Fanhackers
| Website | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Fanhackers |
| Owner/Maintainer: | Organization for Transformative Works Communications Committee |
| Dates: | 2013-present |
| Type: | |
| Fandom: | Various |
| URL: | Main site and Tumblr mirror |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Fanhackers is a fannish outreach project by the Organization for Transformative Works (OTW), which is aimed at making fan studies more accessible to the fandom at large.
It was originally formed as an outpost of the Transformative Works and Cultures journal, before becoming an OTW project in its own right, and finally being absorbed into the purview of the Communications Committee.
History
Symposium blog (2010-2013)
Fanhackers was originally known as the Symposium Blog, which was founded by the Transformative Works and Cultures Committee (then known as the Journal team) in 2010 as a resource for "all fans of metadiscussion as well as the academic study of fandom".[1] The blog URL was located at http://symposium.transformativeworks.org/ and the blog was edited by Dana Sterling and cryptoxin.
In their launch post, the blog's editors wrote that,
"Our goal for this blog is to provide a lively forum for discussion of fan works and fan cultures, one which draws on the modes and traditions of both fannish meta and academic analysis. Above all, we want to offer a bridge between Transformative Works and Cultures and fannish discussions, by covering both fannish meta topics, and fannish perspectives on fan and media studies. Our hope is that the blog spurs greater interest in and engagement with TWC among fandom, and extends the reach of TWC by linking to and discussing ideas and themes presented in the journal."[2]
Fanhackers Committee (2013-2015)
In March 2013, Fanhackers was founded as a committee of the Organization for Transformative Works and a reboot of the Symposium Blog. The idea behind rebranding the blog as "Fanhackers" was to focus more explicitly on connecting fans with researchers and/or academically minded fans; and it was decided that making Fanhackers into its own project would allow the committee to experiment with different strategies, and to adopt and discard them with greater flexibility.
The Fanhackers main site was recreated at http://fanhackers.transformativeworks.org/, with a Tumblr version located at http://fanhackers.tumblr.com/. The project also had a presence on Twitter, Dreamwidth and LiveJournal (all no longer maintained).
The chair of the Fanhackers Committee was Nele Noppe, and the committee's Board liaison was Andrea Horbinski.
Communications Committee project (2015-present)
In December 2015, the OTW Board of Directors approved a merger between the Communications Committee and the Fanhackers Committee, making Fanhackers a subsidiary project under the Communications Committee's purview. Fanhackers Committee chair Nele Noppe subsequently joined the Communications Committee as Fanhackers Lead, in order to continue running the Fanhackers project as part of Communications.
The Communications Committee also opened recruitment for the additional role of Fanhackers Staff on September 14, 2016 in order to recruit an additional volunteer to assist with the Fanhackers project.[3] The role responsibilities were given as follows:
"Developing Fanhackers tools and platforms. Creating and soliciting content for Fanhackers platforms (main blog and social media). Consulting with the Fanhackers lead, other Communications staffers and volunteers, and non-OTW volunteer Fanhackers contributors."[4]
Fanhackers in other OTW projects
Future of Fanworks chats
The OTW organized four events in March 2014 to celebrate reaching two notable project milestones - one million works on Archive of Our Own, and 500,000 edits on Fanlore - and continue its focus on fanworks. Three of these events were live chats on "The future of fanworks", featuring fan studies scholars, fans and entertainment industry representatives, respectively.
During the live chat with fan studies scholars, interesting quotations were live-blogged to the Fanhackers Tumblr, with an encouragement for readers to join the chat.
2014 April Membership Drive
In 2014, the OTW's April Membership Drive spotlighted the Fanhackers project, publishing an informative post about the Fanhackers project, its aims and its plans. It wrote that:
"Fanhackers is one of the OTW’s most recent projects, launched last year on Tumblr and WordPress. Its goal is to connect useful research on fans, academic or otherwise, with people who want to hear about it. Right now they’re focusing on bringing fan studies scholarship closer to fans themselves, through reblogging links and quotes of interest.
The OTW’s commitment to the fascinating world of fan and media studies doesn’t stop with publishing and fostering academia. The Fanhackers team also wants to promote closer dialogue between acafans (fans who are also scholars) and fandom at large, actively promoting academic work in fannish circles and also making sure acafans know about the great meta and resources that fans make about themselves. Fans often haven’t had the chance to discover the brilliant academic work done on the communities and source materials they love, and Fanhackers is happy to connect them to excellent research that deserves more love!"[5]
Five Things Nele Noppe Said
In December 2016 as part of its Five Things Q&A series, the Communications Committee posted an interview with Fanhackers Lead Nele Noppe, which dove into Nele's work as a volunteer for the OTW, their fannish interests, and the aims of the Fanhackers project. See Five Things Nele Noppe Said.
References
- ^ "Journal team launches Symposium Blog" on Organization for Transformative Works (accessed March 19, 2017).
- ^ "Welcome!" by Dana Sterling on Symposium Blog (archived 16 July 2010, accessed 19 March 2017).
- ^ "The OTW is Recruiting Staff for the Support, Communications, and Abuse Committees!" on Organization for Transformative Works (posted September 14, 2016; accessed March 19, 2017).
- ^ "Application: Communications Committee – Fanhackers Staff", Archived version on Organization for Transformative Works (accessed March 19, 2017).
- ^ "April Membership Drive: Spotlight on Fanhackers" on Organization for Transformative Works (posted April 8, 2014; accessed March 19, 2017).