networking with people, creating startups

Question

I am about to complete my masters degree in CS and anticipate having some free time to work on a side project. I feel that my programming skills and CS knowledge are sufficient to take on a serious project. Regrettably, I did not do the greatest job networking with other students during my university years, and I wish I had met some friends that I could collaborate on a project with.

I am wondering what people do to find other programmers with similar interests AND goals. There is the obvious suggestion of just getting out there and getting face time with people. This works at conferences and whatnot, but I'm living in an area where this really isn't effective.

I don't want to work for anyone or be contracted by anyone, rather, I'd like start from scratch and take a chance on a new idea, at the expense of my free time. I also like the prospect of taking a chance and hitting on something big, so I don't want to work on an open source project.

So where does the community of developers-entrepreneurs meet? There seems to be a social networking site for everything else these days. Is it twitter? facebook?

Answer 1

IMHO the best way to get started is with free software projects. Find a project you are interested in and start contributing. If you contribute both in code and participation on mailing lists and such in time you will start to build up a reputation and make good contacts.

Answer 2

Yeah... its a question I'd like to see answer too.
+1

Answer 3

Nothing beats face-to-face networking. Check for a local entrepreneur or developer group on Meetup.com. Sometimes you have to drive an hour to get some good networking action. Plan your vacations around visiting active tech areas and attend some big events (like Twiistup in southern California).

Follow some legit people on twitter and regularly post updates about your vision. You never know when the right person will be reading about your project on your twitter timeline.

Join some entrepreneur or developer groups on Facebook and start posting, adding friends and messaging them when you see something you like.

It just takes meeting that one right person, who knows 2 other right people, who know 4 other right people, to build a great team.