Valleywag: ROFLCON

A week that saw Web 2.0 dethroned

Owen Thomas — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 17:00:00 PDT

Web 2.0 Expo this week persuaded that not only was Web 2.0 over, but saying it was over was over. To celebrate other Internet clichés, the 250 — that is to say, the 250 people on the Internet who matter to the 250 — decamped for ROFLcon in Massachusetts. Thank goodness, because some of us had actual work to do. Yahoo showed what it could do with its first-quarter earnings — which is to say, not much more than it had been doing before. Now Yahoos are bracing for more layoffs — when they're taking breaks from stealing credit and stabbing colleagues in the back. Facebookers, meanwhile, buzzed about a rumored feud between founders Mark Zuckerberg and Dustin Moskovitz. Moskovitz denied the tiff, but then displayed enough 'tude to explain why even the contentious Zuckerberg might want to stay away. Who wins the dyspeptic crown? Anyone who made it through this week. (Photo by AP/Kevin Sanders)

Brawndo, the irony mutilator

Owen Thomas — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 16:20:00 PDT

ROFLcon, the Internet-in-joke gathering in Cambridge, Mass., has accepted corporate sponsorship — perhaps the most pervasive of all Internet memes. The giveaway bag all attendees received included a can of Brawndo, the faux "thirst mutilator" sports drink from Idiocracy, an obscure dystopian comedy whose popularity online far exceeded is theatrical run. Redux Beverages, whose other product is a drink called Cocaine, gave LOLcats fans a nod by informing them, "Yes, you can has caffeine." (Photo by dantekgeek)

My young, white, and nerdy boys, let me show you them

Melissa Gira Grant — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 14:40:00 PDT

CAMBRIDGE, MA — There's still hope, future. A full half of the people behind ROFLcon, the world's largest concentration of Internet-inspired pop-culture trends in one room, are female. Or, as they might put it, IRL LULZ 50% XX! As it's now officially impossible to host a tech-related conference without asking, Where are the women?, a "commenter" posed this to the morning's first all-guy panel. "Girls just have better things to do," answered Kyle "Paperclip to House Guy" MacDonald. Other possible explanations?

Joe "Marmaduke Explained Guy" Mathlete observed that maybe it's because girls grow up with "dolls," and boys get "G.I. Joes." Which are totally not dolls.

Deconstructing Web "memes" — the fancy term for online in-jokes — is serious business, but having a panel of dudes famous for making gags on the internet play Women's Studies 201? Enter sensitive girl-lover and online video svengali Andrew Baron of Rocketboom, explaining that unlike the rest of the internet, in Web TV, women — or at least the appearance of them in front of a whole lot cameras — do rule. Internet meme boys: they might not be the worst people to challenge stereotypes, but they sure are the most awkward.

(Photo: Kevin Chiu)