THE OSFIC FAQ FAQ maintainer: Antaeus Feldspar Revision: 0.9.1 Last Revision Date: 08/25/2002 Q) What is OSFic? A) OSFic is an attempt to create a body of stories, artwork, and other creative endeavor that is not owned by any corporations and cannot be taken away by them. Instead, it belongs to the people who made it and to the community at large. To do this, it harnesses the efforts of many contributors in parallel through the principles of open source fiction. Q) What is Open Source Fiction? A) Open source fiction applies to fiction the principles that make open source software so successful. In the typical "closed-source" model, there is a sharp distinction drawn between the producers of a good (software, or entertainment) and the consumers of that good. In open source, by contrast, the 'consumers' are also given the access and legal freedom to be 'co-producers' of the good. Works are placed under an open source license, which is a legal copyright license, but where most copyright licenses zealously guard the rights to redistribute or to make derivative works, and only exchange those rights in return for money, the open source license offers to all the opportunity to redistribute and to make derivative works, and only asks that the derivative works be placed under the same license. Q) What do I have to do before I can start contributing to open source fiction? A) If you want to you can just start writing, there's no membership test or dues. Still, a lot of the common-sense of fanfiction is true here, too: try to acquaint yourself with the existing material. Also, reading up on 'source' can help. Also, you need to understand the legal commitment that you are making when you contribute a piece of work to open source. If you're already used to the legal status of fanfiction, the legal commitment of open source fiction should not be onerous, but it's important to understand the choice you're making. Q) What's with the difference between 'source' and 'material'? A) "Open source" in software means having access to the 'source code' that serves as a blueprint for the compiled, functioning program, and the right to alter these blueprints to make a new program. In fiction the distinction is less clear; computer programmers cannot create new programs from old programs without access to the source code, at least not without great amounts of effort. In fiction, it's easy to make new programs just from the old ones. Still, having access to "source" -- the reasons the material took the form it did -- helps to produce a high-quality result. So we share our 'source' with each other, and almost anything that's not material itself is 'source'. Q) How can I contribute if I don't feel I'm ready to write? A) Just about anything. Speculate, observe, edit, proofread, collate -- these are all very real contributions to OSFic. If you worry that your ideas aren't good enough, or that they don't match the project, the best thing may be to contribute the ideas and see what others make of them. Q) What makes OSFic different from other collaborative writing projects? A) Many other collaborative writing projects on the Net have been tried, and many have produced some truly entertaining works (putting the lie to the myth put forth by many entertainment corporations, that quality entertainment only comes from entertainment corporations.) However, we feel that even the best of these projects has had trouble being fully satisfying, because they rely too much on central planning. Instead of receiving the freedom to work with the material in the way that catches their imagination, participants are more often assigned to tasks that some central planner thought valuable. In addition, many of these collaborative writing projects are actually based on source material that is actually owned elsewhere -- so that contributors will never actually have full title to their own creation. Q) What can't I do in OSFic? A) Some of these things are things that are absolute rules; matters of legality. Others are matters of courtesy, but they are no less important; a greater legal freedom to cooperate means less when the spirit of cooperation is gone. Absolutes: *) You can't plagiarise open-source work. This should be obvious; when is plagiarism ever acceptable? However, open source fiction lets you do so many things you're ordinarily not allowed to, that some might get confused and think that absolutely anything is allowed. But you can't take credit for someone else's writing. *) You can't mix open-source with properties that aren't your own. As much fun as a Blues/X-Files cross-over might be, if you tried to write such a cross-over, you would be committing an illegal act. Why? Because when you draw on an open-source work to make a derivative work, you in turn grant permission for others to use what's in your derivative work. Unless you are Chris Carter and/or Twentieth Century Fox, permission to use the X-Files isn't yours to give. *) You can't withdraw material once you've put it in open source. This is why we recommend that you study carefully what it means to put a work in open-source. If you've ever been tempted to order your work removed from an archive because you have differed with its maintainers, be aware that this option is gone when your work is placed in open-source. Hopefully this tactic isn't one you'd turn to often anyhow, but if it is, be aware that you cannot do it with open source. Courtesy: *) Try to let others know what you're doing with their stuff. This is not only courtesy, it's part of the reward system that makes it worthwhile to contribute to open source. If you've been inspired to write a new adventure based on a minor character from someone else's open-source work, write to the author and let them know what you have in mind. If you've got artistic talent and want to adapt an open-source work into a webcomic, again -- write to the author and let them know that their work has inspired this. *) Try to respect others' wishes on their stuff. This is the other side of the just-mentioned coin. Sometimes you might contact an author, and tell them that you'd like to use a character of their creation, and they'll ask you not to. Why? There can be a number of reasons. Perhaps they have long-term plans for the character. Perhaps they have a particularly complex perception of the character, and don't want to see him or her written without that complexity. Perhaps they're working on something similar. These are all good reasons that they might request that you not use their materials. There can be bad reasons, as well. No one ever said that only good-natured, even-tempered, perfectly rational people would join open-source. It's possible that someone will reject a perfectly reasonable request, for no good reason. If this happens -- and hopefully, it won't, too often -- open source gives you the legal ability to do it anyways. But just as we hope authors will not reject reasonable requests unless they have a good reason, we hope that they will also respect other authors' wishes unless they have a good reason. Q) How will readers ever find the good stuff if anyone's free to churn out bad works? How will readers ever find an intelligible set of reading material if people can "fork" the plot? A) In many ways these are problems of the future. Right now OSFic is just starting, and we have a core group of highly talented writers. However, these questions are already being asked, and as the OSFic project continues and grows, they will need answers. One proposed system is the system of so-called "canon committees." Such a committee could be formed by any reader(s) and run along any lines, and the goal of such a committee would be to create and maintain a list of works that provide a consistent and high-quality reading experience. This system is actually derived from a common system in the world of open-source software, known as "distributions". Gigabytes of open source software are available on the Internet, but finding the high-quality applications that do what you want can be frustrating. Many groups therefore take it on themselves to produce distributions that gather in one place a high-quality selection of applications, often specialized for some quality such as high security, or compatibility with low-end hardware. In a similar way, canon committees can organize, and create lists of selected reading that aim newcomers to the highest-quality works and those which are consistent together. They may even be specialized for particular tastes; there may be specialized canons for those who enjoy the adventure aspects of a series, and for those who enjoy the romantic aspects. A minor character or a particular alternative universe may develop a following to get canons devoted to them. This is one of the reasons we say that you can contribute to OSFic even if you don't feel up to writing new work; even if you only choose to read, by sharing your opinion as a reader you can influence which stories are used to bring in new readers.