OMG OTW YEAY!
I've talked quite a lot here about how awesome the OTW is from my POV as a volunteer and staffer. On a personal level, I've gotten so much out of volunteering for the org over the last two years - I've met awesome people, learnt amazing new skills, and challenged myself in a million different ways. But today I want to talk about how kickass the OTW is for me as a fan, because OMG, it is seriously awesome. There are two projects in particular that just make my life better on a daily basis:
Archive of Our Own: Well, okay, this is a given. But seriously, you guys, the AO3 kicks ASS. When people first starting talking about a fan-created archive, I vaguely thought it would be cool but wasn't that fired up about it - my fannish activity was mostly LJ-based and I didn't have a strong vision of what a really cool archive would be like. But now it EXISTS and I get to USE IT and it is BEAUTIFUL! I LOVE the Archive! I love how whenever I fancy reading fic in a particular fandom I can check the AO3 and usually there it is! (Which will only get MORE true as time goes on.) It keeps track of what I have read so my abysmal bookmarking of fics does not result in my being totally unable to ever find stuff again. It lets me download stuff to read later (I am so jazzed that the introduction of this feature coincided with me starting a regular commute)! I really can't believe how much the AO3 actually improves my fannish experience - I started out thinking that the owning of the servers was the main point (and it is a CORE point) but it does so much more! I love it! (Also, btw, I have a bunch of invitations going begging, so if anyone else wants to love it more intimately and needs an account, let me know and I will send you one!)
Transformative Works and Cultures: As an academic and a fan (and to some degree an aca-fan) TWC is the other OTW project that just brings me masses of joy! In so many ways, it brings the fannish chocolate to my academic peanut butter. Most obviously, it is a fabulous venue for academic work relating to fannish things, and there have already been some amazing articles published in the issues so far. I value it as a resource for myself, and I also love that when my students say 'I want to write about fannish things, where should I start' I can point and say 'here is a great jounral with strong credentials'. What's also special to be is the way that it brings fandom and fannish values into the journal, both by having a venue for fannish meta as well as formal academic pieces, and because it is Open Access. As an academic, as a fan and as part of the libraries and archives contingent I am so firmly in support of Open Access journals. I believe they are the only fair and sustainable way of continuing to support journals as a major academic venue: Open Access e-journals relieve universities of crippling subscription fees and make scholarly knowledge available to everyone, not just the people inside a handful of institutions. I am proud to be part of an org which is helping to support this new convention (still controversial, in academia) and I think it's a great illustration of how fannish values enrich other areas.
These amazing projects and all of the other fantastic things the OTW are supported by the hard work of a lot of volunteers. They are also supported by fannish donations! It's only through the incredible generosity of fandom that we've been able to create the infrastructure that supports these endeavours. Fandoms money bought our servers and fandom owns them and runs them!
SO, there are many excellent reasons to donate in the current membership drive! Just $10 is enough to make you a member and give you voting rights so you can influence the direction of the org by voting in Board elections. Which, oh hey, there is a contested election RIGHT NOW, you should totally check out the awesome candidates and then donate so you can vote for your favourite!
If all this isn't enough incentive, there are awesome premiums to be had in return for your donation! And for the first time, cumulative donations count, so if you are like me and cannot afford to stump up $75 in one go, but REALLY want an OTW mug, you can donate a little bit each month and when you hit the $75 you'll get your prize!
GO GIVE US MONEY TO DO MORE AWESOME THINGS!
This entry was originally posted at http://zooey-glass.dreamwidth.org/106933.html. You can comment there using OpenID.
comments so far.
Archive of Our Own: Well, okay, this is a given. But seriously, you guys, the AO3 kicks ASS. When people first starting talking about a fan-created archive, I vaguely thought it would be cool but wasn't that fired up about it - my fannish activity was mostly LJ-based and I didn't have a strong vision of what a really cool archive would be like. But now it EXISTS and I get to USE IT and it is BEAUTIFUL! I LOVE the Archive! I love how whenever I fancy reading fic in a particular fandom I can check the AO3 and usually there it is! (Which will only get MORE true as time goes on.) It keeps track of what I have read so my abysmal bookmarking of fics does not result in my being totally unable to ever find stuff again. It lets me download stuff to read later (I am so jazzed that the introduction of this feature coincided with me starting a regular commute)! I really can't believe how much the AO3 actually improves my fannish experience - I started out thinking that the owning of the servers was the main point (and it is a CORE point) but it does so much more! I love it! (Also, btw, I have a bunch of invitations going begging, so if anyone else wants to love it more intimately and needs an account, let me know and I will send you one!)
Transformative Works and Cultures: As an academic and a fan (and to some degree an aca-fan) TWC is the other OTW project that just brings me masses of joy! In so many ways, it brings the fannish chocolate to my academic peanut butter. Most obviously, it is a fabulous venue for academic work relating to fannish things, and there have already been some amazing articles published in the issues so far. I value it as a resource for myself, and I also love that when my students say 'I want to write about fannish things, where should I start' I can point and say 'here is a great jounral with strong credentials'. What's also special to be is the way that it brings fandom and fannish values into the journal, both by having a venue for fannish meta as well as formal academic pieces, and because it is Open Access. As an academic, as a fan and as part of the libraries and archives contingent I am so firmly in support of Open Access journals. I believe they are the only fair and sustainable way of continuing to support journals as a major academic venue: Open Access e-journals relieve universities of crippling subscription fees and make scholarly knowledge available to everyone, not just the people inside a handful of institutions. I am proud to be part of an org which is helping to support this new convention (still controversial, in academia) and I think it's a great illustration of how fannish values enrich other areas.
These amazing projects and all of the other fantastic things the OTW are supported by the hard work of a lot of volunteers. They are also supported by fannish donations! It's only through the incredible generosity of fandom that we've been able to create the infrastructure that supports these endeavours. Fandoms money bought our servers and fandom owns them and runs them!
SO, there are many excellent reasons to donate in the current membership drive! Just $10 is enough to make you a member and give you voting rights so you can influence the direction of the org by voting in Board elections. Which, oh hey, there is a contested election RIGHT NOW, you should totally check out the awesome candidates and then donate so you can vote for your favourite!
If all this isn't enough incentive, there are awesome premiums to be had in return for your donation! And for the first time, cumulative donations count, so if you are like me and cannot afford to stump up $75 in one go, but REALLY want an OTW mug, you can donate a little bit each month and when you hit the $75 you'll get your prize!
GO GIVE US MONEY TO DO MORE AWESOME THINGS!
This entry was originally posted at http://zooey-glass.dreamwidth.org/106933.html. You can comment there using OpenID.
comments so far.