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Thursday, June 15th, 2023
| Time | Event |
| 5:54p | May 2023 Newsletter, Volume 178
I. BOARD OF DIRECTORS UPDATESThe Board knows that it needs to improve its internal and external communication about updates on ongoing work and we have published an update on the commitments we've made in 2020 to combat racism in our platforms. We completely understand that it's often frustrating for volunteers and fans alike when various discussions and projects take a long time to move forward. The Board will do its best to provide ongoing updates on these projects. We have also scheduled a public meeting on the 2nd of July at 20:00 UTC (What time is that for me?), where anyone present will be welcome to ask any questions you may have. The meetings are held in the OTW Board's Discord server. On the topic of AI, we've published a news post clarifying our current stance on AI and data scraping, as well as the actions we've taken regarding data scraping of AO3 works so far. At the moment, the Archive's Terms of Service do not forbid works created (fully or partly) with the use of AI tools. In December 2022, the AO3 development team deployed code disallowing Common Crawler, the scraper for datasets used to train ChatGPT and others, from collecting data on the Archive. Please access AI and Data Scraping on the Archive to read more about this topic. On the subject of efforts towards combating harassment, racism and bigotry on our website and organization, last year, the Board recruited a Diversity Consultant Research Officer, with the task of gathering information on the OTW's requirements for a Diversity Consultant, contacting prospective companies that are suitable for our characteristics as an organization, and presenting candidates for the Board to select. The officer is currently interviewing OTW volunteers and making a list of likely firms for the OTW to approach. Another ongoing process towards this same goal is a review of AO3's Terms of Service, which started in 2020. While the review is still in progress, the Policy & Abuse and Legal teams have agreed on some changes about harassment in general, and about works created with the clear intent of making AO3 unwelcoming, which we believe will be valuable in protecting fans of color against racist harassment in the future. II. AT THE AO3In May, Open Doors completed the import of Viggorli Secret Santa, a Lord of the Rings RPS fanfiction gift exchange focused on the Viggo Mortensen/Orlando Bloom pairing. Open Doors also announced the import of The Weir/McKay Fanfiction Archive, a Stargate Atlantis fanfiction archive. Policy & Abuse received "just" 1999 tickets in April! We like nice, even numbers, but 1999 is a nice number, too. At the time of this writing, Support's tickets were trending a little bit lower in May, with a projected total of around 1500 seeming likely. Meanwhile, in April, Tag Wrangling wrangled more than 472,000 tags across more than 57,000 fandoms, more than a thousand tags per active wrangler! III. FANLORE OUTREACHMay was a busy month for Fanlore. Its editing chat in its Discord server, focused on link archiving, was a big success. Thanks to everyone who took part! Also in May, Fanlore celebrated Comics Month across its social channels. Check out the pages highlighted on the Fanlore Tumblr page. It's not too late to join in Fanlore's recent activities! Its annual Fanlore Bingo Challenge is in full swing from Monday, June 5, to Sunday, June 18, and the theme is Fruits & Veggies! Any Fanlore visitors and editors, new and old alike, are invited to participate. Fanlore also has a brand new help page, Help:Professional_Fanworks. IV. BOARD OF DIRECTORS ELECTIONElections is busy preparing for the 2023 election season! The Board of Directors approved an update to Elections' eligibility requirements in May to specify that all candidates must be 18 at the time they declare their candidacy. If you'd like to vote this year, the deadline to become a member is June 30th. To be eligible for membership, you must make a donation of at least $10 USD between July 1, 2022, and June 30, 2023, and check the Yes box to specify you want to become a member. If your donation receipt indicates you checked No to membership, you can still get in touch with the Development & Membership committee via our contact form and request your donation record be updated so you can vote this year! V. ELSEWHERE AT THE OTWDevelopment & Membership is starting convention outreach work. Its first outing this year was at Eurocon in Sweden on June 8-11. Legal worked with Communications to draft the June edition of the OTW Signal, focused on the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in the fair use case of Goldsmith v. Warhol. While the case did not come out the way that the OTW advocated for, its holding is limited and unlikely to have an impact on fanworks, especially noncommercial fanworks. Finally, TWC recently announced a new special issue on AI and Fandom submissions close Jan 1, 2024. TWC is also still accepting submissions for its special issue on Centering Blackness in Fan Studies until July 1, 2023. VI. IT'S ALL ABOUT THE PEEPSFrom 25 April to 24 May, Volunteers & Recruiting received 85 new requests, and completed 68, leaving us with 73 open requests (including induction and removal tasks listed below). As of 24 May 2023, the OTW has 916 volunteers. \o/ Recent personnel movements are listed below. New Committee Chairs: Claudia Rebaza & Eskici (Communications) Departing Committee Chairs: Jess Hindes & Kirsten Korona (Communications) For more information about the purview of our committees, please access the committee listing on our website. The Organization for Transformative Works is the non-profit parent organization of multiple projects including Archive of Our Own, Fanlore, Open Doors, Transformative Works and Cultures, and OTW Legal Advocacy. We are a fan run, entirely donor-supported organization staffed by volunteers. Find out more about us on our website. |
