I had a chance to speak with RTS Community Manger Kevin Yu (Karune) recently and he assured me that there will be plenty of chances for players who weren't at BlizzCon '08 to get involved in the upcoming beta test.
When will this beta test be exactly? Well in a recent post I alluded to March being the month we've all been waiting for. However, some on the interwebs have tried to debunk the Captcha rumor as being a fake photoshopped image and aren't sure if March is the month or not. While it may be fake, there was never any doubt that it was exactly that, a rumor. So the answer is, no one knows and Blizzard isn't leaking anything...yet.
"The number of these (beta) keys has not been determined yet...there will be a Beta opt in process, similar to what we have done in the past for Blizzard titles," said Yu.
"There will be several activities for beta participants to get involved in, mostly competitive in nature.
"Furthermore, there will be more opportunities arising too in the form of contests for players to win beta access to StarCraft II as well, including the Vespene Laughs StarCraft II Comic Contest."