The Internet has allowed so many opportunities that would probably not be possible otherwise. While in Texas for SXSW, WebProNews caught up with Tim Hwang and Erhardt Graeff to talk about the many projects they are involved in as a result of the Internet.

Hwang starts off by telling us about the Awesome Foundation for the Arts and Sciences. This institution grants awards of $1,000 to any project that pertains to some form of awesomeness. The foundation began in Boston but is now expanding worldwide.

ROFLCon is also the brainchild of Hwang. The goal of this conference is to bring together everyone that has become famous as a result of the Internet. At this year’s conference, for instance, both the dad and the son from “David after Dentist” were among the attendees.

Graeff, who is part of the Awesome Foundation as well, is also a key player in the Web Ecology Project. This endeavor started shortly after the Iran election exploded on Twitter. A group of Internet culture researchers came together and published a report to determine how big the explosion on Twitter actually was. Once the report was published, the Web Ecology Project was born.

The project also published a series of reports involving the Afghan election and more recently, Chatroulette. Erhardt says the Web Ecology Project wants to provide academic studies of all the cutting edge trends taking place online in order for people to understand what is really happening.

Interestingly enough, most of the aforementioned projects would not be possible without the Web.