I’m a huge fan of Marketplace, but I was terribly disappointed by today’s report about unconferences.

Your report entirely missed the point of *why* people have unconferences in the first place… to share their passions with other, like-minded people in an open forum.

Along with several friends, I’ve organized BarCamp San Diego… which is an unconference that has broad support among San Diego tech community (with sponsors like Microsoft, Opera, DivX, Stage 6, etc.)

Our BarCamps have featured talks on topics like yoga, knitting, how to screenprint your own t-shirts, and the San Diego fires; not to mention many great technical talks (on topics from web design to video games.)

At the two BarCamps we’ve hosted thus far, the attendees spanned a broad demographic, from college students to professionals. None of them were like the goofy nerds you portrayed in your piece.

Oh, and… we had working wifi too.

…

Perhaps you can do a follow up story about BarCamp? BarCamp is a global unconference movement… and it’s spawned tons of related conferences such as the one your reporter visited.

Sincerely,
Patrick Crowley

[Note: I suck at blogging. I promise to blog more soon.]