So, Dreamwidth is starting up soon(*).
I find it and the OTW (specifically an Archive Of Our Own) interesting (I think I have an invite for that if anyone's interested, btw). Both were formed by groups of mostly female fans(**) who got sick of being messed round by badly written and run online facilities for fandom and decided to create their own, egalitarian, professional, fan-run alternatives. Time will only tell if they work, but they seem to be doing ok so far. (EDIT: Dreamwidth is not just fannish)
They make an interesting contrast to more "male" geek open source projects etc. From my limited experience I'd say there's a lot of differences and a lot of similarities too, certainly the camaraderie and idealistic imagery. I guess fanfic writers and open source programmers both tend to emphasise a free and unfettered sharing of ideas (especially those who are both, like Naomi Novik :)).
Now I'm wondering if there's much/any fanfic written about Linux...
(*) There's a lot of broken links still, if you're interested in seeing what an actual account looks like here's one off metafandom.
(**)I'm not sure how much crossover there is between Dreamwidth and OTW. I'm sure there's some, they certainly seem to come from the same broad social group of lj based fanfic writers, but they're not formally affiliated afaict.
I find it and the OTW (specifically an Archive Of Our Own) interesting (I think I have an invite for that if anyone's interested, btw). Both were formed by groups of mostly female fans(**) who got sick of being messed round by badly written and run online facilities for fandom and decided to create their own, egalitarian, professional, fan-run alternatives. Time will only tell if they work, but they seem to be doing ok so far. (EDIT: Dreamwidth is not just fannish)
They make an interesting contrast to more "male" geek open source projects etc. From my limited experience I'd say there's a lot of differences and a lot of similarities too, certainly the camaraderie and idealistic imagery. I guess fanfic writers and open source programmers both tend to emphasise a free and unfettered sharing of ideas (especially those who are both, like Naomi Novik :)).
Now I'm wondering if there's much/any fanfic written about Linux...
(*) There's a lot of broken links still, if you're interested in seeing what an actual account looks like here's one off metafandom.
(**)I'm not sure how much crossover there is between Dreamwidth and OTW. I'm sure there's some, they certainly seem to come from the same broad social group of lj based fanfic writers, but they're not formally affiliated afaict.