Mix up a bunch of super famous internet memes, some brainy academics, a big audience, dump them in Cambridge, MA and you've got ROFLCon.
The conference is slated for April 25th and 26th of 2008.
It's a group dissection of internet culture. What makes it work, why it works, how it works. We'll talk about where internet culture has been and where we think it's going.
Then, there'll be parties. A music show, with memes performing their work live. And then a big blowout party at the end, with everyone dancing and rocking out.
Needless to say, this might be the most important gathering since the fall of the tower of Babel.
ROFLTweetsWhen: April 25th & 26th, 2008
Where: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA
Press Inquiries, Hate Mail, Etc send to carrie AT roflcon.org
kthx, The Mgmt
(photo by remisser, CC BY SA)
Some of you who attended the final session of ROFLCon may remember the trolling (thanks Zotnix!) we got in our comment thread (not unexpected — what kind of internet culture conference would we be without it?) and the IRL flame war (like, punches) that ensued.
This “real” comment thread with the Anons may interest you.
[Videos of the referenced Anon panel here]
Are you a photogeek? If so, PLEASE bring your camera to ROFLCon and take pictures! No matter what service you use to upload, please tag the pictures as “roflcon08″ or “roflcon” so that we can find them easily. And for Flickr users, there’s even a group you can join to show off how special you are.
Right now there’s only a few sneak peeks of the ROFLStaff during a meeting, but we hope that by the end of the weekend it’ll be chock full of gorgeous, wonderful pictures that we can all show to our children (that we will not be producing during the conference, thanks to the ROFLCondoms).
Speaking of reproduction, however, we would really appreciate it if you would consider licensing your pictures under the Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike license. The reasoning behind this is that since ROFLCon is really about internet culture, we want to respect the practices that have enabled the culture to thrive: namely, sharing and remixing. By licensing your pictures under CC-BY-SA, you’re declaring that it is legal for anyone to download your picture and make other cool things with them as long as whatever they make is also available for sharing and remixing. Isn’t that what the internet is all about?
(Nota bene: I, like most other members of the ROFLCon team, am a member of Harvard College Free Culture.)
The entire team’s been rushing around getting the final bric-a-brac in a row for the conference like a bunch of chickens with their heads cut off, so this announcement is coming in a little late, but heads up from Alexis that Randall Munore of Xkcd fame is this weeks guest spotlight at our last weekly online Q&A with the internet superstars. (You can still check out past questions with Jeph Jacques of Questionable Content, and Cheez from I Can Haz Cheezburger).
Submit questions, leave snarky comments, and vote up/down stuff at our custom Reddit here.
Man, one week left — it’s go time.
So, regular readers of this blog might remember that time where Cambridge totally suxed big time with regards to cheap and affordable housing. We recently got an e-mail from Joel, who recommended that people might want to check out the Hostelling International Boston, which offers some mondo cheap beds for people still looking for somewhere simple and spartan to stay while at ROFLCon. Apparently they’re really into group reservations, so feel free to comment on the post if you want to try to set something up with your fellow attendees.
Locationwise, it’s a short walk from the Hynes Convention Center stop on the Boston subway system. From there, you can hop a train for a quick ~15 min ride to the Kendall Square stop, which drops you a short and easy walk where the conference will be.
Edit from Christina: a much easier solution is to go to Massachusetts Ave., the street that the Hynes Convention stop is on anyway, and take the #1 bus that comes by every 10 minutes or so (your stop is Mass Ave. & Newbury St.) (go to the side of the street farther from the hostel and look for the bus stops sprinkled every two blocks or so) until you reach 77 Massachusetts Ave–this lovely building which is one stop or so past the river, which you can reach the conference from. This will save you a lot of pain and suffering and be a lot faster, I promise!
