Teal Deer: More OTW support.

[wickedwords]

Other people have talked about the Why of OTW for them, and a lot of good ideas have been mentioned: the need for infrastructure; the need for fandom to create their own spaces; the need to remember and the right to not be erased. I think most of us know that we have to do something before some commercial entity comes in and homesteads our territory, relegating us a tiny piece of our land as long as we pony up content and eyeballs that can be sold to some advertiser. I believe that the OTW wants to help create tools to support this, tools that must be consistent, cohesive, and where all the pieces work together. It's not a simple task, and it's not going to work right the moment it comes out of the box, but the group is taking an organic approach, not a waterfall method, and that gives them big bonus points from me. It means a bit of a muddle as things are sorted out, but I'm willing to put up with it, as that's how people work.

Fandom isn't just one voice; there are as many voices as there are fans. It is individuals--obstinate, aggressive, committed and passionate individuals--all of whom want to have a say in the future, and most of whom believe they know the right way to go about it. We argue and fight, we strategize and plan, we dig our heels in and do whatever we were going to do anyway. And sometimes we listen, we think, we feel, and we understand. My belief is that an organization with a committee structure like OTWs can capture more of the main themes of those many thousand voices, as it has so many people out there listening.

Which is why building the archive is so important, and why it's going to take a while before it gets done. The OTW won't force people conform to the software, which is what happens in for-profit development; instead, the design is based around how fans want to use it, making it conform to how we work, and built using volunteer labor. It's organic, user-driver, rather than externally defined. No one is making a profit off of this.

And for this archive to be successful, in my mind, that's the way it has to be. It can't be generic software, where the primary focus is positioning ads; it has to be built from the ground up, because we are the only ones who know how we want to use it, how we define what we want to see. An external company isn't going to provide that for us, not when they're looking for profit; our gift economy makes them anxious, and they have to commoditize us.

Sure we're going to fight about it amongst ourselves, and no, it's not going to fit everyone perfectly; such is the nature of large-scale projects. But for me, I look around and I see an end to my web-hosting fees, the constant pain and dread of updating my own website, and the disappoint I get when looking at a link on delicious and seeing 'too hard to read on this site' displayed. I look at the legal fund and feel reassured that someone is going to support me in the event of a 'fandom.com' tangle. I look at 'not for profit' and think 'gift economy', NPR and Public TV.

When I look at the OTW, I see ideas that matter to me. That's why when I was approached about joining the Wiki committee, I jumped at the chance.


This post is part of Why I Joined OTW Week.

Comments

[kassrachel.livejournal.com]

I think most of us know that we have to do something before some commercial entity comes in and homesteads our territory, relegating us a tiny piece of our land as long as we pony up content and eyeballs that can be sold to some advertiser.

Well-said. :-)

[wickedwords.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I can ramble on at times, so I'm glad this held together.

[ainsley.livejournal.com]

When I read this post, I see a post I could have written and posted while changing a grand total of one word. (Okay, so my post was way less eloquent, but you get the point, I hope.)

[wickedwords.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I'm very prejudiced about how software should be developed, so I was concerned that I was going off on a rant about that. I'm glad that didn't overwhelm the rest of the piece.

[copracat]

I think most of us know that we have to do something before some commercial entity comes in and homesteads our territory

Yes, I want a visible, viable, enduring alternative to enterprises that try to replicate and profit from my hobby and my culture. They're not going to go away, but we can continue to make a place for women like us.

[wickedwords.livejournal.com]

Exactly. Not everyone has to join, of course, but seriously, having an archive, a wiki, an academic journal and a legal fund isn't going to do much harm. It's not like we're sending photocopies of offending works to TPTB or to people's jobs and naming individuals by their RL and Fannish names.

[copracat]

naming individuals by their RL and Fannish names.

I think I may have misunderstood some posters if this is what they mean they say they're worried about outing.

[wickedwords.livejournal.com]

That's the kind of malicious outing I've encountered before in fandom, so that's what I think of when I hear the phrase 'outing'. I'm sure the posters that are throwing the term out there aren't thinking about that part of the equation, but are using the term for that gut-level emotional impact, not getting that fandom has already done this, only much more deliberately and viciously, and targeted specific individuals rather than just a general 'fans exist' sort of thing. They are using the phrase, but not getting that it has already been a reality.

