I’ve just attended the inaugural meeting of the Team System User Group – Virtual Edition. The TSUG-VE is hosted in SecondLife and uses Livemeeting for demonstrations. I wasn’t sure how the experience would be but I followed the instructions, started up the apps and made my way to the appropriate auditorium on Microsoft Island. I found a seat and oriented my avatar towards the screen so I could watch the meeting get underway.

Here’s a screenshot of the stage area in SecondLife with our hosts [Chewing Glas](http://phacker.wordpress.com/) and Daven Finesmith.

SecondLife is great for the social interaction but not so good for doing demos and showing Visual Studio in all its glory. This problem has been solved by running a LiveMeeting session simultaneously and simply ALT-TABing between the apps when the presenters mention they are moving to Livemeeting or SecondLife.

Here’s a screenshot showing the Livemeeting experience during the user group. At normal size, the screen is quite clear and easy to read during the demos.

In summary, the experience of attending a virtual user group was much easier than I expected. The switching between the applications wasn’t a problem and so long as I kept the SL window maximised I could hear everything that was going on without a problem. I’d have to say that I was very happy with the overall experience and rate the meeting as a big success.

And finally…. Great work to both Paul and Dave for getting this idea off the ground. (and for making the timeslot Australian friendly, even if by accident)