Although anti-immigration activists demand that English become the US's official language, on the Internet traditional English is radically changing due to the rise of user generated content like the image above and LOLcats. This new democratic form of content creation is the source of new slang and norms of spelling and grammar (like the word "serosly"), which is being developed at a rate that I would imagine is unprecidented.

When conservative demand that we protect our American culture from change,

Last Friday I went to ROFLCon, the “rolling on the floor laughing” convention. It was a two-day event organized by an enterprising group of Harvard undergrads (and sponsored by the Berkman Center) to celebrate and explore internet memes and culture.

Why is this an appropriate topic for blog on digital activism, you might ask. Although the conference was ostensibly about funny Internet memes it was really about how Internet is fueling the growth of user-generated culture - cultural democracy, if you will. Internet fame, which Berkman fellow David Weinberger discussed in his keynote address, is a perfect

A video mashup compares Hillary Clinton to cinematic go-getter Tracy Flick.
 

Semiotic democracy is a process by which ordinary citizens redefine culture by remixing and repurposing cultural elements and then disseminating them to a mass audience. The internet has been hugely helpful to this effort. While people have always been able to reinternpret cultural, they have never before had the ability to broadcast these reinterpretations to a mass audience. This final step is key, because it is only through mass redistribution that a reinterpretation of culture can become a generally-accepted norm. The internet, through personal web sites, blogs, and video

This is a video made a crazed fan of Britney Spears defending her against her detractors. The over-the-top melodrama made it an instant hit and the creator, Chris Crocker, gained his 15 seconds of fame,

Citizen reporters take part in the semiotic process of creating meaning within a culture. They cease to be a passive audience for the culture products which reflect the priorities of others and instead create their own cultural products which reflect their own priorities. Given wide enough