I've recently become involved with the .NET user group on Second Life, which (for those of you who've not yet tried it), is a great way to meet people from all over the world in a 3D virtual world. I've been a resident on there for a while now, but I'm only just starting to really make the most of it, and it's a real buzz. Last weekend, the Microsoft Visual Studio Island on Second Life played host to a talk on Silverlight by Todd Anglin from Telerik. Members of the user group, represented by Avatars in this virtual world, sat around in an outdoor auditorium and were able to listen to the talk, and to view the slide presentation, in a similar fashion to a real world presentation.
I worked alongside the team who rebuilt the new auditorium for the island (the old one was not universally liked!), and I've had a great time bouncing ideas off G2 (GSquared), in particular, for figuring out how we can improve the experience for session attendees. With a complete lack of US TV imports to watch over the past couple of weeks, James and I set about designing some special chairs for the auditorium that would give the audience some increased level of participation in the event. We ended up with a system that gave the speaker some control over the session, enabling the audience to vote yes/no on various matters, with arms being raised and lowered accordingly, and with a visual indicator at the back of the stage for live poll results. We intend to make it possible to upload these results to the website (http://www.sldnug.net) for viewing later, and we've got plenty of other ideas to help make the whole experience more worthwhile.
Perhaps one of the best things about a user group of this nature, aside from the fact that it's free, is the fact that you don't have to worry about travel costs, accommodation, or any of the other factors that could get in the way of attending (such as having a small child to look after!) And while you can watch webcasts online, or listen to podcasts, the freedom of just walking up to a speaker and asking them questions, very much like you can do at a real conference, is liberating. In addition, I've made some valuable business contacts, and some good friends, which makes working from home that little bit easier. So, if you happen to be visiting Visual Studio Island on Second Life, and happen to bump into my avatar (Strawberry Fride), feel free to pop over and say hi.