The Organization for Transformative Works (OTW) is a non-profit organization established by fans, for fans. It was founded in 2007 in response to a number of developments in fandom.

Circa 2007, there were multiple ongoing situations related to fandom which were putting the open existence of fandom at risk. Fans were seeing increasing commercialization of fanworks by corporations with situations like FanLib. There were also issues of corporate control and censorship of “dark” or queer topics being removed, often without notice, as seen with things like Strikethrough and Boldthrough. Among fans, there was a general sentiment that there was no uniting organization to stand up for fan interests and fight for the rights of fans. The above, among other issues, inspired some fans to create an organization with the goal of enabling fans to take ownership of their rights to their own fanworks without fear of losing their hosting or unexpected policy changes.

Specifically, the OTW was preceded by astolat’s open call for a fanworks archive hosted by fans themselves. This eventually developed into the Archive of Our Own (AO3). There were already numerous legal debates about copyright, academic publications about fandom from outsiders, and conversations about depictions of fans in media: the OTW aimed to allow fans to assert their rights and interests in their own voices. The OTW grew out of discussions on astolat’s post and others as a non-commercial, not-for-profit parent organization to be run by fans.

The OTW was incorporated as a U.S. 501(c)(3) nonprofit on September 5, 2007, and immediately launched its first project, Legal Advocacy. Most of the OTW’s other central projects were launched within nine months of each other:

• Transformative Works and Cultures, an academic journal, on September 15, 2008
• Fanlore, a fan history wiki, on September 29, 2008
• AO3 (in limited beta), a fanwork archive, on October 3, 2008
• Fan Culture Preservation Project (FCPP), which coordinates donations of fanzines and other physical fannish artifacts to partner institutions, on June 18, 2009. The FCPP was later incorporated into the Open Doors project, which completed its first digital archive import to AO3 in 2012.

For a year-by-year report on the OTW’s work, refer to our Annual Reports which detail highlights of things that went on within the OTW each year, or refer to the visual timeline below which highlights some of our important milestones.

You can find out more about the current state of the OTW by reading our news posts which talk about current events in fandom and the OTW, particularly the OTW newsletters which are published monthly. You can also find us on our official social media platforms or sign up to receive OTW news directly in your inbox.

Visual Timeline

Return to About the OTW.