Fred Turner To Speak At San Francisco ROFLThing!

In the proud tradition of Jason Scott’s unbelievably kickass “Before the LOL” talk back in April, we’ve been looking for something geek/internet culture historical to round out the final slot of the rapidly upcoming San Francisco ROFLThing, and today I’m happy to announce that we’ve confirmed Stanford Prof Fred Turner to speak on August 29th!

Fred wrote a history of the early-early hippie San Francisco tech scene “From Counterculture to Cyberculture” and his talk, “Buckminster Fuller and the Technocratic Counterculture,” will be about Fuller’s dreams of comprehensive design and how they influence the trajectory of internet/technology culture today. The ROFLCon team saw him speak back last year — and it was pretty epic. Should be rockin’

You can listen to a talk that he did at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society a little while back here.

Alice Marwick To Give Keynote @ ROFLCon!

Fresh off her role as a moderator on this year’s SXSW panel “I’m Internet Famous,” I’m happy to announce today that NYU Grad Student Alice Marwick will be giving our Saturday morning keynote! Alice’s research delves into the intricate ties of tech and culture, identity and online social behavior. A hot delicious taste of what you’ll be getting is available here.

Bad. Ass.

Actually, Speaking of David Weinberger

Word on the street today that David Weinberger, Berkman Fellow, co-author of the Cluetrain Manifesto, and the awesome Everything Is Miscellaneous, will be giving the opening keynote on internet fame at ROFLCon and moderating our first panel “You Can Get Paid for This?” Needless to say, we’re pretty excited to have him on board with the conference.

I’d be lying if I said that Weinberger doesn’t kick major ass at plumbing the depths of the internet and its implications (references: Authors@Google, Internet and Society 2007). For information on him, you can check out an extended description here, though I figure I’ll sum up this post with David’s “No Brain” description of himself:

Him write good.
Him help companies do stuff.
Him smell ok.

Professor Richard Doyle To Be At ROFLCon

Thanks to a tip from the amazing Christopher Kelty at Rice, we’ve been able to get in touch with Rich Doyle, Professor of English at Penn State University. Rich works in the field of cultural studies of science and researches the rhetoric of emerging technologies, including information technology. You can read more about his work here. He is currently working on a trilogy of works about the development and nature of transhuman (that is, ambiguously biological or mechanical) knowledges. You can read a few pages of his Wetwares here, it’s pretty amazing stuff.

Pending some arrangements, Rich will be attending ROFLCon to discuss his research and potentially moderating/speaking on one of our panels!

As I mentioned a few days ago, we’re in the process of revising the provisional schedule that we’ve been working with, so stay tuned. We’re looking to join up a firm academic base with the formidable industry and celebrity guests that we’ve already compiled. Suggestions for people who would be good for this very very welcome.