{"id":369,"date":"2010-05-06T15:27:21","date_gmt":"2010-05-06T19:27:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/niftyc\/?p=369"},"modified":"2011-07-29T22:59:41","modified_gmt":"2011-07-30T02:59:41","slug":"what-i-learned-from-roflcon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/niftyc\/archives\/369","title":{"rendered":"What I learned from ROFLcon"},"content":{"rendered":"

(or: You’re Internet Famous, I’m Internet Serious<\/strong>)<\/p>\n

O hai dear reader!<\/p>\n

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(The ROFLcon II official T-Shirt. Click to enlarge.)<\/em><\/p>\n

At ROFLcon <\/a>this year\u00a0I had the honor and privilege of moderating the panel “And the Internet Swooped In.<\/strong>” \u00a0What a lineup! \u00a0I got to moderate the following Internet celebrities:<\/p>\n

Mahir Cagri<\/strong> (of “I kiss you” fame) — the author of\u00a0the most famous personal home page<\/a> on the World Wide Web and perhaps the first individual to become “Internet Famous.”<\/strong> (The dancing baby and hamsterdance were not really people, after all.) \u00a0Mahir doesn’t speak English well, he speaks Turkish. \u00a0He appeared with his dodgy-looking manager.<\/p>\n

David DeVore<\/strong> (Jr. and Sr.), of David After Dentist<\/strong><\/a> — one of the most popular home movies ever produced and one of the most popular videos on YouTube <\/strong>(58m views+). \u00a0David DeVore, Jr. is now 9 years old and I have never moderated a panel with a 9-year-old before.<\/p>\n

Charlie Schmidt<\/strong>, creator of the original Keyboard Cat video<\/strong><\/a>. \u00a0He also created one of the most popular home movies of all time — but it was recorded in 1984 on videotape, then uploaded to YouTube and subsequently discovered by Brad O’Farrell, who turned the footage into the “Play Him Off, Keyboard Cat<\/strong>” meme. \u00a0There are now over 4,000 derivative “Play Him Off, Keyboard Cat” videos on YouTube. \u00a0(Brad was in the audience.)<\/p>\n

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(Click to enlarge. Photo by extraface on flickr<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n

With a Turkish-speaker, a 9-year-old, and\u00a0no irony apparent anywhere<\/strong> on the panel, it was one of the most difficult moderation assignments I’ve ever been given.<\/strong> The video will be available in about a week so you can see for yourself how it went. \u00a0I loved it! \u00a0Until then, Alex Leavitt liveblogged my panel. \u00a0(Here is his summary: \u00a0http:\/\/roflcon.org\/2010\/05\/04\/liveblog-and-the-internet-swooped-in\/<\/a> )<\/p>\n

But beyond my panel, here’s my big list of…<\/p>\n

What I Learned From ROFLcon<\/h1>\n

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