[(Anonymous)]

Fandom isn't just one voice; there are as many voices as there are fans. It is individuals.... My belief is that an organization with a committee structure like OTWs can capture more of the main themes of those many thousand voices, as it has so many people out there listening.

I'm a fan, I'm in fandom, but if I don't identify as female and don't come from a fandom rooted in female media history (hp), how do I fit into OTW's mission, if at all?

At least it will be open source, thats the only thing I appreciate so far.

[wickedwords.livejournal.com]

I get that responding to an anon post is akin to talking just to enjoy the sound of my own voice, but while I do empathize about feeling on the sidelines about this, I don't get where you are coming from on this. The fact that you don't identify as female is fine; I'm not keeping you out of media fandom, nor is the OTW. You don't have to be female or identify as female to be here, so I don't know why that would exclude you from being a part of the organization if you chose to be.

As far as the history goes, well, there are a lot of media fanss in HP and media fandom does have a primarily female history. Now, HP also is a threshold fandom, where a lot of new people came in and didn't hook up with any existing media fans. Those new fans created their own terms and ways of doing things, without any older fans around. If you came into HP on your own and hooked into fandom through oh, ff.net, you are unlikely to have run into pre-existing media fans for a while. Nevertheless, they were there, and as a fandom, HP emcompassed both new and existing fans.

But HP was not the first threshold fandom in the history of media fandom. Star Trek was the first, and there were several waves, including Blake's 7, Beauty and the Beast, XFiles, popslash, Buffy, and Xena. Xena's the fandom that had the most separate community, with its own terms for things like slash (In Xena, this was 'alt' fiction). Xena's female presence was huge, but their community had little in common with pre-existing Media Fandom. In fact, I believe that they were the first fan community to create their own academic journal about fannish interests, 'Woosh'.

'Media Fandom' means pan-fandom, while HP is a single fan community. As such, the term 'media fandom' encompasses HP, while HP itself excludes other communities. Your home community may be the only one you are aware of or identify with, but that doesn't invalidate the existence of the others, nor the need for a term that encompasses them all.

So, based on the fact that you identified yourself as an HP fan, you are defacto a part of Media Fandom, even if you don't identify as female. So how exactly does the OTW exclude you?

[alchemia.livejournal.com]

Actually that was me, not realising that I was logged out, sorry. And yes, I did come in via ffnet.

I've seen others say that hp is not media fandom. For an all encompassing term, i've always seen just "fandom" used.

That other hp fen may also be in fandoms with a female history, doesn't make their history in those other fandoms my history.

I'm not keeping you out of media fandom, nor is the OTW... so I don't know why that would exclude you from being a part of the organization if you chose to be.

I know I could join- but why would I want to?

[wickedwords.livejournal.com]

Fans are always scrambling for the edges, so I'm not surprised that there's a group of people upset about being included in the definition of media fandom. But being included changes nothing about their personal experiences or history, or how they came to be fans or find their corner of fandom. It just means that they are grouped together with other people who have similar interests on a more generic level, and I don't see what's so wrong about that. Everyone is an individual; that doesn't change. But in aggregate, we are a lot more powerful than we are if we just stand alone.

Media fandom is pretty specific, true. It's the umbrella term for fandoms that have fan fiction associated with them, rather than the ones that have organized clubs (such as pop star fan clubs, or the offical NASCAR fan club, etc), while 'fandom' as a lone term encompasses all of them. It's the generic term for people who are fans of some sort of activity.

Fan fiction, IMO, is at the core of Media Fandom, and what makes Media Fandom different from other fandoms. One of the interesting things in following the rock archive group's reaction to OTW has been the distinct lack of ability to find fan fiction written before media fandom fans became involved in the late 70s. So the fandom existed before then, but fan fiction for the rock bands didn't, until some women who can point to their past as media fans got involved. I mean, sure, their were groupie stories, but they were more like penthouse letters, rather than being what we think of as 'fan fiction.'

Honestly, you don't have to join up with OTW and sign something to be called a media fan; that's happening anyway, without anyone's involvement, whenever an article on HP fandom comes out and talks about people writing fan fiction or making vids. You just have less choice and less input when it's outsiders making the call than it is if they go through the OTW, and personally, I am tired of the way media fans are portrayed in the press, because that stereotype is then what is implied about me. And I don't like it, and this way, I can work on doing something about it. It's a way of getting some measure of control.