Bloggercon 4 (5? 6?) is gearing up (wish I could go!) and one of Dave’s ground rules there is “No commercials!”
I got in trouble with Dave Winer on a mail list back when I was young and naive and very full of Feedster. (Well, two out of those three, anyway.) I was bubbling over with genuine, non-commercially-motivated, sincerely-felt enthusiasm for the wonderful company I worked for and its glorious product–back then Feedster was about the only option for subscribe-to-blogsearch.
Dave explains:
…if one person talks about his or her product, then their competitors will feel they are entitled to, and pretty soon the user’s needs are drowned out by the needs of the vendors.
The fact is, it takes a lot of organization and planning to run a successful unconference. I hope that I’m on the scene for Bloggercon N + 1.