middle of no-where.... geez :)
I live in Iowa. Des Moines to be specific. And our start-up community, IMO, is rock solid. We have a number of organizations who host regular events (http://www.technologyiowa.org/, http://smcdsm.ning.com/, etc...) along with a very good supply of technology user groups covering all of the major techs (.Net, Ruby, Java, etc).
As for finding people to bounce ideas off of, attending those events, meeting new people, and just talking about what you're doing has worked well for me.
We also have two (that I'm aware of) co-working locations. These are great because it groups together like minded people who are always willing to listen to ideas you want to bounce.
Starting a blog to bounce ideas off of your users doesn't sound like a very good way to go to me. It would take a really long time, and would be a lot more work. I'm not saying it can't, and shouldn't be done. I'm just saying getting out and meeting people will be better.
We're also in close proximity to larger cities too, so we often get talent coming in to work for start-ups here.
And we have a news site to keep tabs on all of this, http://www.siliconprairienews.com/. This basically allows a one stop shop for seeing what's going on, and where you might be able to meet new like-minded people.
I guess this turned into more of a pro-Iowa post, but I think it gives you some answers :)