ROFLCon Summit: Spend 'way, way too much time on the Internet'? This event's for you

View full sizeAwkward Family PhotosThe website Awkward Family Photos is among Internet cultural phenomenons celebrated at the ROFLCon Summit.

Where better than Portland, the national media darling of all things offbeat, to host the world's first ROFLCon Summit?

The summit, a spinoff of the biennial ROFLConWeb conference that began in Cambridge, Mass., will bring a host of Internet personalities to Portland on Saturday for a celebration of the almighty Internet.

The summit's Facebook page describes ROFLCon (ROFL is an online acronym for "Rolling On the Floor Laughing") as "an open discussion about why the very same communities that are good at making dumb, funny things online are having a real impact on the world."

In other words, photos of Ronald McDonald scaring children are just as important as news stories about the world's latest concerns.

"It's a chance to celebrate Internet culture and tackle the issues," says ROFLCon creator Tim Hwang, 24, a Harvard grad who started the conference with a couple of college buddies in 2008.

Guests at ROFLCon Summit include Ben Huh of the Cheezburger Network website that popularized Lolcats,and Aaron Peckham of Urban Dictionary, where you can look up the definition of aarping.

Local guests include Andy Baio, a former Kickstarter executive who now runs the blog waxy.org;Ward Cunningham, the Beaverton computer programmer who created the Web's first wiki; and Eric Fensler, creator of the G.I. Joe PSA videos that caused a YouTube sensation.

Hwang says Portland's laid-back, quirky vibe made it a good fit for the summit.

"We always wanted to do an event out in Portland," he says. "Cambridge has a very academic vibe, so it's nice to get out of that."

Hwang expects the summit to be about a third of the size of ROFLCon, which drew about 1,000 visitors last year -- mostly "people who spend way, way too much time on the Internet."