I saw this posted on ieXBeta and I want in!  I will have to see if any of my connections can get me hooked up into the official alpha program.  Maybe I should join Tribe.net as mentioned by Scoble.  I'm sure someone knows how to get into the alpha/beta program for the cool next version of Visual Studio.NET. 

Posted on ieXbeta.com

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Dear Visual Studio "Whidbey" Alpha Tester,

Welcome to the Alpha release of Visual Studio "Whidbey."

For this alpha program, BetaPlace and Newsgroup services will be available to Whidbey Alpha participants. BetaPlace is Microsoft's technical pre-release Web community, where you, as an Alpha participant, can:

· Update your contact information.
· Report bugs online.
· View status of your bugs.
· Receive up-to-date program information and downloads, if applicable.
· Obtain general testing guidelines and information.

To access BetaPlace, go to http://www.betaplace.com. Sign in using your Beta ID and password, listed below. If this is your first time logging on to BetaPlace, you need to associate your Beta ID with a .NET Passport account.

Microsoft private newsgroups are available for technical support. After you have accepted the End Users License Agreement (EULA) at the Visual Studio "Whidbey" Alpha BetaPlace site, within two business days you will be granted access to the private "Whidbey" Alpha newsgroups. These newsgroups are accessed from a dedicated news server and require a User ID and Password before giving access.

All newsgroups for "Whidbey" Alpha program begin with: microsoft.beta.whidbey.*

Thank you for participating in this alpha program. We look forward to your valuable feedback.

The Visual Studio .NET and .NET Framework "Whidbey" Alpha Team