Hmmm.. Calling Dr. Bombay.. Calling Dr. Bombay!

One word, Newitz:

Splash.

I don't know about the gender composition of web celebrities, but it deserves pointing out that the team of amazing undergraduates who put this conference together is more than half female.

I think this is all ethereal at best.

We (the internet savy nerds) aren't a big slice of the population (growing yes, but do not have mass.) It explains the continuing dominance of IE and Windoze...

Until Tronguy's crotch shots get more play than Paris' then maybe I'll agree with what they say.

Do we really need to bring all these internet memes into meat space? I thought the beauty of them was being able to sit and laugh at them from home. I know I really dont need to see the Tron Guy in person.

They didn't get big enough Web Celebs imho. If they had gotten Tycho and Gabe, then their point would have had some weight behind it.

"subculturally famous"

Exactly.

But they're going to need millions before I'm convinced that, as Weinberger asserts, we're "reinterpreting our notions of fame."

That's kinda not the point. The point is now that you can be Internet Famous with only hundreds or thousands of fans. That's the point of the long tail.

Short-tail media requires high volume to be economical. In the traditional architecture, media is mass market, short-tail stuff. In order to make money, you need to get as many eyeballs as possible. That means fewer risks, more homogenization.

Long-tail is for environments when production and distribution are cheap. When you don't need to worry about shelf-space or arena seating. The economics work out such that you can make decent money without having to do the mass-market thing.

So, the whole point is that Tron-guy is famous without needing millions of adoring fans.

Power used to be consolidated in fairly simple center-margin structures. For example, you had the Roman Empire, where power was centralized in Rome and extended out from there along the roads and waterways to the margins. At times, you saw breakdowns in the system, like the Dark Ages, or, if they were far enough away, new centers forming on the margins, as happened when the American colonies split from the rule of London.

Electric technology has served to abet tremendous decentralization over the past century. For one thing, you don't have to wait a day or a week or a month or a year to get information like orders from your superiors; margins, at least as far as communication goes, no longer exist in a practical sense because the Earth is small enough that any information can be transmitted electrically more or less instantly in most cases.

Electric communication also decentralizes by making hierarchies optional. It's still tough for an average joe to get a hold of the CEO of a multimillion-dollar company, but a lot less tough than it was fifty years ago -- he just needs the right email address or phone number. Basically, power has dispersed and individuals are turning into their own centers.

And so it goes with fame (and everything else). I don't think "real" celebrities will disappear, but fame could probably be broken down to an equation like: (how many people think about this person) x (how much time they spend thinking about them). If there's a limited amount of attention to be paid, we could just end up seeing fewer "real" celebs as the number of microcelebs increases. We kind of already have that, in fact! Of course, things will also change as entertainers and artists get a better handle on how to exploit new technologies, and as new technologies develop. And it will all depend on whether our robot overlords even let us have celebrities (who aren't robots).

wait a second-- the internetis changing our entertainment industry?! what kind of science fiction mumbo-jumbo is that? next thing you know you'll tell me it's affecting politics, music, and commerce!

@moff:
Of course our robot overlords will let us have celebrities. Celebbot #4 and Upskirt'bot 69 will entertain us meatbags for decades before they fall apart.

I'll see your Tron guy, and raise you Dita Von Teese. But her fame, while still alternate, is not terribly removed from mainstream.

Webcelebs present an alternative to mainstream celebrity culture but it's still a subculture, just one with a much looser perimeter. We'll let anyone be kinda sorta famous on the web (see: Tron guy) but other than the odd appearance on Letterman or maybe a reference on the Daily Show, that's about the best they're going to get. Which is awesome. Who needs to be hounded by paparazzi when you can have a few thousand followers that keep their distance?

So yeah. Buy my book and make me famous on the internet!

@Belabras: Only if they brought the Fruit F--ker!!

"Are Tron Guy and Xkcd the Future of Celebrity?"

Yes, and I for one, welcome it.

This is all about getting rid of the traditional, Hollywood, one-size-fits-all fame and replacing it with a smaller, more personal kind of notoriety.

Two years ago, I drove out to western Massachusetts and met John Hodgman. A couple months after that, when I saw him again at a booksigning in Brookline, he remembered me. Then a few months after that, he blogged a photo I had taken at the XKCD "Dream Girl" event in Cambridge. (Incidentally, Randall Munroe also included several of my photos from the event in his blog--Creative Commons Rocks!)

