LIVEBLOG: The Future of the World Weird Web

The Future of the World Weird Web

Ethan Zuckerman (Berkman Center for Internet and Society)
danah boyd (Microsoft Research)

When ChatRoulette allowed a new generation of internet users to anonymously heckle, flash, offend – and occasionally build meaningful connections with – each other, old-skool net watchers wondered, “Does this mean that the ‘net is weird again?” In this talk, they will resist the urge to wax nostalgic about the past, but they will use ancient net culture to help ask some serious questions about what’s happened to weird. Researcher extraordinaire danah boyd will look at what’s happened as internet culture has been legitimated and validated, exploring how we maintain a hacker’s mindset about the internet – and the world as a whole – now that our tools and methods are no longer obscure. International man of mystery Ethan Zuckerman will ask who in the world gets to shape internet culture in a globalized age as he wonders whether we’ll end up LOLing together at Kenyan netmemes or LOLing at the incomprehensible and other.

Recorded by: @flourish & @wphillips49
Edited by: @alexleavitt

NOTE: This is not a full transcription of the panel. If you have any corrections, please contact alex@roflcon.org.

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Can You Type? Join Our Team

If you had followed our blog during the first ROFLcon, you may have noticed our ultimate plan to liveblog anything and everything going on at the event.

Well, we’re at it again, and we’re looking for one or two good citizens of the Internet to join our team.

If you are charming, engaging, own a laptop, and can type like the wind (btw, the wind types at more than 75 words per minute), send a note of interest to alex@roflcon.org. As perks, you’ll get free admission to the conference, as well as some team schwag and access to special events.

Deadline: noon EST on Wednesday 21 April 2010.

Goodbye!

So long and thanks for all the fish!

Be sure to email roflcon AT gmail DOT com if you’d like to comment on future plans.  We’ll post any updates to this blog!

