Photo courtesy Doc Searls

We’ve been joking for a month about celebrating the one-month anniversary of ROFLCon.  In internet years (similar to dog years, except even more extreme), ROFLCon’s already an aging spinster!  But we still kind of like her.  In honor of this most special occasion, we wanted to pull together all the guest and team reflections on the conference that we could find.  We’ve been calling them “postmortems,” but that’s kind of mean, right?  I mean, she may be a spinster, but “dead” is such a strong word.

Without further ado, here are all the guest & team reflections I could find and fit into one post.  If you feel yours is missing, go ahead and add it in the comments!

* * *

TEAM

Behold! Tim Hwang’s reflections,

Diana Kimball’s (that’s me!),

Christina Xu’s,

Rachel Popkin’s,

Carrie Andersen’s,

and Natalie Bau’s.

* * *

Meme Reflections & Reactions

Adam Lindsay (of LOLCode)

Alexis Ohanian (of Reddit and Breadpig) here and here

Alice Marwick (Saturday keynote speaker)

Andrew Baron (of RocketBoom)

LOLSecretz

Benjamin Palmer (of the Barbarian Group)

Professor Christopher Kelty (moderated Internet Cult Leaders panel)

David Weinberger

Dino Ignacio (of Bert is Evil)

Jason Scott

Jay Maynard (Tron Guy) here and here

Jeffrey Rowland (of Overcompensating) possibly here and here

Joe Mathlete (of Marmaduke Explained)

Joe Peacock (of Mentally Incontinent) here and here

iJustine

Kevin Driscoll (Soulja Boy Studies)

Kyle MacDonald (of One Red Paperclip)

Matt Harding (of Where the Hell is Matt?)

xkcd, maybe (check out the rollover text!)

Ryan North (of Dinosaur Comics)

Scott Beale (of Laughing Squid) here, here, and here

Stephen Granade (of LOLTrek): bingo here, video here

Xiaochang Li (CMS)

* * *

…Stay tuned for more goodies tomorrow, on Day 2 of ROFLCon’s one-month birthday!

This is the view from the Wexley School for Girls. As previously noted, the Wexley School for Girls is not, in fact, a school for girls. It’s an outrageous new-media marketing firm in Seattle. Weird, right?

Not only is Wexley a magical place where rubber chickens roam free, it’s also home to a couple of total rockstars who have been helping us left and right. They’ll be showing up on the Kid, We’re Gonna Make You a Star panel, so get ready to be blinded by excellence.

Anyway, we’ve known for a while that the entire ROFLTeam has a huge crush on Wexley, and no one’s got it worse than me. So imagine how I felt, two weeks ago, when Katie and Kristen gave me and Rachel the grand tour!

Cliffhanger (how did I feel?!?) resolved after the jump, but in the meantime, I have one very important thing to say. Wexley’s hinted that they’re interested in organizing a meetup (drinkup, perhaps?) during ROFLCon for all you marketing types. Details forthcoming, but, you know: forewarned is forearmed, and also, how exciting is this?

It is very exciting. Stay tuned.

After the jump: another picture, and a few more words…

So when Rachel and I were in Seattle for spring break, we sidled over to Wexley, and were greeted by the most ridiculous building I’ve ever seen. The color was goldenrod. We held a meeting in the vehicle below. The vehicle was indoors.

And oh yes, besides rubber chickens and indoor vehicles, Wexley is also home to a table that is actually a grand piano, velvet wallpaper, and a larger-than-life wizard.

So, how did I feel to be given the grand tour? A little overwhelmed, a lot lucky. Thanks, Wexley, for making this whole shebang a whole lot more fun.

Okay, guys. We’ve been keeping this under wraps for a while. I would have posted this yesterday—you know, April 1, the day when people lie for fun—but then you would have thought I was joking.

TRIPADVISOR IS SPONSORING ROFLCON

+ WORD ON THE STREET IS, THEY’RE HIRING.

___________________________________

BELIEVE IT.

We’re so excited we can barely contain ourselves. Great to have you on board, TripAdvisor!

After the jump: infinite snacks, employment, Wii, foosball and more…

Just in case you’re still wondering whether I’m sort of an unreliable narrator—and I don’t blame you, after the Aruba stunt!—here’s the word straight from TA:

“We like to think we’ve got a unique working environment at TripAdvisor. We strive to let our staff’s ideas flow and encourage information sharing.

