Don't panic! Livejournal isn't in any imminent danger, despite today's news (many of us here at OTW are archivists, and we know how long it takes for sites, even unattended ones, to degrade.) We'll all still be here tomorrow!

That being said, we do want to remind LJ-based fandom that:

* You can create a User: page for yourself on Fanlore. (All those "If LJ goes away" posts on LJ are kind of useless if LJ actually goes away!) You can put all your pseuds, journals, websites, and other contact info on your User: page, and the wiki is searchable and obviously updatable, so folks will always know where to find you. (See examples here, and there's an easy "create account" link in the left side toolbar of every page.) (Please note that the User: page is different from a regular wiki page. You control the content of your User: page: it's more like a LJ profile page, whereas regular wiki pages about individual fans are collaborative and editable; generally, others will make and edit these pages.)

We've heard from a number of people that YouTube has recently blocked a number of fanvids due to alleged music rights violations. But YouTube also provides a mechanism for vidders to assert their right to fair use: a quick and easy dispute process.

YouTube recognizes that there are legitimate artistic and critical reasons to use copyrighted material, and the online form gives, as a potential reason for dispute: "This video uses copyrighted material in a manner that does not require approval of the copyright holder. It is a fair use under copyright law." The form also asks you to explain further.

Welcome to the last issue of the OTW Newsletter for this year! As of December 19, the OTW committees will be taking a brief break over the holidays, then reconvening after the New Year to start back to work, so we thought we'd take a chance to do an end-of-term roundup for the various committees, focusing on what we've done over the past year and a half.

Committee Updates!

The OTW is proud to be co-sponsoring the 6th annual IP/Gender: Mapping the Connections Symposium at American University Washington College of Law on April 24, 2009. The theme of this year's symposium is Female Fan Cultures and Intellectual Property. Below please find the call for papers; abstracts are due December 19th. If you're interested in attending, the conference is free and open to the public, though registration is required.

The 2008 calendar year is almost over...which means 'tis the season for nonprofit organizations to remind their communities that if you want to deduct a contribution on your 2008 taxes, you'll need to donate by 12/31!

As you're thinking about your end-of-year contributions, we hope you'll keep the OTW in mind. You can make a one-time donation or sign up for an easy recurring donation on our website, here — and if your employer offers matching donations, you might be able to double your donation to the OTW; we're happy to help you figure that out as needed, so please let us know.

Part Two of Henry Jenkins' spotlight on OTW's vidding documentaries for MIT's New Media Literacies project is now online: Fan Vidding: A Labor Of Love (Part Two). We'd like to thank Henry, as well as MIT/NML, for giving us the opportunity to showcase fan vidding.

The Accessibility, Design, & Technology committee needs help! We're coming up on the end of our first term, which means getting all our records in order, and we want ADT to keep coding, so we're looking for people to help them get their meeting notes in order.

No technical knowledge is required--all you need is the ability to summarize a two-hour meeting in a half-page of short, bulleted minutes.

We need five to ten people for the job, and to show our gratitude for your hard work, each one will be paid with a shiny beta account at the Archive of Our Own.

The term ends in two weeks, so hurry hurry hurry. Send us your name and email address!

Vidding News: The OTW wants to announce its support for the EFF's proposed DMCA [Digital Millennium Copyright Act] exemption for video creators--like vidders--who rip DVDs in order to use clips for fair use remixes. Members of the Board provided the EFF with background information on the petition to the copyright office (right-click and save), which explicitly cites fan vidders as an established creative community that relies on clips from DVDs to make works that are fair use: or what the petition calls "fundamentally transformative visual works."

Vidding News: Henry Jenkins has posted part one of his spotlight on the vidding documentaries made by the OTW for MIT's New Media Literacies project. The post, called Fan Vidding: A Labor Of Love (Part One), profiles the first three videos and features excerpts from director (and OTW Board Member) Francesca Coppa. (Fans might also want to check out NML's introductory video on the new media literacies. The rest of the world is finally catching up with fandom; media educators want their students to be able to do what fans do, to know what fans know.)

Welcome to the first December issue of the OTW Newsletter! We're constantly on the lookout for ways to keep fandom up-to-date and informed about what's going on behind the scenes here at OTW, so twice a month, Community Relations compiles updates about what the various committees are working on and we share them here.

All issues of the newsletter will be tagged accordingly, so you can follow our progress chronologically.

Committee Updates!

Welcome to the second November issue of the OTW Newsletter! We're constantly on the lookout for ways to keep fandom up-to-date and informed about what's going on behind the scenes here at OTW, so twice a month, Community Relations compiles updates about what the various committees are working on and we share them here.

