The people who attend BarCamp and similar events don't limit their involvement to just those events. Many are programmers, but there are other constituencies as well: Authors of open-source code, bloggers, Twitterers, students, and corporate employees with "real" jobs. All can sense a grassroots technology groundswell and they want to be a part of it. In markets where the existing corporate technology companies are a bit long in the tooth, it is people like these who will launch startups and drive innovation. They're also building networks which they can turn to for ideas and collaboration in the future.