(Update: I’ve added the above video from the Podtech network, August 22)

The web industry is an open, collaborative, and for the most part, helpful industry to work in, BarCamp is no different.

While I’ve attended quite a few other Unconferences (conferences where the attendees drive the topics in a collaborative way) it was amazing to see how the industry came together, talk, discuss and build something bigger.

I had some conversations with a few folks, who told me why they knew folks that would NOT want to come, why? Because they were afraid of being pulled into open-source projects without being paid, they wouldn’t do pro-bono work. I guess for some developers that could be a challenge, but for me, (not a developer) there was still quite of great things to learn.

I enjoyed the conversation at the session “Web 2.0: Bubble or Bust” (don’t know the exact name, nor does it matter) run by Mukund. Most agreed that there’s a bust coming soon, but no one could agree upon the indicators that would bring it to reality: funding, low enrollment for programming classes, jobs, etc.

All of these discussions are what makes BarCamp a manifestation of the virtual world we all play in –openness, collaboration, freedom (the event was free). There’s tons of other folks who made this happen, you can check out the multiple blogs here on TechMeme. What made this so interesting is that several companies in the design and web space opened their doors to let folks in, other industries have way to much infighting to be so advanced.

Here’s a few pictures of the event, you’ll see that attendees are encouraged to create sessions, post the time, and then lead them, rather than having boring powerpoints from single speakers, think “wiki” not “blog”.

Update: Tara Hunt sent out some final numbers, what a success!

564 of you checked in on Saturday
260 of you came for a second day (Sunday)
386 of you blogged about it: http://tinyurl.com/ywyryo
1,885 of your photos tagged barcampblock showed up on Flickr: http://tinyurl.com/238do4
350 of you joined the BCB network: http://barcampblock.crowdvine.com and made 1,188 connections
92 of you held sessions
105 of you sponsored it so that everyone could enjoy it for free