nerd politics
MIT Director of Comparative Media Studies and my new hero Henry Jenkins just helped deliver a big, cutting edge spanking to a new internet business called FanLib. Fanlib is like livejournal only is geared specifically towards Fan Fiction. Similar to massive social networking hubs like Mypsace, FanLib.com generates $$ from advertising but passes none of this $$ onto its participating constituency. In an inspiringly informative blog documenting his various relations to and interactions with the world of media and technology, Jenkins posted recently about the online fan fiction community’s intense rejoinder to the corporate sector’s latest attempt at commercializing their hobby.
This excites me because I think Fan fiction is a promising example of humanity’s folk tradition sustaining itself. By writing their own unauthorized accounts of pop-culture narratives (ie Star Wars, Star Trek, Lord of the Rings, etc) people are wrestling power away from the giant corporate franchises that lucratively control the content (ie LucasArts, NewLine Cinema) . Also, and I won’t attempt to explain how, the Fan Fic phenomenon makes a unique contribution to exploring society’s sexuality. So it raises all sorts of interesting question concerning copyright protection, audience participation, authorship and gender politics.
First check out FanLib.com CEO (formerly of Google and a guy who claims to’ve been “deeply involved with the ongoing online revolution at Yahoo for a long time”) Chris Williams’s response when their “beta” demographic reacted with scathing negativity (and this he posted on people's livejournals, too):
"hey everyone, I'm Chris one of the founders of FanLib. it's really late and i have been working on the site all day. I'm exhausted but i just realized what was going on here and all of the commentsts are making me sick. we're a small company with 10 emplyees who work 16 hours a day to try and make a great website. we're real people! with feelings and everything! we have been working on this and dreaming about it for a long time and you are just here to shit on it without giving us a chance. i care deeply about what you think but this is crazy. we're good people here and you make us sound like we're an evil corporation or the govt. sending your kids to war or something. we really are all about celebrating fan fiction and fan fiction readers and writers. im sorry this is so short and please excuse the fact that i am cutting and pasting this across a bunch of ljs but i gotta get some sleep."
How desperately is this guy trying to draw a frown on a faceless corporation? It’s laughable. Anyway, Jenkins invited this Fanlib.com exec to an interview on his blog. The guy accepted and the exchange has been published unedited. Can Fanlib.com react with corporate responsibility to a dilemma rooted in our ever transforming media landscape? Find out for yourself at www.henryjenkins.org.
This excites me because I think Fan fiction is a promising example of humanity’s folk tradition sustaining itself. By writing their own unauthorized accounts of pop-culture narratives (ie Star Wars, Star Trek, Lord of the Rings, etc) people are wrestling power away from the giant corporate franchises that lucratively control the content (ie LucasArts, NewLine Cinema) . Also, and I won’t attempt to explain how, the Fan Fic phenomenon makes a unique contribution to exploring society’s sexuality. So it raises all sorts of interesting question concerning copyright protection, audience participation, authorship and gender politics.
First check out FanLib.com CEO (formerly of Google and a guy who claims to’ve been “deeply involved with the ongoing online revolution at Yahoo for a long time”) Chris Williams’s response when their “beta” demographic reacted with scathing negativity (and this he posted on people's livejournals, too):
"hey everyone, I'm Chris one of the founders of FanLib. it's really late and i have been working on the site all day. I'm exhausted but i just realized what was going on here and all of the commentsts are making me sick. we're a small company with 10 emplyees who work 16 hours a day to try and make a great website. we're real people! with feelings and everything! we have been working on this and dreaming about it for a long time and you are just here to shit on it without giving us a chance. i care deeply about what you think but this is crazy. we're good people here and you make us sound like we're an evil corporation or the govt. sending your kids to war or something. we really are all about celebrating fan fiction and fan fiction readers and writers. im sorry this is so short and please excuse the fact that i am cutting and pasting this across a bunch of ljs but i gotta get some sleep."
How desperately is this guy trying to draw a frown on a faceless corporation? It’s laughable. Anyway, Jenkins invited this Fanlib.com exec to an interview on his blog. The guy accepted and the exchange has been published unedited. Can Fanlib.com react with corporate responsibility to a dilemma rooted in our ever transforming media landscape? Find out for yourself at www.henryjenkins.org.