The connection I needed to found my software company (not a big company, but it's provided for me (and now my family) for 14 years) came from e-mailing with the author of a hybrid math / programming book about bugs in his published code.
And in the last five years I started working on the Perl 6 project in my spare time. I've made at least a dozen connections in the Perl community that way, and getting started with it didn't involve anything more than getting on the IRC channel and participating. That also found me a group of peers who have a lot to teach me about programming. Not to mention I get the chance to discuss language design and implementation issues with Larry Wall on a regular basis.
What I'm trying to say is the Internet and open source software make it easier to make connections with people doing interesting work than it has ever been in the history of mankind. If you're just looking to make connections in the physical area around where you live, you're really missing out.
And in the last five years I started working on the Perl 6 project in my spare time. I've made at least a dozen connections in the Perl community that way, and getting started with it didn't involve anything more than getting on the IRC channel and participating. That also found me a group of peers who have a lot to teach me about programming. Not to mention I get the chance to discuss language design and implementation issues with Larry Wall on a regular basis.
What I'm trying to say is the Internet and open source software make it easier to make connections with people doing interesting work than it has ever been in the history of mankind. If you're just looking to make connections in the physical area around where you live, you're really missing out.