We are currently working on bringing together a programming community here in Southern Illinois. It would be a lot of fun to build up a local group like this especially in our area. There is a serious lack of technology sector jobs in Southern Illinois and the jobs that are available usually are closer to St. Louis or Springfield.

I have lived here in Southern Illinois all my life and until recently I worked remotely for companies not in my area such as Neuros Technology in Chicago IL. Since I've worked remotely I have little contract with other software developers here in the local area leaving me with only friends I have met via other open source channels like IRC's kansas city linux users group.

I'm not sure on all the specifics of the SIPG yet. An IRC channel has been started and I believe we are in the process of creating a mailing list. Once we establish some membership, meetings or gatherings would be really cool. Maybe even some group projects.

Find SIPG currently on irc.freenode.net in channel #sipg