Sadly, I missed the LOL-related panel (lolcats, lolsecrets, lolcode, lolbible), but I did get to the panel about pwning for the betterment of mankind. It was… a bit too serious. And in fairness, they were trying to deal with some serious stuff… net neutrality, the CIA, etc etc etc. But I didn’t think some of the panelists (iJustine…) really contributed much. ACLU guy made some really passionate points, particularly about how memes/microcelebrities need to work together to push causes, and how involvement from an org like the ACLU can only serve to make any efforts seem cornier/less authentic (echoing David Weinberger’s excellent point from yesterday that perfection is the enemy of credibility in the era of user-generated content).

I was really interested in the Bubble Project, which I hadn’t heard of before yesterday. Basically the ad exec spent a few grand of his on money and put big empty speech bubbles on ads around New York so that people could fill in their own captions… Kate took a bunch, I can only assume she’ll be putting them up around Toronto.

Leslie Hall was pretty quiet throughout (though check my flickr/youtube for some excellent bored/shocked poses), until someone started asking about the impact she thinks she having on the lives of girls with self-esteem/confidence issues.


As much as I love her just because she’s hilarious, she’s also probably really empowering for a whole lot of people. Oh, and watch for some pics/video of Leslie in concert, too!!

Cool backchannel thing: http://roflcon.backchan.nl — Ask a question, people vote it up or down, and it ends up on the big screen… then they actually answer them!

Oh, and check out Kate’s first guest blog on Spark!

An Internet exclusive! Kate and I went to great lengths to procure this video (we had to audition to be Leslie Hall’s backup dancers on g4tv.com), and it’s serious biznass, guys! Below, only on lukewalker.org and k4t3.org, an interview with Leslie Hall’s mom!

A few quick facts:

1. She did in fact ruin the first ever gem sweater Leslie brought home
2. Leslie was her high school’s prom queen!
3. Her parents knew she had it coming
4. The internet is the first thing Leslie’s mom has ever been the godmother of

So parents, be supportive of your kids’ dreams. You never know, your son/daughter could become an internet-famous. gem-sweater-wearing superhero to groups of kids everywhere!

I’m sure Kate & I will come up with and cross-post some kind of meaningful commentary on this once the weekend ends.

Night one of roflcon (hashtags) down, 2 days to go! Last night, Kate, Diana and I went to the Laughing Squid pre-drink-a-thon, where we had a chance to interview ROFLcon’s creator, Tim (video coming soon to a blog near you.) Today, we’re going to hear from David Weinberger, and learn about how you can actually make money being internet famous (and no I’m not talking about South Park’s theoretical dollars… though many of the same people will be here!). I’ll also be helping Kate out with a few interviews for her freelancing gig. Woot!

The first day of ROFLcon is done. My highlight: meeting Leslie Hall, 100%, for sure. Doesn’t get much hotter than that! But seriously, she’s great, and Kate got to have an amazing chat with her (I missed out because I was visiting my friend Diana, but tomorrow, we’re hoping to interview Leslie’s mom!!)

The interesting thing about ROFLcon is that no one can really put there finger on what it is just yet. It’s a joke that’s gone too far, but at the same time, there’s some really, really deep stuff coming out, and ultimately, memes/internet celebrities are becoming a really important force in our culture, so figuring ‘it’ out is actually really important. David Weinberger (video to come, I promise–the Internet in this hotel is crap), made some really interesting points in his keynote about the future of fame… Wow, my brain is starting to die a bit (time to go to the lol concert!)… The title quote, “revenge against 100 years of broadcast” was his reflection on the insanity that’s happening today, and in an interview later in the day (this is where the video-to-come comes in… watch for an update), he made some great points about the very different nature of an accessible, grassroots fame vs. the old-school constructed form of Hollywood fame.

The moral of the story is that we can all be microcelebrities. Or really, that we will all be microcelebrities, and that everyone with a blog or a flickr account or who shares video on youtube is famous to someone, whether or not we know it, and that long tail of fame is pretty much what we’re celebrating here at roflcon.

Update: In case there was any doubt, Web 2.0 is over. Thanks for making it official, Valley Wag.

Check it out! Kate is like… FAMOUS. Sort of. We’re both going to ROFLcon, and Kate is blogging it for CBC’s Spark! Amazing! Check out that blog over the weekend for updates. I’ll be her faithful ‘crew’ all weekend. W00t!

Now back to work…