A new videoconferencing course for .Net developers who live outside the main centres kicks off tonight.

The New Zealand .Net User Group is aiming the course at developers who can't easily attend user group meetings in larger cities. Organiser Chris Auld says about 50 developers from Australia and New Zealand have signed up for the course, after 170 applications were received.

The 15-lecture course is scheduled to finish shortly before Microsoft's Tech Ed conference in Auckland in August.

"The lecturers are a team of volunteers from Australia and New Zealand, including some Microsoft staff, a number of MVPs, and some other clever people," Auld says. "If everything goes well, we're going to try to set this up as a community initiative in New Zealand."

Because people from "all over" both countries are taking the course, lectures will be broadcast over the internet with videoconferencing software, he says. "It's all being delivered remotely using Microsoft Live Meeting."

The first course will teach ASP.Net, but other courses may follow based on demand, Auld says.

The course will be taught for about an hour on Monday and Wednesday evenings. Although participants are expected to have a copy of the textbook, there's no charge for taking the course. Profits from textbook sales are being donated to children's charity Koru Care.