“In fact, the reason we’re at ROFLCon isn’t because some PR guy thought it would be a good idea to be here. Nor is it because some recruiter stumbled across ROFLCon and thought it’d be a good idea to show up there. Nope! The reason we’re here is because one of our employees came up with the idea of sponsoring the event.

The guy who came up with the idea doesn’t even work in marketing…he’s an IT guy! That dude’s such a geek. He probably pitched the idea so he wouldn’t have to pay for his ROFLCon ticket, but you know what, the PR department decided it’d be a great event to sponsor. And then the talent acquisition team jumped on board because they felt it’d be a good place to recruit talented individuals—and it blossomed from there.

“Speaking of which, we’re looking for some talented software developers and marketing people. Java monkeys…PHP hackers…marketing wizards. We want you and you creative ideas, too. At TripAdvisor, we’ll gladly listen to your ideas—even if they’re not related specifically to your job function.

“Plus our new office in Newton is going to have a foosball table, Nintendo Wii and all the snacks you could ever want. So, seriously, what are you waiting for?

“Hit us up at www.tripadvisor.com/jobs and let us know what you’re passionate about.”

But wait. A few minutes after getting this note, I got a Very. Important. Clarification:

“p.s. the old office has all the snacks you’d want, the NEW office has all the snacks PLUS LUNCH.”

I repeat: this is not a joke.

We’ve got a few more surprises in store, so stay tuned. And now, to plan our trip to Aruba….

Hey kids, so me (Tim Hwang) and Diana Kimball (the sine qua non of transportation and guest hospitality for ROFLCon staff) recently got interviewed on Martin Sargent’s Revision3 show Internet Superstar, figured we’d shout it out and post it here.

Notes:

1) The ROFLCondoms, totally not a joke. Wait till you see the design.

2) Goatse, if you’re out there. E-mail us.

3) Turns out first generation iSights are REALLY blurry.

Probably because it was.

Back in those days, I was just starting out with ROFLCon.  Come to think of it, ROFLCon was just starting out with ROFLCon.  We had a jankity-crank weblog and some ridiculous dreams.  And an email address.  That part was key.

It was in those early days, before we had space or sponsors or anything resembling a “conference,” per se, that I emailed one Alex Tew out of the blue.  You almost definitely know about Alex Tew.  This is because he did something so smart that everybody else in the entire world has been smacking their heads on poster-plastered walls ever since, wailing “Why? Why didn’t I think of it first?”

That’s right.  Alex Tew created the Million Dollar Homepage.  And then he made a million dollars.

Alex and I traded a few emails, and struck a deal: we provide the “beer in funny red cups,” he makes an appearance at ROFLCon and speaks to an audience incredulous that “You Can Get Paid for This?”  It seemed like a pretty fair trade.  Especially considering that he is a millionaire.  (Or, at least, he made a million dollars.  I’m thinking some of it went to pay for college; otherwise, how did he get to be so smart?)

So, I am delighted to announce, finally, that the plane tickets are bought, the deals have been struck, and Alex is on his way to ROFLCon!  Not that you need another reason to register.  But just in case you did…

…you’re welcome.

If our obsession with Internet memes is a disease, then WHAT IS THE CURE?

Well, folks: as we can testify from experience, there is no cure. But who needs a cure when you’ve got prevention? Especially when that prevention comes in the form of Bayesian filtering.

With that, I am elated to announce that ROFLCon has officially signed on Gabe Ortiz and Paul Starr, creators of StupidFilter. This is awesome in about 500 ways, but for this moment’s dose of awesome, let’s just examine their mission statement: “The StupidFilter Project: Because the internet needs prophylactics for memetically transmitted diseases.”

Ironic or not? You decide! Delightful controversy ahead! But, as Paul pointed out to me in a (very articulate) e-mail, “Truth be told, [StupidFilter isn't] trying to filter memes, we’re trying to filter incoherent expression. Lots of people seem to be missing the point of our project, which in itself would be an interesting discussion. ‘Form vs. content’ is a huge problem and at the core of what the Stupidfilter is about.”

Smart alert! Turns out, Gabe and Paul are experts on Internet expression in all its many glorious and not-so-glorious forms. We’re incredibly psyched to have them on board.

If you’re interested in finding out more about StupidFilter, head over to their website or revel in the irony of StupidFilter, prophylactic against memetically transmitted diseases, profiled on BoingBoing, beloved purveyor of all memes ever.