their plans are ambitious, which is great. But... in the early days, the organisers trod on a number of fannish toes without seeming to realise it, they showed alarming signs of overestimating their own knowledge of fandom (and mistaking their limited corners of fandom for that mythical beast, Fandom As A Whole), and they didn't always communicate their intentions very well. Given that one of their stated desires was for the OTW to serve as a sort of acceptable public face of fandom -- not an official spokesperson per se, but a visible organisation that, say, newspapers could contact if they wanted an insider opinion -- they didn't seem to be doing too good a PR job among the people they were supposed to be helping. It didn't inspire confidence.

That said, they have also shown signs of learning from their mistakes. And they have Naomi Novik on their committee. Personally I think the Temeraire books are ridiculously overrated, but despite what I think, Novik's still an award-winning and best-selling author, and an intelligent person with connections. I think the OTW is here to stay.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Yes, I'd heard odds and ends about this, then stopped paying attention. I am more impressed now than I was initially. Interesting to see how the project has evolved.

You are perhaps the first person I've heard say that the Temeraire books were overrated - which was more or less my reaction, though I only read the first one so far. More successful in concept than execution, I thought.

Yes, I wish their project well - they seem to be learning as they go, and more power to them.

[puritybrown.livejournal.com]

I started enjoying the first one 50 pages in; struggled through the second (so... much... sailing...); and decided, about 150 pages into the third, that I wasn't actually enjoying it and was thus not obliged to keep reading. I wanted to like them, I really did, and there are things about them that I do like, but overall they leave me cold. They're just not quite clever enough.

[shrift.livejournal.com]

I'm on staff at OTW. If you want to see what we've been up to, you can check out otw_news.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Have signed up to read it!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I'm on staff at OTW.

Cool! That gives me confidence in it, since I respect your brains. (That didn't come out quite the way I meant. Perhaps I meant I respect your judgement? And I don't say that to just anyone!)

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

Interesting. I've signed up for their LJ news. In Values, 2. worries me a bit, though: why make such a big deal of being female? I should prefer a more gender-neutral organisational approach.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

why make such a big deal of being female?

Presumably because some, particularly corporate presences, show disrespect to women and to female-oriented values. (I'm just guessing here.)

[shrift.livejournal.com]

If you want -- totally up to you -- could you explain your worry?

I see it as a statement of fact: historically, the community producing transformative works has been largely female, and also historically, this is unusual. Gender neutral terms would help erase our history as a largely female community.

I should note that the OTW values all fans engaged in transformative work: fans of any gender, race, culture, sexual identity, or ability.

[janne-d.livejournal.com]

Is this seriously the first you've heard of it? There was a whole explosion, hmm, last summer sometime?

If you want to get all sides of the debate on it (and probably really confused) you should check out metafandom's list of OTW related posts (http://del.icio.us/metafandom/otw). A lot of people got very excited - some in a good way, some in a bad way - but there are some good points made on both sides from what I remember.

There were also a lot of very articulate posts by people involved about why they got involved (http://community.livejournal.com/otw_news/tag/discussions:why+we+joined/support) at one point.

Generally speaking, I think it's a good thing and it's very cool that they are trying it. I like the idea of the archive as well.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Is this seriously the first you've heard of it?

No. I heard about it last year. Then promptly forgot all about it.

f you want to get all sides of the debate on it (and probably really confused)

Ah, yes - I seem to spend much time in confusion!

Generally speaking, I think it's a good thing and it's very cool that they are trying it. I like the idea of the archive as well.

Generally speaking, I agree. I admire their courage and enterprise.

[fairestcat]

I'm on the Finance Committee for the Organization for Transformative works. And I am a member as well. I joined on the first day membership was available.

I've been a supporter since the first suggestion of the archive and I've donated a lot of time (and a bit of money) to them already. What do you want to know?

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

commodorified told me you were involved: I have been planning to drop you a line and say "well done, this is well worth doing". I suppose I should simply keep an eye on the website to follow what's going on; no specific question that I couldn't find in the FAQ, I think, though I was wondering about purposes - is the mandate to give fanfic a safe, accessible venue? Or to raise its level of respectability among non-fans? or both?