I believe Mr. Inman is sincere in his desire and ambition

Why? Do you know something about TV that I don't?

Television networks are businesses. They want to get large audiences to watch their shows, so that they can sell a lot of ads for a lot of money. They do not make a lot of money by telling stories that appeal to a niche audience; they want to appeal to a mainstream television audience — the audience, specifically, who is now watching something on a different network. (The network's shows don't compete against each other so much as they compete against other networks' shows in the same time slot.)

What kind of stories about "nerds" are likely to appeal to an audience who is right now watching whatever is in the other time slot?

I've read that part of how they engineer drama is by sleep deficiency. That's a hard one to beat.

I think I'd find it somewhat gratifying if the show aired and revealed that nerds are much harder to engineer drama and conflict amongst, and the show showcased some methods the participants used to disperse what drama the directors (or whoever is in charge) tried to cultivate, in such a way that the viewers could learn from them.

But I suspect if that turned out to be the case, the show would be very unsuccessful and wouldn't have a long run.

What they want is a steaming pile of cliche.

That's described as the initial idea, which this producer hopes to change to something better. In any case, there are potentially large benefits to getting this kind of TV exposure. If nothing else, it would be good comfort zone expansion.

I would advice against participating. It's not impossible for this to be a worthwhile project that would result in overall beneficial PR for the community, but I estimate the odds as HEAVILY against it.

All storytelling is based around drama and conflict, this show will be no different. The only question is how nuanced and truthful is that conflict and as I'm sure I don't have to tell anyone here, the reality TV genre is not known for its nuance or truthfulness.

I believe Mr. Inman is sincere in his desire and ambition, but without any other information, heavily doubt his artistic vision would carry through to a portrayal that most people here would be happy with or deem beneficial. TV/film production is a team effort and Mr. Inman will likely be one voice in a chorus. He may fight battles with the network executives about the direction of the show, but in this case, I doubt he would win.

I think it's also fairly obvious to say that one should be tremendously wary of participating in any narrative about oneself where one isn't in control of that narrative, as would be the case here.

For context, I live in Los Angeles, work in film production, and have worked on reality TV shows in the past (and know many people who work on them in various capacities).

Give people permission to bug you.

If you commit to doing or following up on something for somebody, tell them to bug you if you don't get back to them about it. You'll feel less stressed about remembering or being obligated to do it because you've shifted at least some of the responsibility to them and given yourself external pressure, which is ultimately more efficient than relying on your own willpower anyway.

Conversely, give yourself permission to bug people, though without judgment. You know how you feel when you have email in your inbox that you know you really ought to get to, but don't? Somebody is feeling that way about your email right now. How helpful would it be if they electronically tapped you on the shoulder as a reminder? More helpful than getting more and more resentful because they've forgotten/don't care/don't consider you valuable enough to bother replying.

Just wanted to report a massive ARGH moment:

By default, if the user logs in with Twitter, then you spam your Twitter followers and add the company to your list of people followed.

What do you think of "International Study Hall" as a name for this?

Having spent the day on there, I think that is a decent descriptor for setting expectations and I like the ring :)