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April 27, 2008

ROFLCon: Reports from the bleeding edge of Internet memes (JibJab, LOLcats)

A meme is an idea that catches on -- sometimes it's a profound thought ("Information wants to be free"); more often it's an acronym or a viral video. Think William Hung, a TV phenomenon. Or JibJab videos. Or the LOLcats site, I Can Has Cheezburger/ This weekend, memes had a convention:ROFLCON.

ROFLCon at Wikipedia:

ROFLCon was a convention of Internet memes that took place April 25-26 2008, at MIT. ROFL is Internet slang meaning "Rolling On Floor Laughing."

Various Net celebrities attended, such as the authors of the webcomics xkcd and Dinosaur comics, Jay Manard "The Tron Guy," the founder of popular image-sharing site 4chan, Leeroy Jenkins and many others....

Here's one of them, Doc Searls (ROFLFP)

Doc Searls photo

I’m at a panel on fame, and I don’t know any of the panelists. (They are, in fact, moot of 4chan, Randall Munroe, and Ryan North of Dinosaur Comics. They are arranged according to size: moot, Randall, Ryan.)

I am >2x the age of 90% of the people here. I may be 2x the age of ANY of the people here. (Not true, but it seems that way.) Worse, I’m dressed to “go out” to some place nice later, so it’s like I’m in costume.

Wired blogger Jenna Wortham is all over RIFLCON, and profiles some of its stars as well -- here are all her posts tagged roflcon and her Behind the Memes profiles. From ROFLCon: Welcome to the Fame Revolution:

...Welcome to the fame revolution, or what keynoter (David) Weinberger, a fellow at the Harvard Berkman Center for Internet and Society and (co-)author of The Cluetrain Manifesto, described as "our fame," a massive shift in the definition of celebrity. The elite ranks of the famous, usually reserved for broadcast or traditional media celebrities, are now being infiltrated by the likes of web celebs...

Jim Merithew / Wired photo
The original caption: David Weinberger uses an image of the Star Wars Kid to show the changing face of fame. As people cheered, Weinberger looked around and said, "Really? I don't think this was our finest moment."

Background: The Star Wars Kid features a video made by a 14-year-old of himself swinging a golfball retriever as a weapon. It was found and spread as a prank. His family sued the families of four high-school kids, and a settlement was reached.

Ten members of the anti-Scientology group Anonymous even appeared in Guy Fawkes masks (Pranksters, Fake Products Stir Up Fun at ROFLCon).

Wortham interviews, among other meme heroes, Brown student Ian Spector, 20, who turned his wildly popular Chuck Norris Facts site into a best-selling book, :.Behind the Memes: Will Chuck Norris Facts Ever Die?

It's all, to an old fart who's consumed a lotta memes over the years, a great argument for getting everybody online, and quickly. A culture propagated by those with the most free time and tech skills will look a lot like high school, and its prevalent memes.

Doc again, live-blogging the panel:

Randall: “Your grandmother not filing bug reports for Firefox is good for Firefox.” Did I get that right? Not sure.

Randall, why shouldn't I file bug reports? After 18 years of it, why stop now?

I want my bleeding edge sprinkled with mature masterpieces. That includes Firefox. But also so much more...

ROFL Meme in the making: OGC unveils new logo to red faces - Telegraph

Posted by Sheila Lennon  at 1:25 PM | Permalink