Anil Dash Confirmed for ROFLCon

We’re thrilled to announce today that Anil Dash will be joining us for ROFLCon!

We had this dude back in 2008 to moderate a helluva panel, and the collective ROFLStaff has been pretty much scheming ever since to find a way to bring him back (dude was so big of a mensch that even JASON SCOTT praised his moderator skillz, so you know it’s good).

Anil’s currently the founding director over at the public interest technology awesomeness that is Expert Labs, but has had a back history in technology (and ridiculously prolific blog production) that is worth trawling through, if you haven’t already.

He’ll be joining Alexis on our superstar mega-panel on scheming and strategizing about the defense of the Internet. It’s tough to express how much we’re looking forward to this one. More announcements soon!

Hello Maria!

So this happened.

As we’re (predictably) huge nerds over here at ROFLCon HQ – we were absolutely ecstatic to get news over this past week that Maria Popova, founder and proprietor of the profoundly mind-expanding Brain Pickings, has been confirmed for ROFLCon III!

Beyond raising our collective perceived literary IQ more than a couple points, we also recommend sifting through her other writings scattered around the far spanning reaches of the Internets, if you haven’t already.

In any case, hello Maria! We’re glad to have you in the ROFLSphere.

Unruly Media Sponsors

We’ve been blessed to have a wave of fresh new partners in the production of ROFLs in the past few weeks: Next Media Animation, Encyclopedia Dramatica, and so on.

Today is no exception – we’ve been chatting with and getting to know the fabulous Holly Clarke and the good people the the UK-based Unruly Media, and excited to announce today that they are coming on board as a sponsor for ROFLCon III! We’re particularly excited about this because the sponsorship requires us to bring a sort of absurd piece of party equipment to the MIT campus. Suffice it to say for now that it will be awesome.

Unruly is also in the involved business of keeping track of all your memes in the form of their “global platform for social video advertising” (!!!) Viral Video Chart, which we’ve been sort of obsessively clicking through for the past hour or so. They’ve also nicely curated the videos of some of our guests, if you need a refresher before coming out to Cambridge. Welcome aboard, folks!

Alexis Ohanian @ ROFLCon III

Our headquarters are all abuzz today with news that jetsetting international man of destiny Alexis Ohanian is locked and loaded for attending and speaking at ROFLCon III!

In any case, Alexis is a phenomenon. He’s the co-founder of this fun obscure little site on the internet called Reddit, swine defender over at Breadpig, helped to launch the cutest travel site of all time in the form of Hipmunk, is makin’ it rain over at the Institute for Higher Awesome Studies, is working on a new book about making the world suck less, and most recently was a happy warrior in the battle to protect the Internets on SOPA/PIPA.

Alexis was the fearless moderator on our LOLCats panel back in the day, and also MCed our ROFLThing-NYC event a few years back. We’re bringing him back (with a few other folks to be announced in the coming weeks) to be part of a session that collects a number of internet badasses to talk strategery on ways to scramble the United Internets security council and defend the internet the next time an attack comes around the corner.

BAM! More tomorrow, stay tuned.

(photo courtesy Laughing Squid)