I must admit that I am incredibly jealous of those developers who happen to live near active user groups (e.g. the ALT.NET guys in Austin). I often read blog posts and listen to podcasts that reference these in-person meetings and find myself wishing that I could sit in and participate as well. But it just isn't realistic to fly across the country to meet a few guys for a couple hours in a pub to talk about patterns and practices.
So I was wondering if there was a similar discussion forum for those who don't happen to live near an active user group. After all, blogs and books only go so far, and for the most part are a one-way avenue of communication. True, you can use comments, e-mails, tweets, and IM to get some interaction, but there is something to be said about face-to-face real-time interaction that will get lost in all of these mediums.
I guess what I'm looking for is some sort of video-conferencing deal where people who share an interest in a specific field of software development can get together to talk and interact without having to live right next door to each other. Does anything like this exist?