So you are reading all these articles about Scala, TDD, Continuous Integration and so on and you are thinking: "This sure sounds cool, but how do I do it? Where do I start? Who can teach me?"

The easy answer is: Join the local x User Group, where x is your preferred programming language. But what to do if there is no such User Group.

You don't have to go to expensive trainings (although those help sometimes). In many cases all you need is a little time for research and a couple of like minded people for mutual support. Meet once a month. Do a coding Dojo. Discuss what you have learned form an article or a book. Do code reviews. Invite local bloggers for talks. Create a page in Facebook and/or LinkedIn (or Xing if you are from Germany). Invite everybody remotely interested in the topic to join. Talk to the people that come to your meetings.

Ask companies, your employer, if they would sponsor the meetings, by providing a room and a beamer.

Thats it. You just started a User Group. It really isn't that difficult. And you will learn a lot on the way. About the topic of the user group, about interesting people around you and about organizing stuff.

If you are really interested in joining a User Group there will be one in your city. Possibly founded by yourself.