ROFLCon Summit 2011

Notes…

Favorite bad joke: “(Beyonce) put a NuvaRing in it”

EMERGING PLATFORMS

Facebook said to be a consumption stream (other panelists disagreed) with many rehashed memes that come from email
4chan and Reddit, however, are said to be a reactionary stream
memetic culture causes a transfer of perceived ownership; at some point, the readers/consumers consider themselves to own a meme or piece of content, instead of the original creators
emerging topics (Bronies) will overwhelm any existing spaces and might need a new, dedicated space to “corral” this rising meme/trend
Star Wars kid rejected fame, but Scumbag Steve accepted it; both made a guilty character from an innocent person
memes go through a normalization process as more platforms join in on the consumption and creation processes
a meme might not always spread, but its structure and mechanisms still can—memegenerator and the advice animals
increasing population sizes for audience or demographic results in greater fragmentation
“it’s not who you share *with*, but who you share *as*” —Chris Poole
there are many people who the internet has found “guilty” that probably should be forgiven
“what if zero ad dollars were on the internet?” (no mention of webrings and link exchanges)
“what if there was only one *perfect* platform?” (no mention of Berners-Lee’s visions of a semantic web as the original platform)

Biella Coleman: too awesome to summarize in notes
rumors can build intimacy amongst a group, despite contributing to an increase in tension
activity of the web, attacks, memes, and trends all wax and wane; expect it

heavy-handedness by government toward new technology mirrors their meatspace mechanisms, but they’ve failed to bring the rules of due process; technical workarounds and a lack of scarcity (thermodynamics) make the heavy-handed actions more harmful than good
find the right voices, perspectives, and backgrounds to lend rhetorical/ego support to your arguments so you come from a relatable position that the mainstream can respect—don’t be the silly internet at all times
“come back with a warrant”
internet’s requirements of open, interconnected third party agreements create many vulnerabilities for corporate and government power structures to exploit the rights and freedoms of people

best of the web is already gone from the live web (average lifespan of a page is 100 days before change or removal)
the web is locked in a perpetual present; Orwell would acknowledge the people who control the present control the past and can also control the future
redundant geographical storage provides the most effective and reliable hedge against disaster
artificial intelligence or new systems/methods can come from a wealth of historical (linguistic) data (example Google Translate)
“we’re not doing a good job” (Brewster Kahle, about archiving old software source code and ongoing, new developments in open/free software)
web moving to a new, contextual (JS, client side tech, paywalls, or login required) framework of platforms and away from pages
separation of search engines from content (institutionally and functionally) has been a good thing for the open, accessible web; trends to merge these two have been generally bad for all

the linguistic-focused software and tools behind wikis belies the old paradigm of math-heavy computer science
the end-user facing linguistic focus of wikis (and interlinked content) has shown the value of navigating and reading in non-linear manners
What is the schema of collaboration?
bad: adding content or writing comments in a single thread with chronological structure; Ward skipped this and allowed adding content ANYWHERE
good: consensus and voting mechanisms, but they need MORE progress
TODO: greater understanding of the mechanisms of decisionmaking
programming should be complete and good when it looks like it didn’t take a lot of effort
visualizations are useful and good, but make fewer of them static and start opening the datasets, source files, or just simply make them editable and expandable

the underground exists to pay homage to a bygone era
users don’t just care about being sold to (advertisements), but who they’re being sold to
Sherrod DeGrippo wants fuckedcompany to make a comeback and encourages people to do it
Sherrod DeGrippo is a bad person
Rob Beschizza is really into Minecraft