Communications staffer Claudia Rebaza from the Organization for Transformative Works joins Emily to talk about the world’s largest organization devoted to hosting and preserving fanworks and history.
If you are a fanfiction writer or reader, you probably know about the biggest location for fanfiction on the web: Archive of Our Own, aka., AO3. It’s a free, open source, multifandom archive where people can post, read, and comment on fanfiction. In case you missed it, we talked about it a bit in a previous episode. What you might not know is that it’s under the umbrella of a nonprofit organization called the Organization for Transformative Works that does…well, a lot. Like, a lot, a lot. Emily was fortunate enough to get to speak with Claudia Rebaza from OTW’s communications department about how such a large, multilingual organization, with a worldwide network of volunteers, has kept itself running for nearly fifteen years!
Today’s Featured Organization
The Organization for Transformative Works (OTW) is a nonprofit organization, established by fans in 2007, to provide access to and preserve the history of fanworks and fan culture.
The Archive of Our Own offers a noncommercial and nonprofit central hosting place for fanworks using open-source archiving software.
Their other projects include Fanlore, a wiki devoted to preserving the history of transformative fanworks and the activity in the fanworks they have come from. Legal Advocacy, which is dedicated to protecting and defending fanworks from exploitation and legal challenges; Open Doors, which helps rescue and preserve fanworks at risk of disappearing from the web; and a peer reviewed journal called Transformative Works and Cultures.
Other Links of Interest
- My favorite Instagram account featuring a number of silly/fun aO3 tags—@ao3tagoftheday
- The transcript for this episode