Really Short Summary: THE INTERNET CULT LEADER

• Q: How did you achieve cult leadership status? Dino comics: I am happy to be here and be alive. XKCD: There is a mindset that people share, but aren’t aware they share. XKCD helps them discover each other. 4Chan: Images and Text. I just provide the framework.
• Q: Are comics based on actual events in your life? XKCD: It’s a mixed experience. Dino: Realistic fiction.
• Q: Which dinos are your ex girlfriends? A: Jereseus Mimus might have some lines… from real life… maybe. XKCD: If write something about a fictional relationship… while you’re in a real relationship… people ask fictions. Dino: It can be dangerous. XKCD: People take stuff seriously on the internet.
• Q: When have you been most afraid of what you’ve created? A: Right now.
• Anonymous enters the auditorium – ROFLCon staff holds them back.
• XKCD: My electric skateboard now goes 20mph. I was inspired to buy a helmet.
• XKCD to Moot: Can you do a barrel roll? (Moot does barrel roll)
• Q: How do you feel about interpretations of your comics? XKCD: You shouldn’t have to explain it. I just learn if they get the wrong message. I try not to second guess myself. I try not to take it too seriously. Dino: My opinion is just one in the chorus.
• Q: (from Reddit) To XKCD: Is the female love interest a real girl? If not, can I date you? A: I was tempted to say yes and give Ryan’s phone number. It’s actually not a particular person. Weird thing: Sometimes I meet people in real life who are more like my characters than I ever imagined.
• Q: Zombie defense plan? 4Chan: I live in the south. Everyone has a gun. XKCD: I have the raptor plan. Raptors are faster, jump higher… Inspiration: Jurassic Park. I am aware of the entrances to the room.
• Q: Randal, you are brilliant. Is there anything you want this entire room to do? A: A barrel roll. (room does barrel roll).
• Q: How’s your thesis? Dino: Computational Linguistics, done. XKCD: I’ve given Computational Linguists a hard time in the past… fuck you.
• Q: To Dino: Now that you are an advertising exec instead of an artist. Why do I see a bunch of white faces on stage? Dino: [dodge]
• Q: Why is today a beautiful day? Dino: I should have been prepared for this. A: Barrel roll?
• Q: Tron Guy: How do you feel about being the leader of such an “effective” group of people. 4chan: Yeah 4channers spare no one. They vandalize the 4chan wikipedia article… there’s only so much you can do. The hive mind has free will.
• Q: Coordinates? XKCD: I put up the coords up the first time. They were wrong. I fixed them. The wrong coords were a field in upstate NY. The fixed ones were in a part. Once I realized this would work, I wanted to make some really difficult coordinates — like inside the White House or on a mountain top.
• Q: Bizarre requests? XKCD: Signing a friendship. (two in crowd raise hands – crowd goes “awwwwww”)
• Q: Emacs or VI: A: VI
• Q: Users breaking rules? 4chan: Authorities come and get you. Dino: Some guy did real life Mario blocks. I made the website. Spread virally. 5 young women got arrested, the put the blocks on the ground in front of a gov’t building. Real terrorists don’t put question mark boxes around their bombs.
• Q: (from Anonymous) – When will you hand over 4chan to the head of Anonymous? A: 580 million or fuck off.
• Q: XKCD, you get your comics from a binder you found in a dumpster. You stole it. A: Yep, I’ll run out in Dec 2012.
• Q: Remap the web? A: Thinking about it. Facebook is bigger than Myspace now. Q: 4chan? A: I made 4chan a little island. Huge backlash.
• Q: Becoming too big, mythic? Dino: My parents didn’t like it until I started making money selling t-shirts.
• Q: Will you apologize for 4chan? A: No.
• Q: To 4chan: Is there anything you want to take responsibility for? A: …. No.
• Q: Do your parents know? A: 4chan isn’t exactly dinner table conversation. They figured out after 4 years of me not mentioning it. It’s like the awkwardness that happens when parents need to tell their kids about sex, but the other way. Dino: I knew they were reading it, but we have a silent agreement where they don’t talk to me about it.
• Q: To: XKCD Fruit graph? You were surprised how controversial it was. Is there anything that you made that wasn’t as controversial as you expected? A: I did a comic about the mathematics of cunnilingus… to kind of set the limit. I got thank you letters and letters of proposal for additional research. 4chan: We were called an internet hate machine, we were called terrorists. But people don’t care. Dino: I did a comic about the ninja turtles theme song and got one of the lyrics wrong…
• Q: When did you start 4chan? I started on Oct 1, 2003.
• Q: To Dino: Gender theory? Why are all the content producers men? Dino: I don’t think there’s anything on the internet that particularly makes it a great place for men. XKCD: It’s hard to be preachy and funny at the same time.
• Q: As people who are famous on the internet… is it weird when RL people recognize you? XKCD: The weirdest is when they’ve read the comic, but don’t like it. Dino: It’s tricky because they like you already, but it’s nice when you start on even ground. 4chan: One time a stranger asked me to do a barrel roll.
• Q: To 4chan: What’s your favorite meme? 4chan: Not Rick Roll! I like the song, but it’s getting old. XKCD: You need to strike a balance between how early you use the meme, and how many people in your target community are already bored of the joke. 4chan: I like weegee. It is awesome. Like 5 people know what it is. That’s a good sign.
• Q: To 4chan: Do you use 4chan? 4chan: Too much, but I can’t ban myself. I post as anonymous a lot.
• Q: Was society crying out for your communities? 4chan: Definitely. XKCD: It’s more like you’re just giving the crowd some tools or common points and they naturally form around it.
• Q: What is your personal relationship to the community? 4chan: It’s complicated. I hate it when the community ruins a random person’s life for no reason. I don’t control 4chan.
• Q: Where will you be in 10 years? Dino: Yeah, I could be doing the same thing. Each comic takes about 3 or 4 hours to write, but I like it. XKCD: I dunno. I enjoy my job now, it’s the most fun thing I’ve ever done. But the future is exciting and unpredictable. 4chan: For me, it’s kind of hard to leave on a high note at this point. I’m happy about providing the platform. I’m not sure about 10 years though. It’s hard to monetize. I can’t see myself breaking even at 37.
• Q: Who did page switching for april fools day (between XKCD and Dino)? We happened to just hack each other on the same day.
• Q: Pie or cake? Dino: They’re both good. XKCD: That’s a fire hazard.
• Q: Are you constrained or limited by the form of your comic. Would you try new art styles? Dino: I feel like drawing is really hard.
• Q: Have you ever held back on your swarm powers? Dino I’ve done constructive things, like distributed computation for curing cancer. XKCD: I got tired of seeing “There are no women on the internet.” In the comic, I had users’ computers who said that get destroyed in an EMP. I knew my audience had the tendency to make my comics a reality… I would have been fine with it.
• Q: Why do you stick with primitive art? 4chan: Text and images are all you really need. XKCD: Making it simple pretty much always makes things punchier.
• Q: Why are we obsessed with Japan? 4chan: It’s different. We’re outsiders looking in. We think it’s neat. XKCD: The urge to learn a system and play with it. That same mindset applies to cultures.
• Q: Which sites should people visit more? 4chan: My computer really sucks. I read the news. (claps) XKCD: Reviews of professionals, maybe like a wiki or web 2.0 thing. Dino: ytmd.com
• Q: Free software as model for free content on internet? Dino: I prefer opera to firefox. I do my comic in MS Paint. XKCD: I talked to Stallman etc. They were the beginning. They’re not the only source of geek culture now. 4chan is a huge source now. 4chan: We’re a really bad example of free software. We took free software and made it proprietary and haven’t released it. XKCD: You don’t want to create an obligation of contribution. Your grandma using Firefox helps Firefox even though she’s not contributing bug reports.
• Q: Your ideal woman? Dino: This is a very heteronormative question. Answer – My girlfriend Jen. XKCD + 4Chan: Ball pit!

[random comments] From Tim: This was cool. We might do this next year. If you’re interested, contact us. roflcon@gmail.com RFL staff gives Tim a poster. kthxbye,Kevin Chiu