ROFLCon: Get Fame, Get Paid?
First session of the afternoon just wrapped up and I'm still digesting all the geekery and chumminess around this place.
Although I know almost no one here, walking around feels like you're at a party with a bunch of friends or acquaintances.
And I'm sorry I can't keep typing, "Chocolate Rain" just started playing somewhere though the halls and people are singing along.
"They're rainrolling us," says a guy next to me.
Also, as I type just a few feet away from someone is filming a segment for Geek Entertainment TV with David Weinberger.
The earlier panel on Interweb Fame with Kyle MacDonald, Joe Mathlete, Ian Spector, Andrew Michael Baron, and Andy Ochiltree, was candid, funny and strangely deep for a short period.
While most of the discussion centered on the different paths each of the panelist took to where they are today, the discussion got more sociological and less geeky after someone asked whether the web is "the great leveler" and communications tool since all the guys on the panel were young white dudes.
After a few uncomfortable can-we-maybe-change-the-subject jokes from the panel, they actually addressed it.
While some said people other than young white guys have better things to do with their time, others said young white guys are the ones with high speed Internet access and spend a lot of time online.
Others said it may be early to make judgments as online culture is just starting to take off.
But the biggest applause line came from none other than The Tron Guy (in costume of course) who said:
"On the question of Internet fame skewing to white males, it is the distribution of age, gender and race in the geek population" that is the cause, he said. "As more and more women become geeks and realize it's OK to be a geek, will see it even out as time goes on."
So sayeth The Tron Guy.
Any one care to venture some guesses or theories on the diversity of web culture?
Keep checking in and don’t forget the Twitter feed.
Also I've got a Flickr stream of ROFLCon up.
Posted by at 02:41 PM
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