| 5:54p | May 2023 Newsletter, Volume 178
I. BOARD OF DIRECTORS UPDATESThe Board knows that it needs to improve its internal and external communication about updates on ongoing work and we have published an update on the commitments we've made in 2020 to combat racism in our platforms. We completely understand that it's often frustrating for volunteers and fans alike when various discussions and projects take a long time to move forward. The Board will do its best to provide ongoing updates on these projects. We have also scheduled a public meeting on the 2nd of July at 20:00 UTC (What time is that for me?), where anyone present will be welcome to ask any questions you may have. The meetings are held in the OTW Board's Discord server. On the topic of AI, we've published a news post clarifying our current stance on AI and data scraping, as well as the actions we've taken regarding data scraping of AO3 works so far. At the moment, the Archive's Terms of Service do not forbid works created (fully or partly) with the use of AI tools. In December 2022, the AO3 development team deployed code disallowing Common Crawler, the scraper for datasets used to train ChatGPT and others, from collecting data on the Archive. Please access AI and Data Scraping on the Archive to read more about this topic. On the subject of efforts towards combating harassment, racism and bigotry on our website and organization, last year, the Board recruited a Diversity Consultant Research Officer, with the task of gathering information on the OTW's requirements for a Diversity Consultant, contacting prospective companies that are suitable for our characteristics as an organization, and presenting candidates for the Board to select. The officer is currently interviewing OTW volunteers and making a list of likely firms for the OTW to approach. Another ongoing process towards this same goal is a review of AO3's Terms of Service, which started in 2020. While the review is still in progress, the Policy & Abuse and Legal teams have agreed on some changes about harassment in general, and about works created with the clear intent of making AO3 unwelcoming, which we believe will be valuable in protecting fans of color against racist harassment in the future. II. AT THE AO3In May, Open Doors completed the import of Viggorli Secret Santa, a Lord of the Rings RPS fanfiction gift exchange focused on the Viggo Mortensen/Orlando Bloom pairing. Open Doors also announced the import of The Weir/McKay Fanfiction Archive, a Stargate Atlantis fanfiction archive. Policy & Abuse received "just" 1999 tickets in April! We like nice, even numbers, but 1999 is a nice number, too. At the time of this writing, Support's tickets were trending a little bit lower in May, with a projected total of around 1500 seeming likely. Meanwhile, in April, Tag Wrangling wrangled more than 472,000 tags across more than 57,000 fandoms, more than a thousand tags per active wrangler! III. FANLORE OUTREACHMay was a busy month for Fanlore. Its editing chat in its Discord server, focused on link archiving, was a big success. Thanks to everyone who took part! Also in May, Fanlore celebrated Comics Month across its social channels. Check out the pages highlighted on the Fanlore Tumblr page. It's not too late to join in Fanlore's recent activities! Its annual Fanlore Bingo Challenge is in full swing from Monday, June 5, to Sunday, June 18, and the theme is Fruits & Veggies! Any Fanlore visitors and editors, new and old alike, are invited to participate. Fanlore also has a brand new help page, Help:Professional_Fanworks. IV. BOARD OF DIRECTORS ELECTIONElections is busy preparing for the 2023 election season! The Board of Directors approved an update to Elections' eligibility requirements in May to specify that all candidates must be 18 at the time they declare their candidacy. If you'd like to vote this year, the deadline to become a member is June 30th. To be eligible for membership, you must make a donation of at least $10 USD between July 1, 2022, and June 30, 2023, and check the Yes box to specify you want to become a member. If your donation receipt indicates you checked No to membership, you can still get in touch with the Development & Membership committee via our contact form and request your donation record be updated so you can vote this year! V. ELSEWHERE AT THE OTWDevelopment & Membership is starting convention outreach work. Its first outing this year was at Eurocon in Sweden on June 8-11. Legal worked with Communications to draft the June edition of the OTW Signal, focused on the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in the fair use case of Goldsmith v. Warhol. While the case did not come out the way that the OTW advocated for, its holding is limited and unlikely to have an impact on fanworks, especially noncommercial fanworks. Finally, TWC recently announced a new special issue on AI and Fandom submissions close Jan 1, 2024. TWC is also still accepting submissions for its special issue on Centering Blackness in Fan Studies until July 1, 2023. VI. IT'S ALL ABOUT THE PEEPSFrom 25 April to 24 May, Volunteers & Recruiting received 85 new requests, and completed 68, leaving us with 73 open requests (including induction and removal tasks listed below). As of 24 May 2023, the OTW has 916 volunteers. \o/ Recent personnel movements are listed below. New Committee Chairs: Claudia Rebaza & Eskici (Communications) Departing Committee Chairs: Jess Hindes & Kirsten Korona (Communications) For more information about the purview of our committees, please access the committee listing on our website. The Organization for Transformative Works is the non-profit parent organization of multiple projects including Archive of Our Own, Fanlore, Open Doors, Transformative Works and Cultures, and OTW Legal Advocacy. We are a fan run, entirely donor-supported organization staffed by volunteers. Find out more about us on our website. |
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