All issues of the newsletter will be tagged accordingly, so you can follow our progress chronologically.

Academic Journal Update from mafaldastasi

The TWC academic journal has added Rebecca Lucy Busker to the Symposium team. Welcome, Lucy!

Welcome to the first November issue of the OTW Newsletter! We're constantly on the lookout for ways to keep fandom up-to-date and informed about what's going on behind the scenes here at OTW, so twice a month, Community Relations compiles updates about what the various committees are working on and we share them here.

All issues of the newsletter will be tagged accordingly, so you can follow our progress chronologically.

News: Vidding History Project

The OTW is pleased to announce the release of a series of six short documentaries on vidding made by Francesca Coppa and Laura Shapiro and produced by OTW for MIT's New Media Literacy project. These are part of a larger group of documentaries on remix culture, and the whole series is aimed at middle and high schoolers (so are very introductory to the art of vidding.) You can see these documentaries online here, and the OTW will also be hosting them as part of our new Vidding History project (you'll be hearing more about this in OTW's second year: if anyone wants to work on one of the OTW's vidding projects, please contact the Volunteers committee.)

Committee Updates

Below is the final section of the draft Terms of Service for the Archive of Our Own, and its accompanying FAQs. The earlier sections and their accompanying FAQs can be found on the Archive site (ToS and FAQs).

This is a work-in-progress. We're posting it to get as much feedback as possible. If there's something you don't understand, please ask. We will try to clarify, and possibly add to the FAQ. If there's something you don't like, it would be really helpful if you'd suggest alternatives.

Members of the Content Policy committee will be available to answer questions. Please remember that anonymous comments are disallowed.

Welcome to the second October issue of the OTW Newsletter! We're constantly on the lookout for ways to keep fandom up-to-date and informed about what's going on behind the scenes here at OTW, so twice a month, Community Relations compiles updates about what the various committees are working on and we share them here.

All issues of the newsletter will be tagged accordingly, so you can follow our progress chronologically.

Academic Journal Update from Mafalda Stasi

The academic journal team is writing a FAQ for the OTW Web site.

Submissions are arriving for the academic journal's second issue and are going through blind peer review. The editorial team is actively soliciting content.

Today is the last day of our donations drive. Thank you to everyone who has donated! We appreciate your support so much.

Good news: even though the drive is ending, you can keep on giving even without making a direct donation! We have a fabulous new widget to announce:

I Heart OTW Widget

This is a Firefox extension which adds our referral code when you browse on Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, and Amazon.ca—that is, in the U.S., the U.K., and Canada. (We’re working on adding this functionality in other countries too—stay tuned!)

Call for funds

Last month the OTW launched Fanlore, our wiki, which is being populated with new articles as we speak. The first issue of our journal, Transformative Works and Cultures, launched in mid-September. We have recently launched our new website, which means all OTW members can now access our news service via an RSS feed from our own blog. And the Archive of Our Own has entered limited public beta, and is filling up with stories even now! Four of our big projects have gone from dream to reality. We are so psyched about all of this, we hardly have words to express our squee!

So welcome to our October donations drive! From October 13 to October 20, we invite you to make a donation to the Organization for Transformative Works. Every little bit counts, and whether you’re able to donate $10 or $500, your support means the world to us…and enables us to do the things we do.

It's that time again! As the end of the OTW's first term nears, we will soon begin putting together the next round of committees for our second term, which means we are once again in search of people who are willing to serve.

We did an amazing amount of work during our first term, and we have a lot of things planned for the next, both internally (more comprehensive documentation!) and externally (more features for the archive!) Many of our current committee members will be returning for a second term, and we are looking for enthusiastic, dedicated people to join them.

Welcome to the first October issue of the OTW Newsletter! We're constantly on the lookout for ways to keep fandom up-to-date and informed about what's going on behind the scenes here at OTW, so twice a month, Community Relations compiles updates about what the various committees are working on and we share them here.

All issues of the newsletter will be tagged accordingly, so you can follow our progress chronologically.

We are working to address a problem some users have experienced with getting 404 errors to pages which clearly exist (like blog links from the RSS feed, or menu items.) The temporary solution is to choose a language from the language switcher (even if it's English) and reload the page.

We are testing a solution now, but please, feel free to report any errors you experience. It is particularly helpful if you let us know

• the page you were on before you got the 404 error
• the page you were trying to access when you got the 404 error
• whether you were logged in to the website or not
• whether you had selected a language through the language switcher
• whether you have set preferred languages in your browser, and, if so, which languages
• your browser and operating system (including version numbers)