Are "real" celebrities this attuned to their fans? Of course not.

@Discrete-Daniel: Do they have to be? I mean, it's nice when they are, and I expect politeness out of everyone and hate it when it's not forthcoming, but I don't really care if I'm friends with, say, Bono and the Edge. I just want them to make music and put on fantastic concerts.

Although I am actually friends with them, of course.

I vote for the "Dramatic Gopher"!

DUM, DA, DAAAAAAAAA!

[thumbnail.search.aolcdn.com]

@ManchuCandidate: I just wish Upskirt'bot 69 had, y'know, genitals. Or wore panties. Something besides chrome.

No, these aren't the future of celebrity. Most of them are objects of ridicule, not admiration. While women fawn over George Clooney and Brad Pitt and guys drool over Jessica Alba and Angelina Jolie, no one is aching to be with Tron Guy or Star Wars Kid. They're the William Hungs of the internet. No one is lining up to buy the Chocolate Rain CD. There may be real web celebrities some day (maybe even some now that I can't think of), but these fools are not going to be it.

@Discrete-Daniel: But does John Hodgman fit the type of celebrity that this article is talking about? He has an audience of millions between the Mac commercials and his appearances on The Daily Show. Oh, you can also catch him in the new Tina Fey movie, Baby Mama.

That's really cool that he remembered you, though.

@moff: If you punch Bono in the crotch for me, I will be your slave for a year.

@perun99: no one is aching to be with Tron Guy or Star Wars Kid.

Never say never (or no-one)....

But yeah, no one is...

@The Blow Leprechaun: NEVER.

I'd never heard of Tron Guy until he appeared in Overcompensating yesterday. Also, I'd never heard of Star Wars kid until he was mentioned in Veronica Mars. How do I spend so much time on the doing useless stuff on the internet and apparently miss all the big fads?

Honestly, I doubt it is the end of anything. It's just the emergence of something that has been around for ever but only relegated to urban myth and small social groupings. Lowbrow humour. A.K.A. When your friends do dumb@ss sh*t and you laugh.

Media Entertainment used to go along a story driven Path. A meet with b so result c happened. It's an equation that has worked through out all media for eons.

With the advent of reality tv, Lowbrow entertainment was now scripted in such shows as America's funniest homevideo's, Real World, and the surreal life.

With the advent of the internet, cheap digital recording devices, everyone's innate need to create(but not necessarily having the talent for it), and an example through what was on tv we got things such as Tron guy and Star Wars Guy.

It fills a void that we have. The need for a gut wrenching belly laugh. I seriously doubt it will replace real entertainment though. We always will have a need for serious entertainment. I shudder to think what life would be like if our only entertainment was some guy getting hit in the balls.

I saw Tron guy at a con last year. He served to add a light-hearted comedic element to the event. You have to give the guy credit for just not giving a shit about how he looks in spandex.

Was this the event where everyone got their Theoretical Internet Dollars?

@perun99: I totally disagree. How many porn websites are out there? In truth there are a good many "internet celebs" that are not in this discussion because they are being drooled over. Its just that you can't send those youtube videos around to your buddies at work.

In truth these are the comedy internet celebs. The title of the event proves that. "ROFLCON"

@Castle1914: That's a really good point. There are a ton of porno celebs. I for one would welcome a NSFWCon.

MILFCon

@femto:

You need to watch South Park.

[www.google.com]

@AlfaCharger: It's alright. At least I feel more worldly than these folks.

[www.flickr.com]

Having attended ROFLCon (and sat next to Tron Guy during one of the panels no less), I think that there will always continue to be "mainstream celebrity"... however, I think that there is also a new kind of fame. One of the presenters called it "microcelebrity", but that doesn't quite encapsulate it for me. I prefer to think of it as "private celebrity": people who are "famous" to one individual, but not to others. For example, Leslie Hall is famous to me, but most of the other people I know have no idea who she is. Even of the people who are aware of her gemmed diva-ness, I doubt many of them would consider her to be a celebrity, at least from their point of view.

Ah, Tron Guy. Oddly enough this reminds me of that South Park episode with all those Youtube and Internet memes went crazy! :D

@perun99: no one is aching to be with Tron Guy
With all due respect, sir or ma'am: How do you know who does or does not want to be with me?

@Metropolis: I know I really dont need to see the Tron Guy in person.
I'm sorry you feel that way; from the reactions I got, and the comments I've seen online, you'd be in the distinct minority at ROFLcon.