Monday, September 30, 2013

Affinity Spaces

Earlier this year I published an anthology. I gathered authors using fan networks across the internet. None of the authors were known for anything 'professional', but were well known and popular through their blogs and fanfiction. Blogging and fanfiction have been my 'things' since I was about 18 years old. It has been such a part of my life, I rarely think of it as anything special. But looking at the definition for participatory culture as described by Jenkins (2006) I have apparently been working within participatory culture for some time.

Online writers, bloggers and ficcers, thrive on sharing their work, and their is a solid system of feedback and commentary on pieces that have been posted. If you look at a site like AO3 (Archive of Our Own), a fanfic repository started by author Naomi Novik, visitors are encouraged to leave comments or even just a 'kudos' on stories they read. Ficcers write stories dedicated to each other, or on prompts from other ficcers. The whole culture of fanfic writers on the internet, whether they are doing it through blogs or repositories like AO3, are engaged heavily in participatory culture. There is a strong support for creating and sharing, members definitely feel a social connection with each other, members believe their contributions matter, and there is definitely a mentor-ship relationship between new ficcers and more established members of the fanfic community (Jenkins 2006).

AO3 is actually one of the better examples I could have thought to share, especially in the context of being an affinity space (Jenkins p7). There is a strong network of volunteers that keep the site working, from assisting with technical issues to outreach within and outside of the community. It is a strongly supportive group and everyone is looking out for each other. Members of the community range from the young to old, and across all manner of professions and tracks of life. The base affiliation of being in a fandom is what pulls the community together. Members give feedback as well as writing advice to each other- beta-reading, as mentioned in Jenkins' article (Jenkins p9), and in the process the writing skills of members often improves as they go along. I managed to work with a bunch of fanficcers to put out a book that is now for sale online- all of my authors were open to editorial feedback and I have to think that is a product of being involved in the beta-reading processes of the fanfic community.

A handful of years ago I would never have admitted involvement in something like the fanfic community, not in any professional sense. But the attitude towards the community has changed as people become more aware of spaces like AO3 and the fact that there are some seriously talented folks involved in those communities. Time Magazine even mentioned AO3 as one of the 50 best websites of 2013!

The participation gap (Jenkins p12) is something I work with in my position at the local public library. Through a grant in 2011 we were able to add 16 laptops to the library and form a public computing center. The main benefit of the computer center is that there is no filtering software on the computers, and no limit to time spent on the computer. In addition, patrons do not need to be a library member to use the space. It is one step at least in trying to increase access to the internet, and as a result to spaces like AO3. The participation gap still exists- there will be people who lack transportation to get to the library, or whose schedules do not make it easy to find the time to get to public computers- but we are doing what we can in order to provide increased accessibility to computers and the internet and hopefully close that participation gap. There is also a local entity, Bridging the Digital Divide, that works with all ages to provide accessibility to technology. The participation gap is something we need to be aware of, and to work to overcome as best as we can.




Jenkins, H.J. (2006)., Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century. Retrieved from http://digitallearning.macfound.org/atf/cf/%7B7E45C7E0-A3E0-4B89-AC9C-E807E1B0AE4E%7D/JENKINS_WHITE_PAPER.PDF

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